Sand Burns
Mar 11, 2017 7:12:12 GMT 10
Post by Tom Meulman on Mar 11, 2017 7:12:12 GMT 10
Hi Janet,
There are often two different causes for a greyhound to have the skin to the underside of its toes damaged by the track sand.
Firstly, if the problem occurs on just about all four feet the cause usually is that the skin surface has been weakened by a fungal infection, or what is generally described as athlete's foot/ tinea. In which case the problem is reasonably easy to solve by applying something like SolveEasy Tinea cream made by Ego Pharmaceuticals once daily for two weeks, as it's very effective in clearing this type of infection. And by ensuring that the kennel floor does not stay wet after having been washed aggravating the likelihood of fungal infections of the feet.
Unfortunately the second reason for this to happen is not so simple to overcome.
In this case the damage to the underside of the skin of the toes occurs mainly on the hind feet, and more severely to the underside of the second toe in, counting from the railside on the right hind foot. Or even in some cases also to the second and third toe in from the railside on both feet.
This is mainly caused due to a loss of function in the toe tendons and the muscles that operate them. They normally cause the toes to contract during the part of the stride when the foot touches the ground.
So instead of the toes curling under and digging the toe nails into the track surface they remain extended straight forward, even bending backwards slightly, and then instead of the track surface only coming in contact with the nails and the toe pads of the foot, the underside of the straightened toes scrapes over the track surface.
So as you can understand the only real solution is to get this part of the foot and hind leg functional again.
Again unfortunately this can be a slow process wich requires the muscles in the calf that operate toe contraction be strengthened by the use of a Faradic Current Muscle Contractor, or a TENS unit with a muscle re-education setting. As well as these muscles and the underside of the toes, once the skin has healed, be massaged twice daily with a warmth producing strengthening liniment such as Iodised Oil.
During this time the dog should be kept off sand tracks and only have limited running on grass surfaces, and this whole process can take as long as four weeks of treatment with a muscle contractor every second day with liniment being massaged into these areas every day before the greyhound is allowed ro run behind the lure on a sand surfaced track. With further treatments twice weekly for another four to six weeks to ensure the problem does not reoccur.
In regard to the muscle contracting devide; it can take either prior experience or a bit of careful experimenting to ensure that the muscles being treated are the ones that contract the toes, and that it actually causes about 20 to 25 toe contractions during each treatment.
There is one more scenario that does occur which can be the most difficult of all to solve.
This is where the damage is severe enough to cause the main tendon under the toe of second toe in from the railside to partially come away from its bone attachment. What happens then is that this tendon will act like a bowstring when the toes contract, causing an aggressive contact with the track surface and this will then cut through the skin under the toe from the inside out.
In fact when this first occurs the cut looks so straight and deep, many trainers are convinced it must have been cut by something extremely sharp embedded in the track surface, or even something sharp sticking up in the starting box.
This cut needs to be stitched, and when fully healed the area is usually injected with a sclerosing agent in an attempt to reattach the tendon and to toughen the tissue between it and the skin surface. When this is not successful (about 50% of the time), often the only solution is to surgically remove the webbing between the two central toes as this then takes pressure off the skin and tendon stopping it from cutting the skin during the part of the stride when the foot hits the ground.
However when this is done it will usually require the dog to run with a small broad rubber band around the two central toes to stop the area where the webbing has been removed from splitting deeper in.
Cheers,
Tom
There are often two different causes for a greyhound to have the skin to the underside of its toes damaged by the track sand.
Firstly, if the problem occurs on just about all four feet the cause usually is that the skin surface has been weakened by a fungal infection, or what is generally described as athlete's foot/ tinea. In which case the problem is reasonably easy to solve by applying something like SolveEasy Tinea cream made by Ego Pharmaceuticals once daily for two weeks, as it's very effective in clearing this type of infection. And by ensuring that the kennel floor does not stay wet after having been washed aggravating the likelihood of fungal infections of the feet.
Unfortunately the second reason for this to happen is not so simple to overcome.
In this case the damage to the underside of the skin of the toes occurs mainly on the hind feet, and more severely to the underside of the second toe in, counting from the railside on the right hind foot. Or even in some cases also to the second and third toe in from the railside on both feet.
This is mainly caused due to a loss of function in the toe tendons and the muscles that operate them. They normally cause the toes to contract during the part of the stride when the foot touches the ground.
So instead of the toes curling under and digging the toe nails into the track surface they remain extended straight forward, even bending backwards slightly, and then instead of the track surface only coming in contact with the nails and the toe pads of the foot, the underside of the straightened toes scrapes over the track surface.
So as you can understand the only real solution is to get this part of the foot and hind leg functional again.
Again unfortunately this can be a slow process wich requires the muscles in the calf that operate toe contraction be strengthened by the use of a Faradic Current Muscle Contractor, or a TENS unit with a muscle re-education setting. As well as these muscles and the underside of the toes, once the skin has healed, be massaged twice daily with a warmth producing strengthening liniment such as Iodised Oil.
During this time the dog should be kept off sand tracks and only have limited running on grass surfaces, and this whole process can take as long as four weeks of treatment with a muscle contractor every second day with liniment being massaged into these areas every day before the greyhound is allowed ro run behind the lure on a sand surfaced track. With further treatments twice weekly for another four to six weeks to ensure the problem does not reoccur.
In regard to the muscle contracting devide; it can take either prior experience or a bit of careful experimenting to ensure that the muscles being treated are the ones that contract the toes, and that it actually causes about 20 to 25 toe contractions during each treatment.
There is one more scenario that does occur which can be the most difficult of all to solve.
This is where the damage is severe enough to cause the main tendon under the toe of second toe in from the railside to partially come away from its bone attachment. What happens then is that this tendon will act like a bowstring when the toes contract, causing an aggressive contact with the track surface and this will then cut through the skin under the toe from the inside out.
In fact when this first occurs the cut looks so straight and deep, many trainers are convinced it must have been cut by something extremely sharp embedded in the track surface, or even something sharp sticking up in the starting box.
This cut needs to be stitched, and when fully healed the area is usually injected with a sclerosing agent in an attempt to reattach the tendon and to toughen the tissue between it and the skin surface. When this is not successful (about 50% of the time), often the only solution is to surgically remove the webbing between the two central toes as this then takes pressure off the skin and tendon stopping it from cutting the skin during the part of the stride when the foot hits the ground.
However when this is done it will usually require the dog to run with a small broad rubber band around the two central toes to stop the area where the webbing has been removed from splitting deeper in.
Cheers,
Tom