Yep… not long after Lally’s last broken dewclaw, she snagged and broke the dewclaw on her OTHER front leg! This poor dog. Once again, my parents had to hold her while I tried to snip off the dangling bits with my trusty nail clippers. Once again, she got upset and widdled on the floor. My poor little girl.
What use are dewclaws, really? They’re more or less an evolutionary leftover. A lot of breeders will actually take care of dewclaw removal (at least on the hind legs) when puppies are just a few days old.
When I got Lally from the Rutland County Humane Society in Vermont more than two years ago, I noticed that her hind dewclaws had been recently removed. (Not that I’m some great dog physiology sleuth, but I couldn’t help but notice the HOT PINK stitches the vet used!) At the time, I was pretty miffed about it. Why would they perform such an unnecessary surgery, I wondered. What did those dewclaws ever do to them?
But thinking back on all the times Lally has snagged and torn a dewclaw… well maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. Dewclaw removal actually saves a dog from the pain of repeated injuries. (Can you imagine how often I’d be whining about this if she had all four dewclaws and not just the two in the front?) It’s not like tail bobbing or ear cropping, which don’t really benefit the dog, outside of cosmetic reasons.
I don’t think I’m going to opt for having Lally’s front dewclaws removed at this point. She’s somewhere in the neighborhood of five years old, and the surgery is a little more complicated at five years than it is at five days. But if your dog is suffering from repeated dewclaw injuries, ask your vet about the possibility of dewclaw removal. It may save you and your dog a lot of pain in the long run!