Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them”, as the man said.
He didn’t mention public relations people. As the Press Officer fronting up a small but undoubtedly distinguished veterinary organization, one may have no natural talents and few achievements, but still get to bask in the reflected glory emanating from some of the leading lights of the profession. To be fair, you also run the risk of getting liberally spattered when other people’s shit hits the fan but on top of every silver lining there is generally a cloud.
One of the public relations guy’s less onerous tasks is fielding queries from members of the public, which is as much to say passing them on to somebody who actually knows what he is talking about and who can give the enquirer a sensible answer. Among such queries one topic recurs time after time, that of corns in greyhounds, particularly in retired race dogs.
For those fortunate enough never to have had to deal with one, a corn is a focal hard area of thickened skin found in the toe pads of greyhounds and other sight hounds. Corns cause severe chronic lameness that often responds poorly to treatment. With a recurrence rate in excess of 50% when treated conventionally, other treatment options are clearly worth investigating.
In the past corns were commonly said to be the result of foreign material such as tiny grains of sand penetrating the sole of the pad and becoming incarcerated in its depths. An extensive survey of corn tissue carried out by pathologist Richard Doughty found no evidence of this, and suggests that the real cause is repeated mechanical trauma. .
If that was the case, then perhaps a surgical technique that reduces load-bearing by the pad would relieve the lameness and with time the corn itself might grow out and resolve permanently.
One such technique currently being pioneered by Cheshire-based orthopaedics guru Mike Guilliiard is flexor tendinotomy, the cutting of the two tendons that curl the toe, resulting in a flattened digit. To date the procedure has been carried out on eleven dogs, six greyhounds, five of them retired, and five whippets. Four of the dogs had surgery performed on two feet at the same time. All had had corms for many months. Eight had been treated previously for corns which had returned later.. One week after surgery, eight of the dogs in this pilot study were reported by their owners to be greatly improved. Of the three that had failed to show any improvement at this stage all had other ongoing toe problems. Six weeks after surgery the pads of four of the dogs were checked and the corns were found to have cleared up. Three of these dogs showed no trace of lameness at this stage and one greyhound had made a successful return to the track, posting its best time in eighteen months.
Clearly this new procedure has only been used on a trial basis in a handful of dogs so far but the results so far show great promise, at least in dogs in which corns are the only ongoing toe problem. The plan is to assess these dogs again about a year after their surgery to determine the degree of lameness at that stage, to see if any corns are present and to look out for any unanticipated side effects of the new surgical procedure.
The later years of many a decent greyhound have been blighted by chronic and recurring pain and lameness due to corns. This new flexor tendinotomy procedure shows great promise as an approach to this intractable condition. Many more dogs will need to undergo the procedure and the long term effects of the surgery monitored before we can start whistling Dixie but the initial results are encouraging. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that.
