Underside rear toe lacerations | The Health of the racing Greyhound

Jason (the other Jason)
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Underside rear toe lacerations Jul 18, 2015 0:55:29 GMT 10

Post by Jason (the other Jason) on Jul 18, 2015 0:55:29 GMT 10

Hi Tom,

I have two greyhounds that have precisely the same issue. When running they are cutting their hind toes (if you count from centre of dog not railside, the toes involved are 2nd toe on both left and right hind legs). The lacerations are along the underside of the toe and quite deep. On one dog I can see ligament. On the other the same thing just not as deep.

So basically 2nd from inside toes on both hind feet have a straight cut on underside of toe.

On one dog, I heal these up and he redoes it. The other dog has just started doing this as of tonight and she has one it much deeper into the flesh.

Any ideas on what I can do about it or an underlying cause? If it were only one dog I'd still be treating it but now this is an identical pattern in two different dogs of different age/breeding etc. The only commonalities are the trainer and the track involved.

Thanks for any ideas in advance!

Regards,
Jason

Tom Meulman
Administrator

Posts: 1,183

Underside rear toe lacerations Jul 18, 2015 21:53:34 GMT 10

Post by Tom Meulman on Jul 18, 2015 21:53:34 GMT 10

Hi Jason,
This is an answer to a query about a similar problem as your greyhound.

Apr 26, 2015 14:22:12 GMT 10 Tom Meulman said:

Hi john b,

I'm sorry mate but I'm not going to be able to provide much in the way of the type of advice you are looking for in relation to strengthening the area where the split under the toe is occurring by injecting a sclerosing agent into that area.

Main reason being is that I have seen a very well known and capable Vet do this to a number of greyhounds with little success, and have also seen this tried by various trainers over the years again with an extremely poor success rate. In one instance I noted that the efforts of the trainer resulted in a large lump of scar tissue under the toe that caused discomfort to the dog from that time on.

The real problem is that the split in the tissue under the upper part of the toe is not caused by sand, but by the toe flexor tendon having been damaged. It then behaves like a bowstring and cuts the tissue from the inside out.

Laying down scar tissue in the skin above the tendon to make it more difficult for that to cut the skin is not always going to work under those circumstances, due to the skin under the foot being stretched tight over that area as the dogs foot takes the running pressure, and also because in most instances the toes are being flexed backwards further than normal.

The reason that the toes are being flexed backwards is because the calf muscles that are supposed to contract the toes during the appropriate part of the dogs stride, which should then curl the toes so that the tips of the toes and the nails dig into the ground, are no longer doing their job.
The end result being that the the skin under each toe is then pressed onto the sand instead of the toe pads and nails.

This also causes the toe tendons to become overstretched increasing the likelihood of a split under the toe just in front of the main foot pad. It is also more inclined to occur to the second toe in from the inside of the foot because with many greyhounds the inside toe on the foot is often quite short and the second toe is often the longest toe. It therefore take more strain than the other toes on the foot.

Solutions?

That is a real dilemma because the method of injecting a sclerosing agent has from what I have seen a poor success rate.

The late Alex Hauler who I considered one of the most astute and innovative of all the specialised greyhound Veterinarians I have known, experimented with several options and decided that removing the webbing between the two central toes was the only sure way of negating the problem as this removed the tension from the skin around the toes thus stopping it from being cut due to tendon pressure.

Drastic? Yes I know but it actually worked quite well except it the meant having to run the greyhound with a soft elastic band around the front half of the two main toes just behind the toe pads as a support for the toes because the webbing was no longer there to do that job.

The other option is a long term one, and that is to get the calf muscles back working as they should by massaging those muscles with a stimulating liniment such as Iodised oil, and using a muscle contractor or TENS on the appropriate muscle section to stimulate toe flexion to strengthen those muscles.
In addition to that it is also necessary to massage the tendons at the back of the hock as well as under the toes.

