After a walk, it was discovered that the dog was licking its paw or limping. You need to carefully examine the paw and the pads on it. If part of the claw is missing and the wound is bleeding, then the damage is quite serious and requires treatment.
It happens that it is not possible to get an appointment with a veterinarian. In this case, you need to treat and heal the wound yourself. The fact is that there is a blood vessel in the claw, and the longer the claw, the larger this vessel is in it. Without treatment of a torn claw, necrosis of the tissue of the paw pad and the penetration of various infections through the wound are possible in the future.
An incorrectly grown claw causes discomfort to the pet, and the dog can damage it again. First of all, the affected claw is cut to the so-called claw bed. If other claws are long and touch the wound, they should also be trimmed. To do this, you need to arm yourself with a special nail clipper for dogs. They vary in size.
A nail clipper will allow you to remove the claw without damaging the living part. In some cases, the entire claw is removed, but this is only done by veterinarians after examination and local anesthesia. Potassium permanganate powder will help stop bleeding. A few grains of dry powder are applied to a cotton pad or swab and carefully cauterized the area where there is a lot of bleeding. Before doing this, be sure to wash the damaged area with peroxide or chlorhexidine. Apply a generous layer of antiseptic ointment, levomekol will do.
You should not treat with products that form a film - the wound must “breathe”, this way the damaged tissue will be renewed faster, otherwise a purulent process may occur under the film.
To prevent the dog from licking the ointment and touching the wound, a thick sock is put on the paw and tied with an elastic bandage on top. If the dog tries to take off the sock, then the ends of the bandage are tied to the collar across the back.
The wound is treated every day, applying peroxide and ointment to the open wound until it heals. In case of an extensive wound and swelling of the paw, a course of treatment with antibiotics is carried out. You can speed up the growth of the claw with the help of vitamins containing calcium and phosphorus.
Vitamins are added to food in accordance with the dosage indicated in the instructions. It is also worth reducing the intensity of your walks and avoiding places where dirt, chemicals, etc. can get on your dog’s paws.
Healing takes a long time. The claw grows from two to several months. To prevent such injuries, dogs have their nails trimmed regularly. Use a nail clipper to remove part of the claw, and then simply file it with a regular paper nail file.
One of the elements proper care It is important to look after your pet frequently for diseases or various injuries.
Reference! Grooming is caring, cleansing procedures that are carried out by both animals and humans.
Prevention also includes timely inspection of paws after walks. for damage.
If damage still exists, it should be immediately treated with an antibacterial solution.
Injuries
If suddenly your dog suddenly begins to limp or bend its paw under itself, then most likely it has suffered a nail injury. Often the dog clings to an object with its claw and, sharply trying to break away, injures it. If the situation is left untreated, the animal may become infected with the wound, not to mention intolerable pain.
Broken Claw
Dogs break their nails quite often.
If this happens to your pet, examine the claw, whether it is bleeding or not, whether it is broken partially or at the root.
And then, based on a certain algorithm of actions, begin treatment.
Under the root
The wound should be washed with potassium permanganate or peroxide. Then apply an antiseptic bandage to the paw. If the damage is very serious, contact your veterinarian.
Partially
Rinse the wound with peroxide or potassium permanganate, then treat the wound. Then carefully trim the broken claw. At the end of the procedure, bandage the wound using an antiseptic, healing ointment (the bandage should be changed several times a day).
Every owner must take care of his pet and provide constant care for it. Check your animal regularly for various injuries. Remember that you are responsible for your dog's life.
Claws are a fairly important part of a dog’s body. They protect the paw pads, help hold objects and protect themselves, and provide traction. Therefore, among such injuries as paws, broken claws are the most common.
And the owner needs to know well what to do in a situation where the dog breaks a claw.
You can notice a dog's broken claw by the fact that the dog suddenly limps. She may also lick her paw and refuse to run. If you notice this behavior, you need to carefully examine your dog's paws. If a torn or broken claw is noticed, you need to assess the extent of the damage.
Prevention of a broken claw
To prevent your dog's nails from getting injured, they need to be trimmed regularly. This can be done independently using special scissors or in a grooming salon during a haircut or trimming. You can also regularly walk your dog on asphalt or paving stones so that its nails are worn down and there is less reason for them to be injured.
Dog owners know that their pets' nails need to be kept in order and trimmed regularly, but no one is immune from troubles, as well as from injuries. Removing a dog's claw is a full-fledged operation that is performed sterilely under full anesthesia and only for medical reasons.
