Limping on pavements

[lucyrw]

Hi everyone,

We've just adopted our first greyhound - Jackson, and he's settling right in to life in a house. He's an ex racer, and has literally only been off the track/out of a kennel environment for a couple of weeks. I've noticed when walking him that he limps on one of his front legs when we're walking on the pavement, but when walking on grass/softer surfaces his gait is completely normal and he trots along like a show dog. Just wondering if this is normal - thinking maybe he just needs to get used to the bumpiness of the surface or that his pads need to thicken up a bit like with a puppy?

Any thoughts appreciated :-)

Lucy

[ailsa]

Hi Lucy

Welcome to Gap - and to the world of greyhounds!

Jackson's limp sounds like the classic symptoms of a corn. Sighthounds are the only type of dog to get these.

I would pop him to your vet for some advice. Unfortunately, they can be a royal pain in the backside to get rid of. I think Sue (andywillow) might have been trying out a homeopathic remedy for one of her hounds.

Where in the country are you? Because there's a vet in Uxbridge called Daniel Doherty, who has come up with his own corn treatment that's very successful. We took our greyhound Archie to him last year, with excellent results.

[lucyrw]

Thanks Ailsa! I can't see anything unusual on his foot - are corns visible to us or are they just painful for the dog? New to this business, whole set of different challenges to my last dog - a hyper collie!

Edit - I'm based in Sheffield, so probably a little too far from the vet you recommend :-(

[andywillow]

Yes I agree with Ailsa, typical corn if they are sound on grass but much worse on uneven ground. They really are a nightmare. Personally I would never put a dog through surgery again to have a corn removed as apart from one corn on Jake the others come back immediately.
Our old girl Sasha had a really bad one, that came back, Jake's had 2 removed and one came straight back and we are now trying homeopathic treatment. Joe had one removed, came straight back so we opted for amputation of his toe but then he got another corn on the next toe along, had surgery and thats not been successful either.
He has however got a pair of therapaw boots which help him and he's really mastered walking in them now, it took a while as they are quite sturdy.

[samburns]

Welcome to the forum Lucy

I first came across Gap when I was looking for advice about my greyhound who had a corn What you describe, as Ailsa and Sue say, sounds like the classic syptoms of a corn

Beware, many vets have never seen corns before unless they regularly treat greyhounds and may advise x-rays, meds etc

A fairly 'easy' way of diagnosing a corn (because they are not always very visibly obvious) is to softly 'pinch' the sides of each pad of each toe (rather than press on the pad) and usually if there is a corn your lad will show some sign of discomfort at the pressure

This website is quite helpful:

www.grassmere-animal-hospital.com/corns.htm


However, having had a couple of greyhounds with corns the images on the above link are more obvious than what I have seen (or on occasions missed)


Bottom line they are very painful for our hounds I suppose a bit like us walking in socks with a stone pressing into the sole of your foot I don't think many vets appreciate how painful they are for our hounds

Daniel Doherty is the only vet to have come up with anything near a 'cure' for corns. The veterinary world has yet to find anything more effective. As Sue says vets will recommend amputation, which may be the right course for some dogs.....others will 'hull' the corn (this is only a temporary measure, the corn is likely to come back )

I totally agree with Sue - if you cannot get to Daniel Doherty, definitely get your lad some kind of boot to ease the discomfort when walking on hard surfaces

[julies]

If you can find the corn (it can look like a slightly darker circle in the pad) I got rid of corns on my girl by scuffing the top of the corn with sandpaper then smearing Neem Oil over it, bandage it as the Oil gets everywhere and doing that every time she came in from a walk .. after about 3 weeks it went never to return

Corns can indicate pressure so having a chiropractor check her out would be a good idea too and may help stop the corns returning


J x

[lucyrw]

Thank you so much for all the advice everyone - will have another proper look at all his pads and see if there's any noticable dark circles/odd areas, and I think a trip to the vet is in order just for a general checkup as well.

How would I go about finding a dog chiropracter? Never knew they existed until I read this forum, but it seems like they do a great job of keepig hounds runing smoothly!

[andywillow]

Whereabouts are you in Sheffield Lucy? I'm at Dronfield.

Sue

[julies]

hiya

If Sue can't help you then google McTimoney Chiropractic - it's a gentle but very effective chiropractic treatment It usually costs £25 or so for the first session as they take a history of your dog then about £20 a session after that

Julie

[lucyrw]

Thanks Julie!

Sue - we're living right by Norfolk Park, just off Granville Road.