Quick advice request - broken dew claw

Bromley86

Just got back from our walk and our dog has a broken dew claw (the nail, not the toe part).

The claw is snapped (but still attached) quite near the toe. so it's vet time. The question is, is it an emergency vet thing or will it wait until tomorrow? She doesn't seem to be in any pain - only when I touch the claw - and has no trouble walking. But it looks pretty horrible.

Caroline_a

If she'll keep it on, maybe a sticky bandage, but so long as it's clean and not bothering her, I would think tomorrow would be ok

YorkiePud_3

I had a greyhound who had this ... it's nasty in that until the whole nail is removed in some cases, the danger is that it will cause a lot of pain if she knocks it.
In my case there was blood gushing everywhere, so I had to rush him to the vets because I thought he'd done even worse damage but if it is just snapped, not splintered, and not bleeding or causing obvious distress then I would just keep an eye on her and try not to let her bounce around too much because it will hurt if she knocks it.
I think, having been there before, I'd be phoning the vet now but you know your dog best and if she doesn't seem too perturbed, then it may be ok to leave her til tomorrow.

Bromley86

Thanks guys. She's currently lying down in her crate (glad I decided to store that in their room and not somewhere obscure). No blankets etc. to get caught up in, just the cushion. Bathed the paw, but didn't try the bandage as the nail is pointing out sideways from the paw, so binding it all up would likely be a very painful process.

As she's just been fed, she seems happy enough .

Off to the vet first thing tomorrow.

rising_from_the_ashes

Good luck in the morning - you may already have thought of this but I'd probably not feed her late tonight / in the morning in case they need to give her a sedative to sort it out (depending on what time your vets opens etc)

Bromley86

Thanks for the reminder RFTA. I'm not looking forward to the hurt look at breakfast time tomorrow (as you can probably tell she's a lab, so food's pretty high on her list of priorities).

YorkiePud_3

Ah well it doesn't sound to be troubling her too much then ... if you'd heard my old greyhound, you would have put money on it that he'd broken a leg ... !!

Good idea about removing the blanket ... it'll just be a case of watching her like a hawk so she doesn't get it caught because you'll know about it if she does ... !

If there isn't much of a nail left, I have known vets just whip it out quicksmart, but if it looks troublesome, like rising from the ashes says, they may want to sedate her.

I hope everything goes okay tomorrow ... I'm sure it will ... with my dog it was a quick 5 minute thing ... distracted him, vet pulled the remaining bit of nail out and that was that.

shell820810

Happened my Yorkie, it bent back in the wrong direction but didnt break off. I couldnt get the bleeding to stop so ended up taking him to the out of hours vet (£50 out of hours additional charge...:(). Vet said sometimes it will just repair itself, sometimes the nail can just snap off, sometimes they need a wee op to remove the nail bed (i think thats what it was).

Anyway, he just pushed it back to the right direction and bandaged it and said to come back in a few days to see how it is looking. When i went back it just broke off in the vets hand. If I wasnt concerned about the bleeding, I would have just waited until the vets were open again.

Sooz00

Pleased it isn't troubling her. Both of my dogs have broken a dew claw each in the past. One was no problem at all and healed really well. The other was an awkward break and wouldn't stop bleeding so we went straight to the vets. They cleaned it up and debated removing it but in the end decided to put him on ABs for infection and give it a chance to heal, which it eventually did! Good luck at the vet tomorrow. x

Bromley86

Just a follow-up, in case someone else has this problem. Easily dealt with - vet just gave it a couple of tugs and broke it off. She yelped, but absolutely fine immediately after.

If we live in a more rugged, frontier society I dare say it'd be easily done at home. I certainly don't though, so the vet is £28 richer and the pooch got a better deal than having my wife try to pin her whilst I yanked away at her broken claw.

getcarter

My vet just tends to twist and pull, bit of a yelp, bit of blood, still don't think I could do it though!