# Dewclaws



## stonebroke (Dec 16, 2004)

A friend of mine has a dog that he thought was sick and was dying.... He asked me to take a look at it.. I told him to take it to the vet, but he insisted I look at it first so I did. The way he described the dog was that it's backend would give out, it was losing weight, was stumbling around, etc. I was expecting bad hips, cancer, or something like that.

I went to his place and looked at this dog.... A 9 year old Springer. The dog was in a lot of pain but really didn't appear sick. At first I thought it was hip dysplasia as the rear end would give out when he moved. I got to looking more closely and discovered the back dewclaws had never been removed.....they had grown around in a full circle on both legs and had grown into the flesh. Where they had grown back into the legs above the feet the area was swollen and infected (smelled terrible). I've seen quite a few dogs that had dewclaws, but had never seen a dog with this problem.......this was just yesterday. He's taking his dog to the vet today to have it tended to.

I remove all dewclaws on my pups when they are two days old, as most breeders do. My vet has told me of dogs he has tended to dogs that still had their dewclaws that had their dewclaws ripped open while hunting.....There IS a reason for removing dewclaws!!!!


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

I agree on pups however the current thoughts by vets on this topic is that they should not be removed from adult dogs


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## HUNTNFISHND (Mar 16, 2004)

Why do dogs have dew claws?


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

to climb trees, no kidding


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

haha left over from when they did climb trees, it's the main hook on cats and dogs.

I wonder why the wild canines make out OK with them?


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## stonebroke (Dec 16, 2004)

Bobm said:


> I agree on pups however the current thoughts by vets on this topic is that they should not be removed from adult dogs


If vets saw this dog they'd be rethinking their ideas on removing dewclaws from adult dogs..... The dewclaws on this dog are crippling the dog and he's in a lot of pain.

On the subject of vets, I'm continually amazed at some of the things our vets do not know about our dogs..... We expect them to be the authority. After all, they're doctors and have been to school for upteen years and should know far more than you or I..... Not always true. Each breed as some specific issues and Vets are not always up on what's going on with the various breeds, and consequently at times have given some bad advice to dog owners...


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## BROWNDOG (Nov 2, 2004)

Not trying to bad mouth your friend but how in the world could he not notice this on his own?? I know people pay attention to there dogs with diffenent degrees of attentivness but this is some thing that I would think would be very evident.


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## Wes (Aug 1, 2006)

Browndog, I agree. I don't know how someone who pays any attention to their dog at all wouldn't notice.

My Drahthaar has his front dewclaws and uses them very effectively to catch prey, particularly cripples.

Wes


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

re vets: I am in agreement to some extent but we have to consider they are not all knowing and cannot reasonably expect them to be.

The thing about not removing the dew claws after a certain age was very well supported and made sense and for the life of me I cannot remember exactly what the reasoning was I think if I remember correctly it may have been that it becomes like a phantom limb an is forever painful if removed after a certain age .

I have a rescue Dk with bad scarring where his front dewclaws were and he is very sensitive to touch there and is always licking the scars gently, I suspect they were removed when he was too old but don't truly know for sure.

I told my vets about the Lymes disease vaccine and rattle snake vaccine they were unaware of both at the time I informed them.

One thing about the internet its really a great way to spread info, although the Lymes thing was pre internet, or atleast pre Bob on the internet :-?


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## stonebroke (Dec 16, 2004)

In defense of vets, what we need to keep in mind is that they have to know the anatomy, health issues, etc. of several different animals. The vets around here don't specialize in large or small animals....they handle everything, and their biggest customers are the ranchers, so they spend the majority of their time with cattle, sheep, and horses... Dogs, cats, etc. could almost be considered a sideline for them. Medical Doctors only have to know the human anatomy.....not only that, but just take a look at all of the specialists in the medical field. We don't see much specialization with vets. We don't even have a veterinary opthamologist in Montana.

Quite frankly, it's not uncommon for me to keep my vet up on things that are specific to the breeds I own. If I see something that I think he might be interested in I'll photo copy it and give it to him. Sometimes he's aware of what I give him, sometimes not. I've known him for almost 30 years and he's a friend as well as my vet. An example is the Pennhip procedure. He'd heard of it when it first came about, but really didn't know anything about it......he had no reason to as I'm the only dog breeder here. Vets only have so much time, so keeping up on things that they rarely, if ever, would need to deal with would not make a lot of sense......


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## joespiek (Nov 25, 2003)

i just got a yellow lab/golden retriver puppy. The owners were going to have the pups they couldn't give away put down so I thought I'd start with a free dog and hope he turns out to be a decent hunting dog. If he doesn't he'll probably still be a good pet.

He didn't have his dew claws removed so I'm wondering if I can wait until he's old enough to get neutered and do it at the same time or if I should have the vet remove them sooner or if its too late already? He's 7 weeks old now.


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