What's More Important:
The Toe or Being Able to Run with the Wind?

Corns are a greyhound's 'Achilles heel'! They just keep coming back! With Gemma, they came back with a vengeance. During two visits, it looked like she had a horn growing out of the pad of her toe. We were finally able to convince her owners that Gemma would be better off without her toe. That being said, I give you the writings of Jack and Mary Jo Bucceri:

"Make Mine a Corn Dog"
by Jack & Mary Jo Bucceri
Egg Harbor Township, NJ

"Gemma" is our third greyhound rescue and we "rescuers" know they are all unique. Gemma is unique because after two years she finally walks without a limp. When we first adopted her, we noticed she favored her right front paw when walking over our gravel driveway. This seemed to get progressively worsen over a period of three months until we took her to NGAP for a routine check-up. The vet said that Gemma limped because she had a corn. Ok, so what do we do?? The vet said, "No problem, we just clip it, but we have to warn you, corns re-occur!"

For a while Gemma walked fine but within three months she was limping again. This time we left her at NGAP to board and to have her paw looked at because we were travelling for a few days. When we returned, we were told that that the corn was treated but what looked like a piece of stone was embedded in her paw - on the same toe on the same paw as before. We said, "No wonder she was limping! When she walked, she put pressure on a piece of stone in her paw. What a relief it was found!"

Three months later we were back again at NGAP because of Gemma's severe limp. This time Director, David Wolf of NGAP said he would like to try a new laser to perform surgery because of a piece of hard gnarly material which was growing out of the same toe on the same paw as before. The surgery was performed and the material was sent to the lab to be examined. It turns out the material is of a consistency of a toenail only growing inward.

You guessed it! - three months later Gemma was limping again so badly that we went back to NGAP. This time the Director and the vet said perhaps the only solution was to remove the toe because the "growth" was so deep and it was likely to re-occur again and again. We didn't like this idea and were upset by it because we thought it was radical and opted once again for laser surgery. However, when NGAP began the surgery, it was clear the corn had grown so deep that the likelihood of success using the laser was very remote. We finally agreed to have the toe removed. That was three months ago and Gemma is doing just great. It took about one month for the wound to really heal completely, but now Gemma is running and jumping all over the place and NOT limping for the first time in two whole years! As David Wolf and Dr. Patel both told us, "Greyhounds do just fine with three toes." Thank you, David and Dr. Patel, for taking such good care of our sweet girl! It is a joy to see her "run with the wind" once again and with such abandon!