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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? |
My vet charged only $10 to have the puppies done. I did my new puppies dew claws myself. I have a youtube vid of this guy that shows how it is done using the clamp method. This works best for me and then I bandage up their wounds so that mom doesn't lick them.(only for a few hours) You just have to make sure you get the entire claw or it will grow back.
I can post the link later or search for it on youtube under dew claw removal clamp method.