Caught dew claw

One of my girls has come in today after running round the garden with a bent and bleeding dew claw.

It has mainly stopped bleeding now, but is bent backwards. It's obviously uncomfortable, and she won't even let me wash it or strap it.
We do take to the vets normally, and will if it appears no better in the morning, but I wondered if anyone has any suggestions rather than a vets visit, as last time they just strapped it and charged £35.00, which I could have done at home.

Aww sorry no advice just wanted to offer some support, we have 2 greyhounds and have spent countless amounts on dew claws strapping, ripping out (oooouch!!!!) at the vets. Greys seem to be very prone to catching them with their skinny legs Hope someone can offer some advice, i'll certainly be keeping an eye on this thread for future reference.

Thankyou, how kind of you

Can't offer any advice unfortunately if she won't let you touch it. Is there no-one around that can perhaps hold her while you clean and strap it? Hope she lets you near her as if it is bent back it will need to be straightened. Poor rthing, it must be so sore. Hope you manage it. xx

Our vet's are Grey specialists as there used to be a large greyhound track nearby & they were the official vets for it for more than 40 years. One of the senior vets(& a personal friend)told me she wished all greys had their dew claws removed as she had lost count of the number who had badly damaged them & ended up having to have treatment over the years.

The practice now doesn't routinely remove front dewclaws as it is frowned upon by the RCVS, but personally the senior vets there still think it isn't such a bad thing

Poor thing, so distressing for her and for you.

I would say that in spite of the cost, unless you are sure of what you are doing it would be best to take her to the Vet. It might be better to pay a small amount to have it sorted out now, rather than perhaps face a larger bill if things go badly wrong with infection etc.

I do hope that she is okay.

I'm surprised it's frowned upon by the RCVS as I am sure there are many vets who will still remove front dews, some will offer to do it at the time of spay or castration.

I feel it really depends on the dog - some dogs do have very firmly affixed dews lying tight to the leg, like a thumb and will use them when chewing bones etc. My own dog's front dews are like that and the vet offered to remove them when he was done but I said no - they have never been (and probably never will be) a problem.

However one crossbreed dog, with some sighthound in her ancestry, which we owned when I was in my late teens did catch one of hers badly and it had to be removed.

I don't regard it as cosmetic at all, certainly not like docking tails, as a dog with loose dews or ones that are always catching on things is potentially going to end up with injuries and/or an emergency appointment.

My grey Holly (RIP) caught her dew claw. She had to have it removed by the vet and had antibiotics but Guinness my current grey snapped his too and it fell off by itself after a couple of days. We did bandage his leg to protect it at first though, but no vet visit required.