If you have owned Greyhounds for any length of time, you will know that they require a specialist veterinary knowledge when things go wrong. They have less body fat than other dogs and so any anaesthetic used needs to be suitable to the breed; they have thinner coats and therefore their skin tears more easily; they have different heart rate and blood count and can be diagnosed with heart murmurs by inexperienced vets when they are actually fine.

On this page we are including information specifically about Greyhound health.

************************************************************

We also have a specific discussion board on the Greyhounds4me where you can find information and advice on Dog health and feeding available to view HERE

Greyhounds Have Big Hearts!

Q. Rebecca L writes “We went for our yearly booster this morning. The vet listened to my Greyhound’s heart rate as part of the check up and said it was way too fast for what she expected. I thought it was because he has suffered from lung worm for many years now, so I thought nothing of it! Other accompanying symptoms he is having are coughing and tiredness and generally depressed most of the time. We have an appointment on 29th November to see if it’s slowed down but if not then she is taking him in and giving him scans and everything. The thing I’m most scared about is when he was neutered there were complications with his heart whilst he was under anaesthetic. I don’t want him to go under again just in case I lose him. He is my world, I’m petrified now”

A. Richard says “Talking generally, because Greyhounds have been bred as athletes for centuries they are blessed with healthy hearts and lungs. It is true that normal heart sounds are sometimes mistaken for murmurs and vets sometimes take x-rays and interpret the large heart of the Greyhound as abnormal but in the main hearts are hearts and vets in general practice are well qualified to detect abnormalities.

Greyhounds can have heart murmurs and lead perfectly happy active lives and even race but unfortunately like any breed of dog some do have heart defects which cause us vets to be able to hear murmurs. They can be born with defective heart valves or holes between the heart chambers but thankfully these are rare.

Greyhounds can also suffer from problems with the pacemaker part of the heart leading to a condition called Atrial Fibrillation where the top part of the heart beats very fast and this can lead to the heart failing to pump enough blood. Another condition is Dilated Cardiomyopathy, this is where the heart muscle becomes stretched and ineffective, the heart enlarges and has to beat faster than a healthy heart in order to pump the same amount of blood as a healthy heart. Heart problems can cause a Greyhound not to want to exercise, appear to tire easily, increase the heart rate, they may cough (especially at night) and may get build up of fluid in their stomachs and legs and they may go off their food.

It is important to get the correct diagnosis and there are many tests that can be carried out without having to give the dog an anaesthetic. With a Greyhound it may be best to start with an ECG to measure the electrical activity of the heart followed by an ultrasound but the operator must be skilled in heart ultrasound to get meaningful results. There are also blood tests now available for cardiac enzymes much like in us humans. Ultimately an x-ray may be necessary and although it may seem dangerous, often much more information can be obtained with the dog asleep, the main reason for this is that you can’t ask a dog to breathe in to inflate the lungs for a clear picture also Greyhounds pant when stressed and this can cause blur on the film, this extra information may well be worth the small risk as a correct diagnosis is essential as treatments vary greatly. This may also allow your vet to do a test called a tracheal wash, which is great for diagnosing inflammatory disease as well as lungworm.

There are many recognised dog heart specialists and although you may prefer to trust your local vet do the work up, often for a fixed fee you can have the ECG, ultrasound and x-rays sent to a heart expert for a specialist opinion which may greatly assist your vet in choosing the right medication for your dog.

In this specific case you mention that the dog has suffered from lung worm for many years, has this been diagnosed or is this a guess? and if so has it been correctly treated? Also dogs can suffer from heartworm (rare in the UK at the moment) so it may be worth testing for this. Also very rarely Greyhounds can suffer from overactive thyroid glands, which can cause the symptoms you mention however I have only ever seen one case of this. Keep your appointment, ask your vet about what can be one without anaesthetic and consider getting an opinion from a veterinary cardio respiratory specialist.

Kind Regards
Richard Torr Bvet Med MRCVS

Copyright Richard Torr (c)2010-11-05 all rights reserved

Richard was asked about worming……….

I have heard it recommended to give wormer tablets to Greyhounds every 6 months. Is this really necessary? I dont like giving medications unless there is a real need and only worm my hounds if I actually see worms in their faeces. Can you advise please?

If your dog has been wormed as a puppy, never goes out, never sees other animals, never eats raw meat and lives in a hermetically sealed box then you don’t need to worm it!

For the rest of us Round Worms, tapeworms, hookworms & lung worms all affect greyhounds. Tapeworms are transmitted mainly by fleas (and these obviously jump between dogs) the flea larvae eat the tapeworm eggs and because the tapeworm then causes the flea when it eventually hatches to be “brain damaged” it moves slowly and this allows the dog to catch it and eat it hence completing the cycle. Dogs also pick up tape worms from eating mice, rabbits and other wild life some of these tapeworms, especially from eating raw or scavenged sheep can rarely be dangerous to Humans.

Round worms can be picked up more directly from eating dog faeces licking paws etc. It is very wrong to only treat dogs when you see worms, parasites like to live in their hosts and much like fleas if you can see worms then you have an infestation, some of the worms encyst in the dogs intestines and can travel throughout the dogs liver and lungs, most dogs are fine with this, after all a good parasite doesn`t kill its host but a worm burden will cause a small amount of blood loss, can decrease immunity and cause physical obstruction of the gut especially in puppies.

Good greyhound trainers will worm dogs every 3 months, if they see worms they are advised to worm and then repeat in 14 days, track dogs will often show a marked improvement in performance and this speaks for itself I think and it is worth remembering that greyhound trainers will not spend money if it is not necessary. Picking up dog faeces is also equally important.

