I have an Alaskan who has her dewclaws on all her feet. She hasn't had any problems with her dewclaws catching on anything thus far, but I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this.
I am thinking about taking her to the vet and getting them removed while she is young, so they don't become a problem.
kavik had to have his rear dew claw off when he was 4 months , he must have caught it on something when out walking , then it bled so vet operated to remove it , i was going to get it done once an adult but it got done sooner rather than later.
So far mine haven't caused her a problem. This year when we go further in mileage though, they might irritate her ankles because of wearing booties ever. We will see though!
My oldest Sibe, Janska had a dew claw on her back right leg, Was very strange, just a claw sticking out and no pad??? I chose to have it removed as i was worried about her catching it and really hurting herself, I had also hoped to show her too but that wasn't to be :(
Dew claws are sort of a pain when it comes to booting. If I have puppies, I will remove them. On my adult guys, I only have two dogs with them, so I most likely won't get them removed unless the dogs have to go in with some other problem.
I would DEFINENTLY get the rear ones removed. While the front ones are just sort of annoying when it comes to booting (and painful for the humans!), the back ones are usualy floppy and very dangerous for the dog.
This one dog I am talking about has all 4 dewclaws. If she was going to have to be put under to have her dewclaws in the back removed, I would have them just remove the front ones while they are at it! :)
It isn't just a simple matter to remove them Christian. Once the dog is past a few days old the dew claws are like any other toe, at least the front ones, rear ones might be different.
You are actually amputating toes, so it is a pretty significant (and expensive) surgery.
I do have them removed on any adults I happen to get that have them, but that is because of booties. If you don't think the will be doing significant distance racing in it's future, I would avoid the surgery.
Karen
This is what my vet explained to me a couple of months ago. He said that once they are older, the toe grows into the leg and grows bone. Like you were saying, a real toe. He said, like you were saying, that I would only need to get them removed if I am doing a lot of bootieing. She DOES have dewclaws on ALL four feet, and that is the thing that I worry about her with.
Do the four dewclaws come from her shepard background do you think?
I know this is an older thread, and more than likely, you've already gone over this with the vet again... but... LOL
I worked for a vet years ago. Any dogs with rear dew claws, they almost always recommended that the rear ones be removed when the dog was neutered and already under anesthetic.
The reason why ... front dew claws are attached by bone .. a true 'toe', in that repect. Rear dew claws are [b]almost[/b] always just attached by a flap of skin, with no real bone attachment to the leg/foot. The danger lies in it becoming caught on something while the dog is out running.. a stick, fencing, etc., and getting torn off. (ouch!)
Some breeds almost always have the front dewclaws removed when the pups are 3-4 days old - generally, the breeds that have their tails docked as well... poodles, jack russels, etc.
Three of my dogs have dewclaws on thier front feet. Dont have experiance with rear dewclaws. As long as they dont jump to much during hook up, I wouldnt worry too much about them. Or, as long as thier not causing a lot of problems.
And IMO, its best to have them off, but some vets wont do it unless if they are a real young pup. And me personally, if I have an adult with them, I leave them. Best thing you could do is talk with your vet, and figure up how much problems it might cause in the future.