While I would certainly recommend this as ultimately the best long term solution particularly for young dogs, unfortunately it is likely to take three or four weeks of treatments before any results are likely to be achieved.

If however you wish to try the injection method, firstly you need to be absolutely sure that the skin has healed fully to avoid the sclerosing agent from breaking through the skin and causing further problems.
Then inject 1/20th of a ml at 5mm centres along both sides of the healed split from 5mm out from the centre of the healed split injecting towards the split. All of this is best done using a 1 ml or a 1/2 ml insulin syringe.

The idea being that the major part of the injection spreads out in the area of the weakness, with some of the substance filtering back through to where the needle penetrated the skin and so provide a type of webbing effect.

Allow ten days before running the greyhound and placing the area under stress again.

Cheers,
Tom

Everything that happens to a greyhound can only happen because of an action or inaction by its carer, so don’t blame the greyhound when it all goes wrong.

Jason (the other Jason)
Guest

Underside rear toe lacerations Jul 20, 2015 0:13:30 GMT 10

Post by Jason (the other Jason) on Jul 20, 2015 0:13:30 GMT 10

Thanks Tom - yes I've seen your posting on greyhound-data with regards to Sandburn on underside hind toes.

So this begs two questions:

1. Could the use of a bicycle tube/rubber glove banding between the two central toes assist *without* surgically splitting the webbing as I would imagine this would take on the job of the webbing to some extent?

2. Where precisely would I put the cathodes of a tens machine to achieve the desired function? (could you indicate relative positions for the TENS pads say from hock/patella etc? I can play around with positioning to achieve desired contractions from there.

To my mind if I can use step 1 in interim while working on the long-term correction that would achieve the desired result.
I have no interest in sclerosing agents etc to mask the issue rather than address is short term and try to correct underlying problem with time.

Thanks for the quick reply too mate.

Tom Meulman
Administrator

Posts: 1,183

Underside rear toe lacerations Jul 20, 2015 7:13:39 GMT 10

Post by Tom Meulman on Jul 20, 2015 7:13:39 GMT 10

Hi Jason,

I'm sorry but it's not an easy problem to fix, and in some instances depending on the amount of damage to the toe tendon as well as the section of the calf muscle that causes the toes to contract it may not be able to be fixed. In some instances the flexor tendon of the toe has come away from the bone, and/or there is scar tissue in the individual section of the calf muscle that contracts the toes to the extent that it is extremely difficult to get it functional again.

I remember forty years ago reading an article by one of the leading vets at the time who flatly stated that if that problem occurred retirement was the only option.

That is why Alex Hauler went down the path of either injecting the area of the split with a sclerosing agent, and if that did not hold, proceeded to the drastic step of removing the webbing in such a manner as to relieve the pressure on the skin in that area.

Certainly allow the area to heal thoroughly, and then using a TENS move the pads around on the inside of the calf muscles until the desired toe contractions are achieved. In some instances one pad on the back of the hock low down just above the foot pad for one electrode pad with the other one on the inside of the calf muscle may function better. But keep in mind that this can be very uncomfortable for the dog, and to start off with very soft contractions in the first instance.

The important part of the treatment is to thoroughly massage the calf muscle, Achilles, and the back of the hock right down to the top of the foot pad with iodized oil twice daily for five days rest three and then repeat as required. Also once the split has healed under the toe it is important to include the underside of the two central toes when you do the iodized oil massage.

In regard to an elastic band of some description around the toes this is of no value unless the webbing had been removed from between the toes, and then a soft rubber band cut off one of the fingers of kitchen gloves would be better than bicycle tube. The other advantage of cutting up rubber kitchen gloves when you need soft rubber bands is that there are a lot of different sizes of rubber bands available from them.

Cheers,
Tom

Last Edit: Jul 20, 2015 7:27:19 GMT 10 by Tom Meulman

Everything that happens to a greyhound can only happen because of an action or inaction by its carer, so don’t blame the greyhound when it all goes wrong.