Dew claws, they're not for wimps

Waiting for the vet.

I forgot to write about this when it happened. Earlier this Spring, Dieter tore his dew claw when he was playing fetch outside. He didn't yelp when he tore it, but I noticed him sitting in the grass instead of racing around per usual. He came over to me, put his paw on my arm, and I saw the blood. I quick called Lloyd.  Come quick--our son is injured!!! We put some peroxide on the wound and of course he licked it and of course that doesn't sit well on the tummy. Then we called the ER vet who said just watch him. He seemed fine and was trotting around and acting normal, so we went into monitoring mode.

Not supposed to stick
out like that

A couple days later, I noticed that the dew claw was sticking out at a funny angle, so we headed to our regular vet. The vet explained that what we were seeing was actually a little piece of bone. Ouch! They numbed him up and trimmed off the offending bony bit. He also got pain meds (NSAID) and antibiotics and they wrapped his foot. And of course he got the cone of shame. 

I look like a flower.

Naturally, Dieter's humans came up with all sorts of funny comments about the cone. Mom said he looked like he was either wearing a lampshade or was trying to look like a gramophone. And dad said when he was running around outside, he looked like a trotting cowbell.

The Vet said Dieter didn't have to wear his cone as long as we were around monitoring him. But that didn't work, as he immediately tried to pull the bandage off. So the cone had to come on again. One day he even figured out that if he bent the cone against the floor just right, he could reach his paw and, hey presto, yank the bandage off.

Gramophone?

He sure hated the cone. He bumped into the back door on his way in and would stand there until I freed the cone. He managed to play with his toys, but it was tough--you try picking something up off the ground with a lampshade on your head!

Finally, a week after the vet ordeal started, we freed Dieter from his cone. He licked the foot a little, but when I told him if he didn't stop I'd put his cone back on, he stopped right away.


Our shins and calves were happier too--he was running into us all the time. It might have been on purpose: I'll get even with you guys for making me look like a fool.

Months later, the claw is growing back and there haven't been any repeat performances. We're all glad about that.