Can I ask for advice.   My Whippet has been suffering with a corn on her left front toe for a while now, and it has been up to now, treated by my vet who uses a scalpel.  She stands on the examination table and lets him nip away at the corn, without complaining bless her.   It wasn't long ago since she was treated, at which point my vet brought up the possibility of her benefitting from toe amputation.    However she's limping again and won't put her foot to the ground, indoors on the carpet even.   Obviously she's again off exercise and because I have other appointments this week myself, and I want to see the vet she's seen before, I won't be taking her in until first thing on Saturday.

I need to know what YOU'd do - amputation of the toe?? 

He does dig into the corn quite deeply and even drew a bit of blood last time - she was on a short course of a/bs as he thought the area was quite swollen (infection?).

I don't think as bad as your case, but I have had a rescued Whippet Lurcher who had a corn. My vet at that time failed to diagnose it, but with the aid of a jewellers magnifying loupe, I spotted what I thought was a piece of grit embedded in her toe. I managed to nip most of it out with some fine nosed plier type nail clippers. She did not object and the cure was instant. Subsequently, every time she started to prefer walking on grass, I had another dig at it, and this kept her going until I lost her with a heart cancer at fourteen.
In between, I did experiment with various human corn dressings, but none of them was effective, or easy to keep in place.

> In between, I did experiment with various human corn dressings, but none of them was effective, or easy to keep in place.

This is what I found too.  I discovered her corn by the same way I watched Noel Fitzpatrick find one on a lame greyhound.   Using toothpaste of all things.  It showed up the round corn where it hadn't been seen before!!   He dug the corn out - out came the scalpel.   I don't think my vet is too keen on doing this more than he does with her each time I take her in.  I'm still not keen on having the toe taken off to be honest.   It's one of the middle toes, not on the outside so ? balance.

Regarding toe amputation my flat coat had a squamous cell carcinoma on her toe so not same reason . After unsuccessful treatment she had the toe removed . The op was very successful and u would never of known she it wasn't there. Also a middle toe.

Thank you FF for that first-hand experience.   It's reassuring.

I imagine a middle toe would have less effect on balance than losing an outer toe, as the toes either side would stabilise, and losing an outer doesn't tend to slow them down.  My big dobe had an outer toe removed due to suspected osteosarcoma and it made no difference to her at all.

My Great Dane had a toe removed. It did not affect her in any way
Louise

Update.   As it's about 2.5 months since she was last treated (according to their records), my vet didn't say anything about amputation this morning.  No doubt he's happy to take £35 + (including antiinflammatories) regularly!