The Dew Claw

I got a phone call yesterday from the daycare owner informing me that Mia had somehow ripped her dew claw off and it was bleeding.  She went into great detail as to what could be done, but said that it would be best if I took her to the vet.  Luckily, I was already on my way home since I got out of work early on Good Friday.  I called the vet and got her an appointment and it all just somehow worked out.

I got to daycare and checked it out, and honestly it didn't seem that bad to me... I mean it was sort of like if a human broke her nail a little too short, but it was bleeding and sensitive to the touch.  She would squeal if I touched it, so I packed her into the car and we headed to the vet for the second time in a week.

She was actually super well behaved at the vet, which never happens.  In the lobby she's usually having a nuclear meltdown, but for some reason (maybe because she exercised all day) she really just sat and hung out and whined a little here and there but was a 2 on the 1-10 scale of meltdowns.  I've never seen her so calm at the vet before, or in public even.  She did seem a little worried, like she knew something unfun was about to happen.  They weighed her (they said she is now 50 lbs) and they took her into the exam room.  Like they literally took her away from me because when I'm in the room she turns into a whimpering baby who won't come out from under the chairs or behind me, but apparently when they take her into another room she's much braver.  The vet said that she ripped off 80% of the nail, so actually the hard part was done for them and they had to trim the remaining part, and then they cleaned it.  It's just an open hole of a wound right now, so they disinfected it and wrapped it up.  They said the pink bandage needs to stay there for 3 days while it heals so nothing gets in there.  Mia is thrilled by this...

I'm surprised that it's been almost 24 hours and she hasn't tried to bite it off yet.  They told me to use the cone but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, the thing just makes her so miserable.  We're trying to just watch her with it and if she tries to take it off, then the cone will come out.

Apparently this is something that happens all the time in bigger dogs that are either really active outside, or play really crazy, or just move around a lot.  The little claw just gets caught on stuff and is easily broken or ripped out - this is good to know because Mia plays all sorts of crazy.