dropped toe, flexir tendon ruptured

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isonychia
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dropped toe, flexir tendon ruptured

Post by isonychia » Sun Jul 21, 2013 5:15 pm

For those of you interested, this is a followup on this issue; viewtopic.php?f=69&t=43366

I was wondering why I hadn't been given a splint for my dog as well as another member on here, and today when I got home from work and the swelling had subsided on my dogs paw I noticed he dropped a toe. This likely means that the tendon that was sutured up yesterday tore through it's sutures, which makes since. Anyways, does anyone on here have experience with a dropped toe? It is now flat and not arched, most online sources say it is not debilitating but I wonder about long hunting days and whether or not it will be a turn off to a future breeder with a bitch. Obviously a piece of glass doesn't care what your genetics are :x

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isonychia
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Re: dropped toe, flexir tendon ruptured

Post by isonychia » Sun Jul 21, 2013 8:16 pm

Here is a picture
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Sharon
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Re: dropped toe, flexir tendon ruptured

Post by Sharon » Sun Jul 21, 2013 8:39 pm

Injuries to the flexor tendons of the dog's foot can occur when an animal is running and obtaining maximum traction on rough surfaces. Racing and hunting dogs are at increased risk for this type of tendon injury. If a flexor tendon of a toe is ruptured or torn loose, the toe is no longer maintained in its normal arched position. Instead of the toe being bent with the toenail touching the ground, the bones of the toe are in a straight line, the toe is flat, and the nail sticks up. This injury appears to be painless to the dog; the owner will simply notice that the dog now has one or more flat toes, when yesterday the foot appeared to be normal. Surgery is the only corrective measure for ruptured tendons of the toes, but flat toes are not debilitating to dogs." quote

Tendon injury frequently occurs as the result of repetitive overloading. There may be increased likelihood of tendon injury if there is underlying tendon degeneration - related to increasing age and/or cumulative exercise. Rest, however, is not necessarily a good thing.

From the picture , your dog's injury does not seem to be as serious as it could have been.

https://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=n ... ptured+dog

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isonychia
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Re: dropped toe, flexir tendon ruptured

Post by isonychia » Sun Jul 21, 2013 8:47 pm

Yeah, I read that exact qoute online and it gave me some peace. Thanks for the reply, could have been a lot worse, could have had the glass cut through his Achilles tendon!

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Re: dropped toe, flexir tendon ruptured

Post by birddog1968 » Tue Jul 23, 2013 11:27 pm

I just had something like this surgically repaired.....before that it would heal(not really) build more scar tissue and retear.....we are in week 11 after surgery and
things are starting to look up.

She was in this for 7 weeks
Image

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isonychia
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Re: dropped toe, flexir tendon ruptured

Post by isonychia » Wed Jul 24, 2013 12:06 pm

After seeing my regular vet, it looks like I will just be letting that tendon go as opposed to trying to fix it. My dog is already running around the house like crazy and keeping him from re-injuring the tendon is no longer a threat, only breaking open his staples. Things are looking good though and I have high hopes that this injury will not be debilitating come time for the staples to be removed. How was your injury re-tearing? It seems that tearing it once all the way through should be all that can happen, unless they were partial tears or you kept getting it stitched.

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Re: dropped toe, flexir tendon ruptured

Post by GSP7 » Thu Jul 25, 2013 6:28 am

Ive had two GSP dogs that had this on front paws. One dog tore all four on one foot. He had a completely flat foot.
Most recent my, Other dog the same, one completely flat foot, and just one or two toes on his other front foot.

My Vet that is a bird hunter and raised brittanies. He Told me surgery repair would probably fail also and recovery time is very long, and advised against it.

It happens over time. Dog might limp after a run so you rest (try and not let him run), But they re-injure it, and once it raptures they dont limp any more .

My dogs had no noticeable swelling

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birddog1968
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Re: dropped toe, flexir tendon ruptured

Post by birddog1968 » Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:51 pm

mine was a partial tear, that would build scar tissue then re-tear, long rests were not helping so I opted for surgical repair. She is 11 weeks out from surgery and things are looking good so far.......I asked him to just cut it off and mount a wheel but he declined :lol:

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Re: dropped toe, flexir tendon ruptured

Post by wems2371 » Wed Dec 03, 2014 11:11 am

I now have this with my oldest dog and on Googling, found this thread. She limped just a bit last week on her right front, so I put her on mostly house arrest. Trimmed her toenails on Sunday and didn't notice a thing and the limp was barely noticeable. Monday it was obvious that she had a flat toe on the right front, but she seems to be walking fine.

Most things I've read said not to worry about it, and I was even on some racing greyhound forums where the dogs have no issue running. Roxi doesn't get hunted hard as she has a rear leg injury. She doesn't limp and can still hunt easier cover for 1-2 hours once or twice a week. With this dropped toe, I was thinking maybe booting would be a good idea to keep the toes together when she hunts. I had read some vague stuff about the greyhound folks taping toes together for races.

How are the poster's dogs doing that have this issue?

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Post by birddog1968 » Wed Dec 03, 2014 4:13 pm

Guess my dogs tear was worse it was pulling her toes under causing her to walk on her nails. Think hers was the gastroc tendon but not sure.

Anyway she's not 100 percent but the leg is sound so I can hunt her ...

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Re: dropped toe, flexir tendon ruptured

Post by akshayv » Tue Jul 31, 2018 5:04 am

Have purchased two pair of orthofeet for myself, and they do help tremendously with my PF(plantar Fasciitis). My wife was complaining about her PF, so I suggested getting her a pair of plantar Fasciitis. She didn't want to spend $130 on a pair of orthofeet shoes, but I did it anyway. Now she wears them every day in the garden! Holding up pretty well for the abuse they get too! She won't admit it, but I think she really likes the Quantum's and they do help with the PF.

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