Thoughts on my dogs dewclaw

[Prohibiting]

Hi all, I’m looking for some advice please on my dogs dewclaw. He has been limping for about a week now due to the below dewclaw. I have kept it wrapped lightly in a bandage as he kept licking it which made it bleed. You can see the bare patch of fur just above it where he had been licking it. It appears pretty swollen? Can I get away without a trip to the vets (which I find are usually useless unless it’s some very serious etc)?

When he is sitting he’s not putting much weight on it, but he is his normal self and will run for a ball (although I’ve been careful with how much I make him run). He also lays down normally and will let me touch it but will whimper if I’m too heavy handed with it.





His good leg for comparison


What would you do? As said, I’m not keen on the vets but if you think he needs to go and probably just get prescribed tablets then I’ll suck it up, otherwise I’m happy for it to naturally heal and keep it wrapped.

Many thanks.

Edited by Prohibiting on Tuesday 17th August 20:23

[Thevet]

If you're not keen on your vet, then change, if you're not keen on vets in general, why have animals? For what it's worth, it looks like there is some infection around the dew claw, but it could just be inflammation from licking or even original injury. If the dog is lame and rest hasn't helped, then sadly it's time to go get it looked at. Could even be a broken small bone in the dew claw digit, don't know without better exam.

[Chester draws]

What's he done to it? Caught it? Ripped it off?

Maple broke a fingernail recently. The nail split and came outside of the quick. £26 at the vets got the nail cut back and bandaged up, along with a small injection I think.

Before pic below...


It grew back fine in a few weeks.

[Chubbyross]

I took Lila to the vet as soon as she tore her dewclaw. They removed it and she was back to normal in a few days. I’d let the vet check it out.