One of these happened about a month ago. I was so sure that I've done a post on this subject but I might be thinking of the time Salvador had issues with grass seeds - see the post on grass seeds .
Salvador has become a rather fluffy thing over the past two years. No one seemed to warn me that by shaving him in the hot summer months, I encourage epic hair growth in the winter months, thus he is now one giant ball of fur(pictures will soon follow). With out of control hair growth comes many new, and often overlooked grooming responsibilities...one such responsibility is to check nails - in particular the one called the dewclaw.
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| http://petcarefacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/dew-claw.jpg |
Dew claws are common in dogs and you can usually find them on the inside of front legs, although occasionally they are also found on the hind legs - in Salvador's case. Some believe they are ancient remnants of doggy ancestors that have no real purpose in our modern day pals, but apparently they do assist in holding on to bones while chewing.
Salvador seems to be blessed with a dewclaw on all four of his legs. Upon further investigation(searching through many layers of fur and fluff...) I came across a pretty horrific sight! Salvador's dewclaw was so out of control, it was curling around and growing back into his paw?!
I am ashamed to say that I've never even thought about clipping his nails. I always assumed that because we walk on tar roads and cemented pavements, his nails were being filed down naturally, but because the dewclaw is positioned so high up on the leg, they never get filed down and therefor just keep growing.
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| http://www.cavaliersa.com/rescue.htm |
We took Salvador to the vet the next day - as he would not let me close to the sore toe, where they proceeded to give him a proper nail trim and a course of antibiotics to clear up the infected toe.
OPTIONS:
So how do we prevent this from happening again?
There are a few options. Some folk have their dogs' dewclaws removed surgically - I've even come across some articles where they show basically new born puppies undergoing, what might look like, the very painful removal the whole nail. I guess it's like having your ears pierced as a baby as apposed to when your an adult - you forget about the pain...
In my case, we will just have to be more vigilant toe nail watchers. I for one don't think I will be doing the trimming myself. I find it less worrisome to have it done by a professional (be it a groomer or a vet) as it's easy to cut the nail too short if you don't know what you're doing. Checking your dogs nails every month is probably a good way of staying on top of this.
Licks & Kisses
xxx
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