Sighthound Corn Survey |
What is the survey about?
Thank you for participating in this survey regarding paw pad corns in sighthounds.
This survey has developed from work I have been doing on the paw corn pads in racing greyhounds. The problem of paw pad corns is both frustrating and intriguing, and has been thought to be a problem exclusive to racing greyhounds. During the course of my research I have had a number of owners of other sighthounds breeds contact me, informing me that their dogs have also had problems with corns. Therefore because of a relative lack of scientific literature on this topic I decided to expand my research to include all breeds of sighthounds.
For those who are not familiar with what corns are they are hard, well defined, areas on the toe pads. They often protrude from the pad and are typically very painful. They are similar to corns that develop on human feet. The National Greyhound Adoption Programme has a great site:
http://www.ngap.org/greyhound-health-corn-y301.html.
Images of digital pad corns can be obtained by searching for ´greyhound corns´on the internet.
It is important that as many owners as possible take part in the survey whether they have a dog with corns or not!
Even if your dog(s) have never had a corn the information you supply about your dog act allows a comparison to be made between those that have corn and those that do not, and therefore risk factor can be identified. Furthermore we would like sighthounds that participate in all sorts of different activities, so please take part whether your dog is a champion racing or a family companion!
It has been difficult to design a survey that encompasses all the different activities that sighthounds do. Therefore we have split up the survey into three tables. The first sections asks you about general information about your dog(s). The second about what activities it(s) involved in and how often. The third section asks about paw pad corns. You can supply information for up to 10 dogs. If you have more than 10 dogs you can fill in a new survey form the remaining dogs. It is important that the dog number remains the same for each section, i.e. dog 1 is dog 1 in all sections.
This research requires the goodwill of the owners of these fantastic dogs, and for that I thank you in advance!
The questionnaire takes around 5 - 10 minutes. All replies are anonymous.
Your feedback is important!
Many thanks
Richard Doughty
MB, ChB (Hons), BVSc
Veterinarian