One February afternoon, as Hanna was doing her "zoomies" (running around) in our living room (oh yes, they were allowed to do that once in a while, not too often to prevent injuries (both to our dogs & furnitures, hehe), and I was busy in the kitchen, she suddenly let out the infamous greyhound's "cry of death". It is just a very shrill yelp which translates to "I just hurt something, mom". I rushed over and saw her lifting her left paw. No blood, no visible deformation or bruise so I thought she just sprained something and it will go away in a week or so. A week and then a month passed, the limp was still there, we weren't too concerned because her appetite was good, no weight loss, no enlarged lymph nodes, no visible ulcer, she still jumps and plays, just that pesky limp that won't go away. Fastforward: vet did xrays, lyme titer and blood chemistry & CBC--all clear so we went home on Deramaxx.. She didn't think the corns are bad enough to cause the limping. Fastforward to 2 months later: no improvement, I did manage to remove a small metal splinter from that paw. Concern now is if there's ongoing infection /abscess formation in the splinter site. I have been nursing it with hydrogen peroxide & topical antibiotic every night. It looked good /dried up in the outside but Hanna is still limping so yesterday we sought a second opinion from another greyhound-savvy vet. Diagnosis: Lameness due to corn, left paw. If there is a grading for corn, it should just be a grade 1--not too thick nor deep enough to cause that much discomfort. Vet tried to "dremel" the corn a little bit. Then she prescribed Durham's Wonder Salve. This corn treatment is apparently the buzz in our new vet's "hulling" group. We thought we'd give it a try and then there's the special boots TheraPaw. I will be updating you on this. Meanwhile, here's a good article on corns:
http://www.grassmere-animal-hospital.com/corns.htm
Maybe our Hanna has a very low pain threshold, or a diva with a low pain threshold.. ;)
