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Originally Posted by MyFairLacy  Okay....let me try to explain this without pictures..LOL. Okay..look at your hand. Your wrist is called the "carpus" and is made up of three carpal joints. The bones between your wrist and fingers are the metacarpal bones. Then you have your fingers that are made up of three phalanx bones each, except for your thumb which is made up of only 2 phalanx bones. Your thumb is digit one, and your pinky would be digit 5.
Okay...so dogs basically have the exact same structure to their paw as we do for our hands. They have a carpus (ie wrist), metacarpal bones, and 3 phalanx bones per digit, except for the declaw which has 2 phalanx bones just like our thumb does.
Dogs have 4 weight-bearing digits (2-5). Digit 1 is the dewclaw (the equivalent of our thumb). It is higher up..just below the carpus.
So far as the pads..dogs have three types of pads on their front paws. The little pad near where the declaw would be is the carpal pad (because it is on the carpus). The large pad is the metacarpal pad (because it is under the metacarpal bones). And the 4 little pads are the digital pads (because they are on the weightbearing digits).
Hope that helps |
You must think we're a lot smarter than we are.
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Originally Posted by nvnvgirl
OK..so this was going to be my original question, LOL...what did you do about it? Are you leaving it or will it be removed? I know they normally remove them at the same time that they dock the tails (or that's what I thought anyway)when they're puppies....if they didn't have them removed then, do you just leave it, or do you have it removed when they're older?
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I'm assuming you mean if the nail is still attached, if so, they say you just keep it clipped when you do the other nails, however some dogs have a problem with this catching on things and need to have it surgically removed, because if it's torn off it can cause serious damage. So are you feeling a knobby thing or a nail?