Rear dew claws??

Soooo... Nigredo has double rear dewclaws attached to bones, and rooted into his feet on both hind legs. Some kind of mutt mixed in made him have them.

Vet checked them when I first got him and said they probably didn't need to be removed and they had bones in them etc. making them hard to remove anyway.

He told me that they usually don't have bones, and are attached only by skin. Weird, right? As they are toes.. shouldn't most of them have bones?

WELL!! Anyway, he doesn't have any real ability to move the toes apparently. I can move them in all different directions, and he acts like he doesn't feel it... unlike his regular toes.

Lately, he's been finding them fun to play with sometimes. He'll turn and chew at them and whatnot. The claws are also GROWING a lot. They don't touch the ground so I don't bother cutting them. Gosh, they are funny looking!!!

Each "flappy" toe has a pad under it and there is also a small pad under the back of the second toe. Three pads in all.. plus his normal 5 pads under his base 4 toes. 8 pads on a back foot! The toes are a monstrosity of fur, claws, seemingly randomly placed pads, and flappy skin.

Anyway, he has some serious destructive capabilities and it doesn't seem like he has any real feeling in the toes as he bites and pulls them quite hard sometimes.

His feet are fine, he has nothing making him scratch (he only chews and tugs at these toes) and I'm pretty sure it's just fun to him. When I see him doing this, I make him stop by tapping him... but I might not be able to stop him all the time.


The toes...



Would you have them removed? Or not? Normally I'd ask if the claws themselves could just be removed rather than trying to remove the whole toe (like in cat de-clawing) but I doubt that it would make him chew them less...

I REALLY don't want to mess with them and have no extra money to spend on surgery that might not be needed... but he's like pulling and chewing on them.

What would you do? What should I do? I don't have a lot of money, but I'd never want him to hurt himself by piercing skin or something. Should I worry? He hasn't broken skin or anything yet.. but I have no idea if he might or not. Thanks for input!

I wouldn't get them removed unless they are actually a problem and he keeps getting them injured. I would however cut the claws as they look quite long and could get caught in things. My parson x always used to rip off and injure her dew claw on the front legs, but it was never anything serious.
The ones on the hind legs don't usually have bones in them as they are not real toes, they are leftovers from the 'wolf days' but have no real function, hence why he can't move them.
If he's chewing on them he might be a bit irritated by them. Make sure there's nothing caught in the fur around it and that no inflammation happens.
But I personally wouldn't get them removed unless he actually chews them open or constantly injures them.

i agree, cut them back often. mine has caught and ripped off two so far and there is so much blood!

Mine has them and the blood vessel grows with the nails, meaning I have to visit the vet every 6 weeks for him to cut them and stem the bleed. its going to cost me between 500-600 pounds, for removal and his are well attached. Ive been told it is quite a painfull operation for them, and im holding off, I would say if the nails are growing but the blood vessel isn't growing to far with the nail, meaning you just have to have them cut every other month then NO I would not put him through an operation. That's just my opinion, I don't like mine operated on unless absolutely necessary.

Thanks, everyone. The toes are not injured, infected, or otherwise not normal (except for the fact that they are there in the first place!!)

He doesn't just tug on them the entire time. He yips and acts totally playful with them... as if they are a toy or something. It's the reason I think he thinks his toes are toys! *say fives times fast!*

I'll try and cut the nails down, hopefully they don't bleed or anything. They don't touch the ground so I'll admit I haven't bothered trimming them.

*now where did I put that dog nail clipper??*

Hi, the reason to clip them is that because they don't touch the ground they never get worn down like normal nails, and can grow right round in a loop and in to the pad, that then causes pain and infection

Thank you a lot Zoey. I'm most certainly going to clip them as soon as I can get my hands on those nail clippers. They are starting to loop, but I fathomed they'd not get THAT long, guess I didn't think about the fact that they will KEEP growing.. like our nails do. Looks like I DERPED, it happens.

I had them a week ago trying to clip Jade's nails (failed big time) and put them somewhere. Her nails need clipping but she really won't stay still and I'm so afraid of cutting into the quick (happened with a squirmy cat) that I just said forget it.

Not prepared to pay a vet $60 to clip her nails... not yet anyway!

A lot of dog groomers (at least in the UK) charge a minimal amount for just a nail trim - my groomers charge £10 and you can just pop in and they know all the tricks for calming dogs down and getting those nails off!

Good luck with clipping them
Am such a wimp when it comes to clipping Lacey's,she hates it.I let the groomer do it

I'm not a wimp but altho' Bella submitted to nail clipping when a puppy there is NO WAY she will now and it's like trying to wrestle a wet fish and I'm scared I will injure her skinny lickle skeleton like legs!

But she is walked long enough on hard and gritty surfaces not to have needed them clipped for years now. Vet agrees she doesn't need it done.

If they get enough walking off grass their nails will stay short.

I definitely would not allow them to get overlong though. They can't just trim them back to where they should be - because the blood vessel or whatever inside grows down with the nail. They have to trim a little off and wait until it retracts before trimming more.

So I believe it is ESSENTIAL to keep your dog's nails trimmed to a reasonable length. I've seen dogs with their nails curling round sideways.