Dog declawing is not practiced to satisfy requests for the convenience of owners or the safety of other animals. The structure of a dog's paw is such that when walking, running and maneuvering, the claws act as additional support. Simply put, without claws, the animal will either not run or will fall.
Dogs use their claws to dig the soil, this is especially pronounced in burrowing and hunting breeds. Claws are a tool of protection in a fight, which is also important. From the owner's point of view, dog claws are the cause of scratches and torn bags. But if you love a dog, then you need to educate it, or accept the inconvenience.
Declawing is carried out only for medical reasons:
- Injuries– while playing or on a walk, the dog can tear a claw. Having received such an injury, the pet experiences severe pain and loses a lot of blood. Depending on the extent of the lesion, the claw may be completely or partially removed.
- Inflammation– splinters, cuts and other injuries can lead to suppuration in the pad or the finger itself. The difficulty is that the dog’s paws are constantly moving and do not heal well. If the infection is ignored, it spreads into the deep tissues. Depending on the depth and extent of the inflammation, the dog's claw or toe will be removed.
- Frostbite and burns– the main danger of such injuries is the cessation of blood circulation in the tissues. After receiving frostbite or a burn, literally in a matter of hours, the tissues die (necrotic process). The threat is sepsis, that is, blood infection that spreads pathogenic cells throughout the body and organs. Typically, patients with such injuries are observed for 24 hours; if intoxication or progression of necrosis is observed, the entire affected area is cut off.
- Gangrene– without going into details, the process is similar to necrosis, which is actively progressing. By the way, gangrene can occur as a consequence of frostbite.
- Incorrect growth claws and fused claws.
- Ingrown claws.
At osteosarcoma and other oncological processes, bone delamination occurs. Quite often the process begins in the fingers. The dog is in pain, it spares its paws, runs less, and at this time the claws grow back. If the owner does not notice the deviation in time, sooner or later, the pet will tear off the claw. Having arrived at the doctor with an injury, the dog is sent for an x-ray (according to the protocol). The picture shows that the bones are stratified, that is, an oncological process is underway. If you start treatment at this stage (there are no metastases yet), that is, cut off the finger and claw and carry out radiation therapy, there is a high chance of stopping the development of oncology.
Reasons for wolf claw removal
Some dogs, including purebred ones, have a fifth toe with a claw on their hind and front paws. This feature is considered vestigial, that is, inherited from wild ancestors and is called "dewclaw" or "wolf claw".
For many years in a row, dewclaws have been removed from almost all show dogs. For some native breeds, they are acceptable and even desirable, but they are a minority.
Recently, studies were conducted that included several large control groups of tetrapods. Based on the results of observations, it turned out that most dogs with dewclaws actively use them while chewing bones and playing. Today, the removal of dewclaws is not prohibited, although it is condemned in developed countries. legal system. According to the standard of most breeds, dewclaws must be removed.
Methodology
The method of performing the operation depends on the goals set. In any case, declawing surgery is a complex and painstaking process that requires:
- Compliance with septic and antiseptic rules.
- The doctor's experience.
- Availability of equipment, preferably a special cautery, which cauterizes the vessels during dissection.
- Preliminary examination of the dog for heart, kidney and liver diseases. At a minimum, a general blood test is taken and an examination is carried out.
- Full anesthesia, since the procedure is very painful, requires precision from the surgeon and immobility from the patient.
A dog that picks a nail will not necessarily lose it completely. The doctor’s task is to stop the bleeding, cauterize all the vessels, and preserve the claw and finger as much as possible. If everything goes well, the tailed one will need rehabilitation and care, but a new claw will then grow. The recovery process is quite long, but after the wounds heal, the dog does not experience much discomfort.
In other cases, when it comes to saving a limb or the life of an animal, the claw is removed forever. If the damage affects the finger, it will also be amputated. It is unwise to hesitate and take risks in such situations, since the remaining infection may rise higher and then we will talk about amputation of a hand or limb.
Post-operative care
The operation to remove a claw is very painful and requires long-term rehabilitation. At the junction of the claw and finger, there are a large number of nerve bundles. To alleviate the condition, the animal is constantly administered painkillers, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics.
A tight bandage is applied to the paw from which the claw has been removed., which changes once every 1–2 days. During dressing, the wound is disinfected and lubricated with healing preparations.
