Corns

GREYHOUNDS ARE DIFFERENT: Corns

Greyhounds Are Prone To Corns

Just when your greyhound gets to retire, gets away from the track and ready to enjoy life as an adored pet they face another potential hazard, a corn!! So what are corns and why do they grow mostly on feet belonging to greyhounds.

Corns are probably best described as hard protuberances that appear on the soft pads of their foot or unfortunately maybe even on more than one foot. They seem to be sharp on the inside and at first flat on the outside ground touching side. When a corn first forms it is very hard to detect and often looks like a small-discolored spot on the footpad. Most, but apparently not all corns hurt when pushed on. Corns are somewhat of a mystery as to their cause or why primarily a greyhound thing. As a group, we haven’t seen greyhounds coming right off the track with corns but we have had a retired grey brood mom come in with a whole corn colony.

In general, corns tend to show up after your greyhound is retired and walking around in the hardscape with plenty of sidewalks, hot top and irregular hard surfaces. If left unchecked corns tend to grow and they really hurt. I believe it is like walking around with a pebble in your shoe that you can’t get rid of. To add to the mystery and confusion most veterinarians probably have not seen corns so don’t look for them. In general, if your greyhound develops corns they are buggers to get rid of. Enough so, that there are plenty of articles online about various methods of treatment and possible eradication and there is even a Facebook page dedicated to corns in Greyhounds.

What seems to be most successful is to find a vet that knows how to spot them, dig them out without a general anesthetic and then buy your grey a cute pair of Thera-Paw booties!

For more information on corns and greyhounds see: