Morning everyone Not posted for a while due to poor health but finally back on the right track! Just wondering if anyone has experienced their dogs having dewclaw problems? Are they painful, enough to cause growling when cleaning front paws? Or could it be something else? Shiko has been to the vets and has been on Metacam for just over a week and her pain has eased but at the same time her dewclaws have both fallen off! She struggles with nervous aggression and the vet wants to take her in tomorrow for x-rays of her front legs-shoulders, elbows and paws. He’s tried to examine her but she was way too stressed and therefore he decided to treat for a week on metacam and see how she got on. Now, do we still take her, or watch and see. She’s been so out of sorts. Her metacam ran out last night though!
Whenever there is any physical issue causing pain, it's important to address that first and foremost. Physical pain can cause 'aggression'... I'll never forget the time I was called to do a behavioural consult on a black lab which was 'aggressive towards other dogs coming up to her on walks'. Taking a full history, it emerged the dog had hip AND elbow dysplasia and was on pain meds daily. Of course, she associated getting knocked by other dogs or moved by them, as causing pain - and was trying to protect herself. Always eliminate pain first. I've never heard of dewclaws simply falling off....
[QUOTE="Jo Always eliminate pain first. I've never heard of dewclaws simply falling off....[/QUOTE] I guess I didn’t explain that too well. She’d been playing ball and possibly had damaged her dewclaws, they became broken and chipped and then last week I noticed one had fell off and the other fell off over the weekend. I guess she’s damaged them being too rough playing ball. She was okay this morning but growling again this afternoon when we cleaned her after her walk.
It still seems very strange. I've never heard of a dog losing both her dew claws after damaging them in play...
In the US, almost all Lab breeders remove the dew claws when the pups are tiny. Supposed to prevent injury when running in brush, and since all of my dogs have had them removed, I can't argue one way or the other.
In the UK, almost all lab breeders leave them on. I've never heard of many problems with them, other than the occasional ripped or torn one - but not both at once...
