Non-resolving lameness in Whippet

RE: Non-resolving lameness in Whippet

janine redman — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 15:28:16 GMT

May be worth palpating and radiographing the sesamoids as I have had a few whippets where the pain came from the sesamoids .

RE: Non-resolving lameness in Whippet

James Dunne — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 14:33:57 GMT

Hi Rob. The history of the dog being worse on hard ground is very suggestive of a distal limb lameness, so I'd say the radiographic findings are significant - the soft tissues look swollen as well. I think careful owner counselling is needed - you say the dog responds to NSAID so at least you have something that will work. If a sinus develops, let it develop so that whatever is in there can present to the immune system. You may be able to clean the sinus and potentially put some radiographic dye in to see where it's going. Some of these cases are very frustrating if a foreign body is present and they are not always easy to find on surgical exploration, so it's worth leaving that as a last resort. Poulticing of the foot may help, but time and patience might help more.

RE: Non-resolving lameness in Whippet

Julie Innes — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 08:30:20 GMT

I'm another one wondering about corns- I see an awful lot of greyhounds and whippets through the charities, and corns are really really common in them. The opacities could be significant, but hard to see how you would find them without a draining tract!

RE: Non-resolving lameness in Whippet

Beats — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 21:50:07 GMT

Hi Rob,

My non-expert verbal diarrhoea:

Where is the lameness coming from? If it's the pad/digit I think there should be a clear pain response assuming the patient can be examined conscious. Limited response on physical exam and subtle lameness makes me think further up the leg.

Have you watched it walk/trot on different surfaces? There's a gravel pit across from my clinic and pedal lamenesses seem to show up dramatically there compared to the grassy park down the road. When lameness is subtle I'm not afraid to video and play back slowly to make sure I'm on the correct limb (I've got that wrong too many times before...)

Digit problems are undoubtedly common (and often frustrating), but can be easy to convince yourself that the pad isn't right when there's another cause of the lameness (I saw a springer that had 3 weeks cephalexin for a fissured pad once, when the lateral humeral condylar fracture was probably more significant!)

Was the foot washed well prior to xray? (helpful to do to visually examine pads as well as to remove debris that shows up on xrays)

Was it still lame after sedation for xray? Can maybe medetomidine, lidocaine, atipamezole if so to confirm that pain is coming from a digit prior to cutting it?

Further xrays of same digit if still suspicious at different angles?

If those 3 or so radiopacities in D4 pad are cause of lameness, then I think that would be mighty difficult to find them...

I'd probably try xraying with needles poking in to locate and then either cut there or maybe take a 4mm punchbiopsy and try to obliterate the offending bits if fairly superficial on a lateral view and then bandage to heal.

I guess digit amputation would be a solution if you were sure this was source of lameness. (from a safe distance, however, I'm skeptical)

RE: Non-resolving lameness in Whippet

nikki — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 21:45:52 GMT

Have you checked the pads for corns? I saw a whippet last year that had been to fitzpatrick for full work up including mri for lameness on hard ground. I found a corn, dug it out and she's been ok since then.