Drought injuries

[Kate Eltringham]

'aftrnoon all,

Some information for you all, as some of you may or may not be afftected by what I'm calling "drought" injuries.

Due to the drought we've had to abandon a number of our normal training spots as the ground was so hard and large cracks were opening up so we retired to the local sports grounds which are watered albiet sparingly. Unfortunately they are also drying and cracking which has resulted in four dislocated toes amongst our hounds. In the dogs the injury appears to be in the shoulder as the dogs all limped and carried the shoulder, not putting any weight on the leg. This was in fact to protect the pressure on the toes. We were sure the shoulder had been damaged because of the way the dogs were moving!After visits to the chiropractor and vet they have both advised they are seeing more and more dogs suffering very similar injuries over the past couple of months.

Treatment: the chiropractor has put the toe "back in" but the critical thing is rest the dog from running and extending themselves for 4 - 5 days to allow the tendons and ligaments to recover. During this period swimming is excellent for the dogs. Anti-inflammatory medication (Rymadil or Metacam) for a couple of days to reduce the swelling of the ligaments and buddy strapping the affected toe for 4 - 5 days has also been done.

So, at the moment we have two dogs "strapped" and fingers crossed we can find some better ground to train on.

We're very lucky that we have some excellent veterinary and chiropractic specialists available to us, but our vet has also suggested that if we continue to have problems contacting the local greyhound association and get a referral to their recommended vets as the greyhounds suffer very similar injuries. He also advised that it was pointless to xray the foot as the damage to the ligaments wouldn't show up anyway.

Hope this may be of help to some of you.

Cheers

Kate

[Kirsty Blair]

Hi Kate,

Far out! Sounds terrible - hope your dogs all regain soundness soon.

Thanks for the info.

Kirsty

[Annie Warner]

Hi 'Molly' and Kate
hope the walking wounded are all ok again real soon.

annie

[Julie Cramond]

I too have noticed the cracks in our training grounds.

Last year it was terrible. I am always aware how dangerous and how easily a dog can step into a deep widened hole.

Every time it rains, the cracks seem to "heal" before my very eyes.

Lucky in our area we have many new home subdivisions that have incorporated the natural water filtration laws. Lots of technical water, the use of the bumper boys are fine, but for obvious reasons we do not use a shotgun.

Nothing is every perfect, as the other farm properties have snakes, so I stay away from them too in summer.

Oh dear if it is not one thing it is another.

Hope your dogs toes recover quickly. I have had three fractured sessamoid bones with three separate dogs, which is also a common greyhound injury.

[Kerry Webster]

Hi Kate,
Thanks for that info. Hope your dogs recover soon.

We don't actually have too many areas where cracks in the ground appear, but, one of our trialling sites (Lord Street), has several claypan areas which, in the middle of winter, are full of water and are marvellous sites for marks or blinds in trials. But, at the beginning of the year after a summer, this same area has huge cracks appearing in the clay which can be extremely dangerous for dogs and humans alike.

Unfortunately, because this site is often the only one with a good area of water after summer, it is selected for use for trials. Thankfully, we are rarely put in the situation of having to run our dogs over this dangerous ground, and commonsense prevails.

Hey, I thought it was raining over there lately. That is what my weather station has told me, anyway, so hopefully the cracks will disappear soon.
How is the house going ?

Kerry

[Kate Eltringham]

Hi Kerry,

We have had some rain over here but as always it's never enough!

Went back to the oval today to do some line running with Ski and the cracks up there are bigger than before which is worrying - what are some of our trial sites going to be like

House is going well, major work on the outside and hoping to have the dog runs finished in the next few weeks. The hounds do enjoy going to work with me everyday as they score an extra run and lots of attention from everyone at work .

Cheers

Kate