Aside from the health benefits there is a wider social responsibility for Dog owners to worm their dogs so that other peoples dogs (especially puppies which can die from worm related obstructions) are not infected and also to reduced risk of transmission of worms to vulnerable Humans.

Some dogs (very few) may have adverse reaction to wormers but this is normally linked to giving them at the same time as vaccination, or that the dog is so badly infested with worms that when treated, the sudden death of many worms can cause an immune reaction which can make the dog ill, this is then often blamed on the wormer and used as an excuse not to worm again. This is unlikely to happen if you worm your dog a couple of days after a vaccine and then do it every three months in between. If you still suspect a wormer caused illness use a different type, your vet can advise but, in interest of fair play, please then consider buying your wormer from the vet rather than off the internet, as the website won`t be much help when your dog gets hit by a car at 4pm on a Sunday!

One last thing, if you do buy from the internet/back of van/boot fair make sure the drugs are UK licensed, and genuine, there are a lot of fakes out there, at best they do nothing, at worst they could make your dog very ill.

And remember that parasites are one of the few things that you will ever get for nothing, if you want help getting rid of them I may be able to do you a deal!

Regards
Richard Torr

Treatment of Corns & Foreign Bodies in Retired Greyhounds

Some Notes From Richard Torr MRCVS

Corns cause serious lameness and are an important welfare problem. They are under diagnosed with many dogs undergoing extensive x rays of other parts of the limb and invasive tests before anyone even considers the simple corn as a cause of the dog’s pain.

Here at Canine Sports I see corns frequently and experience tells me that there is rarely a one size fits all solution. Corns are made up of very hard keratinised skin and are cone shaped, the broad base of the cone breaking out through the sole of the foot and the point sometimes going as deep as the deep digital flexor tendon. For the dog this like walking on a drawing pin and anyone that has suffered a verruca can understand how the dog may feel. This can be further complicated as often in untreated corns a fluid filled blister occurs at the point of the corn causing pressure and extra pain.

The pad responds to injury by forming hard skin so foreign bodies embedded in the pad can look very much like corns and to complicate matters corns act like foreign bodies and cause more hard skin also the damage caused by a foreign body penetration can lead to a corn!

I think that corns may be caused by damage from foreign bodies, walking on hard ground excessively (especially when corns are on middle two weight bearing toes), injury to the last bone in the toe or possibly there may be a viral component, more research needs to be done

At Canine Sports the first thing I do is take x rays of the affected toe to check there is no foreign body, a common story is that a piece of grit is removed from the pad at some time and the problem is thought to be solved and the problem recurs a few months later. I have a high resolution digital X ray system and take multiple shots at different exposures as pebbles glass and grit all show up differently. This is also important as some corns are related to changes in the end bone of the toe due to old fractures and in these cases the dogs require surgery to the end joint of the toe to correct the bony problem. If there is a foreign body I mostly remove it unless it has migrated to a part of the pad where it has deemed to become inactive. Removal can be difficult as glass can migrate right through the flexor tendon into the toe joints especially if it has been left. Often doing this and coring out the hard skin or “corn” is curative once the foreign body has been removed, but in some cases the damage done sets up a pertinent corn which causes a chronic problem. Once a foreign body or bone damage is eliminated as a cause I treat chronic corns in the following ways:

• Pare back the hard skin to the base of the corn releasing any “blister “ fluid, I repeat this again 10 days later then 1 month later and show the owner how to do this weekly, use softening agents on the pad this works well in many cases and often the dogs will allow ongoing treatment without the use of anaesthesia. Some corns will virtually disappear simply because trimming them below the level of the pad surface prevents them being pressed into the pad and evoking further keratin production
• Corns which don’t respond to this are frozen using a liquid nitrogen spray on three occasions, this helps many dogs, the initial treatment has to be done under General anaesthesia as it freezes quite deep and is painful, subsequent treatment can be done conscious
• With Corns unresponsive to this I have used thermo cautery and burnt the corn to its base this has worked in some cases obviously this is under anaesthesia
• Surgery to remove p3 and reposition the pad can move the corn off of the load bearing part of the pad, this can cure  but often moves the corn to a place where it does not make the dog lame as long as it kept soft and trimmed
• Ultimately Amputation of the whole toe should be considered in long standing cases we do these to “racing specification” preserving the web so the other toes are supported.

I have found wedge resections of corns curative but I suspect the first three points would have worked in these cases and even with this invasive surgery corns often return. I no longer do this as the wounds take ages to heal and often break down making the cure worse than the disease.

The best advice is to check your dog’s pads daily by wetting them with water and looking for surface irregularities. Don’t use toughing agents on pads, keep them soft. If your dog gets a foreign body or puncture wound in its foot, even if you get it out, cover the hole immediately and ideally get it x rayed by a vet with a high resolution system. If you don’t want to spend the money doing this every time the dog pricks his foot, poultice the foot for 24hrs using Animal Lintex and keep covered until healed, if the dog is still lame after 10 days get it X rayed. Finally if you think you have a corn get it looked at by a vet who has experience with corns in order to avoid unnecessary investigations and discomfort for your dog.

©30/04/2010 Richard Torr reproduction by permission only all publication rights reserved.

Richard Torr of Canine Sports Ltd is a vet with a special interest in Greyhound Sporting Problems. Richard cannot enter into individual correspondence of directly comment on the work of other vets. Also advice given should not be considered an alternative to a proper examination with a qualified Vet. If you have a dog you wish him to see you can contact the Clinic on 01509 507080 but he is unable to give advice over the phone. His main area of interest is lameness but the clinic can deal with more routine work eg Dental. Canine Sports Ltd also supplies flea & worm products and joint supplements www.caninesports.co.uk and is proud to support Hathern Dog Rescue and The Retired Greyhound Trust.