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Originally Posted by jvdb  As many of you know, my puppies were born on friday during the day. It being the weekend, I had to wait until today to make an appointment for dew claw removal for my babies (no tail docking since the mommy is papillon and if they take after her they would look awfully silly with docked tails).
I am an advocate for dewclaw removal - when my 2 adult babies eventually get fixed I will have their dewclaws surgically removed at the same time.
Anyways to get to the point, I called two vets in my area, both wanting to charge me $38 PER PUPPY just for dew claws - and one only has a front set! (they won't lower the price for that one) Plus they cannot even get me in today, I would have to wait until tomorrow which is day 4.
I have hear rumor of breeders removing their own dew claws and had contemplated doing them myself even before I heard about the price in order to avoid exposing them to germs at the vet's office.
I am trained as a Registered Nurse so of course know sterile technique, which gives me more confidence to do this myself. How many of you do your own dew claws? Does anybody have some good advice on technique? I almost prefer the sterile scalpel or scissor method but it seems that many prefer the clamp/hemostat method, however I worry that those little claws are too small to maneuver with a clamp?
Anyone have some advice? I'm not a bad mommy for contemplating this am I? |
I just use small scissors and snip them off, but you have to make sure you get all of it or they can grow back. There are some video's online, check youtube.com and there are several that show you from start to finish. You may have already seen some.
I think that is you feel comfortable doing it, then go for it. It is very easy to do. I normally do it right after they are born because they do not seem to feel it, not even a whimper! And I can get it easier because it is so soft (the bone and cartilage).
If you can get some numbing cream use that before you do it. If not then use oragel to numb it up.
if you want you can PM me.
When I started doing dews and tails (on cockers) I was shown how to do it. But it took me a long time to be able to do it without cringing..
Also, if you do still want the vet to do it, he can do it up until they are a week old without any problems. My vet wont do it past 4 days though.