Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Don't Call Me Corn Dog

For those of you with a greyhound with corns you know how painful they can be for your pup. If you don't own a corn dog, thank your lucky stars and knock on wood. These nasty little hard spots often cause lameness in greyhounds and only greyhounds for some unknown reason.

Seka has two corns, one on each of her back feet. Most of the time she manages okay on carpeted floors. It's on any hard surface that she has problems, which includes asphalt, tile, hardwood - pretty much any floor that doesn't have a rug on it she will limp or totally refuse to use one of her back feet, depending on which one is hurting the most that day. I equate it to walking around with a rock in your shoe that you can't get rid of.

We've tried a lot of home remedies to soften the corns including using wart remover and covering her pads with duct tape. Some people have used Abreva (an over-the-counter cold sore medication) with some success. We put a nightly application of Bag Balm on her pads to keep them as soft as possible, but nothing gets through that hard, calcified tissue. Many vets turn to coring out the corn with a special dental instrument, which basically pops out the hard part of the corn from the pad, but everyone who has ever had this done to one of their corn dogs will tell you that they come back nine times out of ten. So, there's not a lot treatment options available to our corn dogs.

In October, the corn on Seka's "lucky foot" (the one with three toes) fell off while coursing. I figured it would come back, but (knock on wood) it hasn't reared its ugly head yet. I attribute the switch to feeding raw to keeping this corn at bay. The way I look at it - no binders and fillers in her food, mean nothing for the virus to bind to in her body.

But the corn on her good foot kept getting bigger and bigger, and last week it mostly fell off. Usually when the corn gets so big that it falls off it offers her a few weeks of comfort, but not this time. In fact, she steadily got worse and even stopped using her foot all together on the carpet on Tuesday. So I called Dr. Hottie's office and worked ourselves into their schedule at 10a that morning to get Seka some pain meds to help her through the holidays.

Now, Dr. Westmoreland and I had discussed using his laser to remove the corns on Seka's feet, but I kept putting the procedure off due to our coursing schedule and the potential price tag (anything with the term laser in it has to be expensive, right?). Using a laser allows the vet to take off more of the infected tissue than an old fashioned surgical tool would and hopefully get low enough to completely get rid of the virus so the corn doesn't grow back.

As we hopped into the vet's office on three legs at 10a I kicked myself that I hadn't done something about this stupid corn earlier. But after the vet took a good look at her and made sure it wasn't any other kind of soft tissue injury, Dr. Westmoreland had Seka's toe numbed up, and his trusty laser aimed at the offending corn, blasting away like he was playing Space Invaders. Seka is pictured above, happy and relieved after he was all done. Her corn-less toe below, post-procedure.



As we walked out of the vet's office at 10:45a to pay our bill of a mere $110 (the procedure was only $35, the rest was meds, numbing and exam fee), I almost cried looking at my dog who was standing firmly on all four legs for the first time in at least two years. We go back in two weeks for a recheck to be sure the spot is not growing back as a corn. Fingers crossed that Seka will no longer be a corn dog, at least for a few months.

18 comments:

Stephen said...

Oh my doG, that has got to be sooo painful. I hope the laser procedure has elimnated this offending menace. Hopefully it won't grow back and Seka can live life on all fours!

genji said...

Since Seka is such a good girl, you can tell her that Santa took away her corns for Christmas and put them in a naughty kids stocking.

Zan said...

Here's hoping that nasty corn is gone for good! We'll miss you this weekend.

Merry Christmas!!

Never Say Never Greyhounds said...

I do thank my lucky stars that none of mine have corns... knock on wood. Wouldn't that be something if the raw food helped prevent it from coming back.

Jen

Addie said...

Poor Seka! I hope the laser killed off that corn once and for all, because that sounds and looks like it hurts terribly. I hope the raw food helps too, and I'm knocking on wood that my boys stay corn-less.

Addie

pattysea said...

Poor Seka ... How long is the recovery? Also, looks deep!!
Is this related to People's plantar warts? Seka's Dad, Kevin, had about 40 on the bottom of one foot and 50 on the other. They were removed at the Podiatrist's office under local anesthesia. He had to pop a valium tablet one hour prior to the surgery.
Hmmmm, is it genetic???

Denise- LessIsMore17 said...

Poor Seka! I've had a wart on my foot before so I know how painful that "rock" feeling is:-( I hope that nasty corn got blasted for good and never comes back.
Good luck to you both!

Anonymous said...

Ouch! Wow that must have been a big corn. I've never had a dog with a corn, fortunately! I'm glad Seka's is gone!

Scott said...

Have you tried petroleum jelly? I understand it's good at softening the paw pads. I haven't tried it personally, but it might be worth a shot.

Shari said...

thanks for this info. Now to find a vet that has a clue about corns and lasers if need be.

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Try This Remedy said...

Different corn removal methods can help, but don’t use them if you have diabetes or blood circulation issues. Corns are foot issues that may develop on the toes or on any bone on the side.