Toe Injury

Swollen toe


Normal toe

Last weekend Lyric ran agility and played ball. The following day I noticed one of her toes was terribly swollen. It was the same toe that had surgery 2 1/2 yrs ago for a torn lateral collateral ligament. I knew it had retorn. It is frustrating as I don't know what she did to tear it. She has lure coursed with no injuries. Chased her foxtail ball endlessly with no injuries and run numerous agility courses with no injury. I bandaged it until I could get back to my clinic and have it looked at by the surgeon. A figure 8 bandage of elasticon works well at holding the toes together.






The following day it was confirmed and she went to surgery. The original surgery looked excellent, enough organized scar tissue to act as a collateral ligment, no arthritis had set in. Hopefully she will do as well post surgery as the first time. But it is now a couple of months of no exercise splints and later bandages.



Plans for future agility will have to be questionable since this is a second tear/surgical correction. Plans for coming out in Open obedience this spring are on hold. Even though she is a big dog she is not a highly active dog and thus is not hard on her body.

The day after surgery Lisa and Darby came down to wish Lyric well and give her a present.

Bowed Tendons

Last weekend while training obedience in the local park I had all three dogs with me working. After working I play ball or frisbee and let each one run for a few minutes. I was just finishing with the last dog Echo letting her run and play when the local police drove up and came out directly to me. Busted for dogs off leash I thought but no they wanted to see what the dogs were doing and wanted to see the greyhounds run. So I took Whisper off leash and did a few Open exercises then let her run. To show off I let Echo off leash too and the two of them went racing around the park. After about three minutes I called them in and Whisper was lame. Of course two weeks before our specialty with one day of obedience and three days of agility for her.


Swelling on the right side of the right leg.


Normal left foot for comparison


Both legs for comparison



She damaged her flexer tendons behind the metacarpal region-an injury called bowed tendons. After weeks of rest she should be okay but no agility next weekend-and maybe no obedience. Just goes to prove if you want to show off-don't.. bad things happen.

Greyhound Toe Injuries

Good toe


Bad toe

Whisper is just recovering from a torn toe ligament. Luckily not a severe injury. Most toe ligament injuries need surgical repair for optimal recovery. Almost all of my greyhounds through running have torn an inside or outside back toe metatarsal-P1 ligament. Although the toe looks like it should hurt it doesn't seem to bother them after a couple of weeks. Initially they are a little lame but after about two weeks of leash walking they are totally sound again.
She was back to competing in agility and Open obedience training two to three weeks after the injury.