Split dew claw

[AnxiousOne22]

On Thursday night I noticed my dog chewing and licking incessantly at her front right paw. This isn't normal behaviour for her so I went to have a look to see if anything was bothering her. When I put my hand to her paw she immediately retracted it and ran out of the room. She's really not normally like that some knew something was up. Later, I managed to have a quick peek when she was lying beside me on the sofa sleeping and I could see her dew claw was cracked at the side. While I was observing it she woke up and yelped .


Yesterday morning I called the vets and the vet said to just leave it as it is, it will sort itself out and a new dew claw will push through. Today she has been obsessively licking and chewing at it, it's obviously hurting her. I'm scared she will chew a hole in her paw and make it worse.


Is there anything I can do? Is the vet right, will it sort itself out? Just seems quite cruel leaving her to suffer like this

[AnxiousOne22]

Anyone? Please.

[Oops4]

I don't much about dew claws to comment but my dog had a small cut in his paw that he worked at and worked at and made worse. Vet gave anti inflammatories and a cone to give it a chance to heal and seemed to do the job

[AnxiousOne22]

Hi oops, thanks for replying. That's what I am afraid will happen or perhaps has already happened. The vet really wasn't much use tbh just said to leave it. Perhaps I should ring back tomorrow and insist that she is seen?

[BrownOwlknowsbest]

I once had a collie cross who never needed his claws trimmed even in old age because when they got to a certain length they would split off and leave a perfectly formed smaller claw underneath. He used to worry at loose ones but it was never a serious problem, except that new claws were often very sharp until they had a chance to wear down a little.