When the incision site is initially scarred, the bandage is removed, but putting a surgical collar on a dog. At this stage, the owner must pay special attention, since there is a high risk of injury. Follow-up treatment is carried out after each walk. The collar continues to be worn until the wound is completely healed.
Often, with an unsuccessful jump, too hard crust or when moving on a hard, uneven surface, the dog can break (tear off) a claw. The initial problem is that the owner does not spend enough time on the dog's manicure and neglects regular nail trimming.
What should you do if your dog breaks a nail or tears it off completely? Veterinarians from the DobroVet EC will tell you about the sequence of activities and the most common mistakes made by breeders.
Prerequisites for injury
If you schematically imagine a dog's claw, it is, in fact, no different from human nails. “Meat” is represented by pulp, that is, a living piece of flesh with blood vessels passing through it. The claw itself is a hard derivative of the skin, and constantly growing.
Most owners believe that there is no need to trim them on their dogs; they wear off on their own on the asphalt. Many of them skimp on this responsibility and find what they consider “weighty” excuses:
- Wasting money on visiting a veterinarian.
- Dogs behave inappropriately when trimmed.
- No time, etc.
As a result, in pets, especially those who spend most of their lives in soft sofas, the claws grow to incredible lengths, gradually curl and grow into the paw pads, injuring them and causing suppuration.
In older animals, they begin to peel off, become more fragile, matte, with “burrs” that cling to any surface and with a sharp movement of the paw, the claws simply break or are completely torn off at the root.
Fact! The most dangerous injury is when a dog breaks a claw at the root. As a result, the pulp is exposed, a blood vessel is damaged, and bleeding occurs.
What can be observed as a result of injury?
There are a lot of options for claw injury, but in the end you can see the following:
- A fracture in the cutting area, when there is space left to the pulp and the blood vessel is not injured.
- Damage in the area where the pulp passes.
- The claw breaks at the root.
The first case is the easiest option for the dog owner, just cut off a piece of the nail and smooth the edges with a nail file.
The other two options require the presence of a veterinarian. The danger of independent manipulation is that blood vessels pass through the pulp and any injuries in the finger area turn out to be very bloody. The breeder will not always be able to stop the bleeding himself.
The claw is broken in the middle
Outwardly, this looks like a violation of the integrity of the claw plate; fragments or sharp edges injure the pulp, causing severe pain and bleeding. The dog instinctively presses its paw, tries to lick the sore spot, and snaps when trying to examine it.
It is necessary to remove the damaged area, but if the owner does not have successful experience with such injuries, it is better to call a veterinarian at home or take the dog to a veterinary clinic. If you cut in the fracture zone “at random”, then in 100% of cases there will be severe bleeding, which is very difficult to stop.
The dog broke a claw at the root
What to do in this case? It is necessary to completely remove the fragment, but it is difficult to do this on your own, since the pet tries in every possible way to hide its paw due to severe pain. If the claw falls off on its own, a bleeding wound appears in its place. 
If the owner does not react in a timely manner, the pet begins to lick the injury site, the edges of the wound move apart, and an extensive injury occurs at the site of a minor injury.
The wound cannot heal, since the dog constantly injures the surface with its tongue, preventing the formation of a scab. In particularly difficult cases, it is necessary to remove the entire phalanx of the finger and apply sutures.
First aid for a dog
The simplest thing is to remove a properly broken claw from a dog; if there is no bleeding, no further manipulations will be required. In the future, the owner must regularly inspect the pet’s paws and give it a manicure in a timely manner, not forgetting about the fifth toe.
If there is a complex fracture and bleeding, you need to stop the bleeding by applying a tampon with hydrogen peroxide to the wound.
What to do after visiting a doctor?
The main thing that the owner must do is to prevent the removal of the bandage if it turns out to be necessary. This is quite difficult to do, since the dog is constantly trying to remove the bandages and lick the wound. 
24-hour control is practically impossible; some particularly cunning pets find secluded places so that the owner does not prevent them from removing the bandages and enthusiastically licking the wound clean, despite the fact that the doctor has treated it with an antiseptic and wound-healing ointment.
In this case, only a protective collar will help; it will partially block access to the wound surface and allow it to heal.
To ensure that the question never arises of what to do if a dog breaks a nail, it is important to trim them in a timely manner with special nail clippers (claw clippers) for trimming nails. You can do this yourself if you understand the main principle of pruning - carefully, without damaging the body of the claw and the blood vessel.