Dog limping suddenly? In reality there are a myriad of causes of lameness in dogs (and not all of them directly concern the legs. Did you know, for example, that entire female dogs can have lameness as the only symptom of pyometra?). However, if the dog is limping, first check the state of his health spur. It is often the site of various problems that can cause pain to the dog.
What is a dog dewclaw?
The term dog dewclaw is usually meant to refer to thenail of the first toe (or the first toe in general). Dogs usually have five toes on the front paw (of which the innermost one corresponds to our thumb and is, in fact, the dewclaw) and four on the hind paw.
The dewclaw is usually, therefore, either the first front toe or any accessory toes with attached nail present on the hind leg.
By itself the dog’s dewclaw is of no use. The first toe, in fact, is suspended from the ground, therefore it is not used for gripping, providing a support base or digging. It almost seems like the only reason the spur is there is to hook everywhere and break.
Or grow out of all proportion, for that matter. Never touching the ground, the dewclaw does not wear out like other toes and therefore it tends to grow, rolling up on itself and ending up piercing the fingertip.
What are the dog breeds with rear dewclaws?
Front dewclaws are present in all dog breeds. The rear dewclaws do not. Or rather: there are some breeds in which they are normally present and, indeed, from breed standard they must be there. These are some breeds where it is normal to see rear dewclaws:
However, it sometimes happens that these accessory toes develop in dogs where they shouldn’t be present. Just as we happen to find them in mixed breeds. In most cases these dewclaws are not articulated. Which means that only the nail attached to the skin is present, but without the actual bones of the finger underneath. In some cases, however, the spur is articulated, therefore equipped with a musculoskeletal base.
Diseases affecting the dog’s dewclaw
Various pathologies can affect the dog’s dewclaw. And often these illnesses are of traumatic origin. This is because the dewclaw has a bad tendency to get stuck everywhere and, due to the movement of the paw, it easily breaks.
Broken dog dewclaw
The thing that happens most frequently is the spur breakage. Being very vascular, the dog will bleed a little and feel pain (like when we break a nail).
Dab with hydrogen peroxide, be patient for a few days of lameness and little by little the broken dewclaw will fall off and the nail will regrow.
Curved dog spur
By virtue of the fact that the spur does not touch the ground, it never wears out. Therefore it continues to grow, but being curved it grows on itself, rolling up and ending with the pierce the fingertip corresponding. Also in this case the dog will feel pain (at the level of our ingrown toenail), therefore he will limp and you may see a few drops of blood fall from the wound.
Also frequent in this case bacterial superinfections secondary. What needs to be done in these cases is to cut and extract the ingrown tip of the spur and disinfect locally with hydrogen peroxide.
To avoid the problem, the better periodically cut the spur together with any other overgrown nails. (READ also: The hilarious video of the dog who pretends to faint to avoid having his nails cut)
Spur of dogs inflamed
If your dog’s dewclaw appears intact, but the surrounding skin is inflamed and swollen, it could be ainfection. Evaluate with yours veterinarian how to proceed.
Swollen dewclaws in dogs
The skin around the spur appears swollen? Again it could be an infection. But that swelling could also hide something else, perhaps a tumor in the soft tissue of the finger or bone. Always contact your veterinarian.
What to do if the dog breaks its dewclaw?
If the dog breaks dewclawexactly like when we break a nail, we will have to stem the small bleeding that results, disinfect and patiently wait for the nail to grow back.
In the case of partial detachment it will be up to the vet to decide whether to cut the spur further (sometimes this is not done because it would cause perfectly avoidable pain and bleeding) or let it fall off on its own.
Possibly if the rear dewclaw continues to hook everywhere and break, it is possible to evaluate with the vet the possible removal of the spur. However, consider that, especially in the case of articulated spurs, the operation is quite painful as it involves disarticulating and removing a finger with attached bone.
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