Anybody suffer with a claw toe or hammer toe

[Theziggy]

Just wondered if anybody has a claw toe or hammer toe and if so what they do when they run. I have a claw toe and what I do is tape it to it's neighbouring toe so it can't move too much. This works at the time, but sometimes it gets really really painful after a run.

[misswobble Graduate]

You can buy splints for this as I've seen them on the internet. They look filmy and lightweight and not at all cumbersome. Whether they work I don't know

Make sure your running shoes are wide in the toe box! Some brands are narrow and bunch your toes up which will cause you problems. I've experienced this so now am careful to get ones that will accommodate my foot with a bit of room to spare. I've found the more generous shoe in the toe area is the Mizuno. My Nike Pegasus are also ok as are Brooks. You can get wider widths in asics but the running shops don't seem to stock them

I hope someone will be along shortly to put you right. There's usually someone here having the same experience as you

I hope you can get it sorted satisfactorily and keep running. Good luck Ziggy!

[Theziggy Graduate in reply to misswobble]

Thanks for your reply Misswobble,

I did look at the splints/straighteners but didn't try them as I could never even bear to wear flip flops on my feet as I hated the feel of anything in between my toes . Though if this persists I may have to think about it as the toe also leads to pain further up my leg too.

I've been running with it now for a while so hope to keep it up.

[Hidden]

I saw a podiatrist as I have a hammer toe, she called it something else i can't remember what, I thought I had an ingrowing toenail but it was hard skin caused by the end of the toe touching the shoe. She recommended cream for the hard skin and a foam tube to go over the hammer toe at all times not just when I am running. She gave me a couple of the foam tubes to fit over the toe plus you can buy the foam tubes in larger Boots the chemists shops. Blue box in the foot section "Foam Protective bandage", two tubes which you cut to size to fit the toe. They are 1" wide which is larger then the one the podiatrist gave me but they work OK. i don't wear them all the time now but occasionally i do and have used them when running if my toe is hurting me. Hope that helps.

[Theziggy Graduate]

Thanks exwightman

Well, hammer toe isn't exactly the same as claw toe (though your podiatrist called it something else). I do know the foam tubes you refer to. My podiatrist made me a silicon prosthesis, based on a mould of my toes, to wear for an hour or two a day. I had stopped wearing it as my toe didn't hurt much any more but have been wearing it again every day lately. Do the 1" wide foam bandages fit into running shoes?