The American Beagler Forum

How do you go about removing a pups declaws. Clip them off as close to the skin as possible at around 2 days old?

Yep thats the way I do it. Might want to keep a little tube of EMT gel handy to some pups only bleed a drop or two and some will bleed more than a few.

This is my method. Take a pair of curved forceps. Lay the puppy in your lap or have someone hold it and get the curved part of the forcep right under the dewclaw then crush right under it. The nail will sort of pop up out of the toe. Hold the forceps closed for 15 seconds and scrape the dewclaw off then release. Should be very little blood if any. I do all mine at 4 or 5 days rather than 2 but, it shouldn't really matter. I put them right back to nursing. No problems whatsoever. No infections and I use nothing to medicate.

Leah

Dew claws should be removed from 3 to 5 days. Use hemostats as they will crush the blood vessels and cause less bleeding. Lock the hemostats as close to the paw as possible, take you finger nail and rake the claw off. This will also cause less bleeding as a clean cut would such as you would get with nail clippers as I have heard other folks use. I soak the hemostats in alcohol before I use them. I have super glue on hand in case there is alot of bleeding. Pups do fine, usually no bleeding, and go right back to the mom. I only remove the back dew claws if the pup has them but I don't show my hounds just run rabbits. Most show folks will remove the front claws as well.

I have specialist in K9 first aid. I can tell you first hand how nasty it can be when an adult dog gets a dewclaw ripped in the field. They bleed a lot and many of them need stitched. Much easier and simpler to take them off at a few days old. I recommend it highly to anybody that breeds any kind of hunting or service dogs.

These will be hunting dogs, anyone else care to share their thoughts on whether to remove just the rear or all four?

Removing the dew claws is a piece of cake as already been discussed. On the 3rd day I remove all, front and back if they have them. It makes the dog look better when being shown on the bench. I like dogs with nice, straight legs.

BJK wrote:Removing the dew claws is a piece of cake as already been discussed. On the 3rd day I remove all, front and back if they have them. It makes the dog look better when being shown on the bench. I like dogs with nice, straight legs.

I totally agree. I've never had rear dews on any of mine but, I take the front ones off. They are of no use anyway and if they get torn up you have a big vet bill.

Leah

I used the biggest toe nail clipper I could find. It worked very well. I dowsed it with rubbing Alcohol then I snipped away. I only removed the back. The front one's looked to thick. Didn't want to mess with them. They were two day's old.

whats a hemostat?

It is curved on the end so you can get real close to the paw and where the fingers go you can squeeze and it will lock tight so it will crush the blood vessels. All you have to do then is scrap the claw off. I usually leave em on a few more seconds as to make sure the blood flow is cut down.

I checked youtube and there is no video for removing dews but, there is for docking tails. Next litter I'll make a little "how to" on removing dewclaws.

Leah

Now THAT is thinking!!

Hey Nick, when you have your litter, I will come over and help you out... just give me a call..

Emery

FrancoMo1678 wrote:whats a hemostat?

Yeah like you didn't know that LOL J/K
Ronny