Anyone had their dogs dew claws permanently removed?

[ALemonyPea]

My JRT keeps catching his and having to go to the vets to have the nail removed. He's had it done three times in the past 12 months, latest being today, he's currently at the vets with DH.

Thinking of getting them permanently removed, has anyone had it done and did it cause the dog any issues?

My Nan did with her dog

He was in pain for a while after having them removed but they healed nicely

Ddog1 had had them partially removed as a pup (he was bred for hare coursing and they would have been taken off with a penknife), and had them properly removed when he was castrated. It doesn't seem to cause him any problems at all

I almost did this and so glad I didn’t in the end.

Active border collie here, she would regularly split them and I arranged to have them removed when she was under for her spay.

When I read more into it I read that many dogs who have them removed go on to develop arthritis, the operation is an amputation not a simple nail removed as it’s connected to ligaments, it’s like a limb, like one of our fingers.

I gradually clipped the nails down really, really short, like nubbin short and she has no more problems.

@frostedviolets I have a border collie pup and he has a dew claw, only on one leg. It's very floppy, and he can't move it at all. It looks a bit odd. Is that what your dog had? Or were your dog's on both legs? I think it's maybe a genetic mutation that's given him an extra toe, and I'm not sure if i should ask for it to be removed or not.

My chihuahua had her back ones removed when she was younger as they weren't properly attached (you could blow on them and they would flap around) and the vet said at some point she'd catch them and do herself some damage. Where they weren't properly attached they were easy to remove and she's never had any issues. She still has her front ones which are attached properly. Bless her.

Mine has a dew claw on each front leg, they are a little floppy and she can’t move them like we would a finger.

I think if it’s not causing problems I’d leave it.

My dog used to regularly crack/split them running about on walks, sometimes she would split them almost to the top which was extremely messy and painful.

Simply keeping them ridiculously short stopped her injuring them

I removed one of my dogs front dew claws when I castrated him. He's a saluki lurcher and when he ran on hard ground he would injury the dew claws quite severely. I did feel a bit bad about removing his "thumbs" but it's made a huge difference to his quality of life.
The grass stain is where his dew claw was. You can see why he was shredding them so often!

Dew claws on hindlimbs are often just claws attached to skin with no bony involvement. Theyre very simple to remove and it's minimally painful. Dew claws on the forelimbs tend to be bony and it is an amputation and many vets would discourage you unless truly causing an issue. This is a rule of thumb though and I would urge you to ask the vet that saw your dog today what their opinion is and what type of dew claw he has. I am a vet and have done these ops countless times often at the time of neutering.

@Dinosauraddict that's what my pups dew claw is like, it's completely limp, it's a bit like a skin tag with a claw.

Thanks for everyone's input. I'll be having a chat with the vet when they are fully open again. They're on his front limbs, so interesting @Maltay what you've said.

Ddog1s dew claws (on the front) weren't like a finger - what remained was a funny little claw attached by skin and maybe a ligament. Like BadEyeBris dog he is a saluki x grey ish. Ddog2 otoh has fully formed dew claws like an extra finger and you can see how they give him extra grip when he's doing tight turns

My lab's got dew claws on his front legs and he uses them to hold biscuits, toys etc while he chews. His speciality is lying on his back and taking a ball out of his mouth with his paws then putting it back in. He'd really miss his dew claws if they weren't there.