Anyone else's dog pull out their dew claw by accident? How long does it take to heal?

A little history...
My dog has been really funny about climbing the stairs over the last few months. He has no issues with the carpeted stairs, patio stairs..just the wood flooring because it looks shiney. He gets all worried and then puts his claws out and then freezes. Well, this past week I was proceeding to get him to come up the stairs so i could let him outside and halfway up the stairs he decided to stop moving forward. Before i could even get to him he had slid/fallen down the four steps he had already gone up. When i went to check on him there was blood EVERYWHERE! I freaked out because i didn't know where all the blood was coming from. On closer inspection i found what looked like his full dew claw on the stairway and the blood was just gushing out of the spot. Anyhow I got the problem under control, applied stypic powder, pressure and a guaze and called the vet. She said, no need to bring him in as i had already done everything she would do in this case. So it's been five days and our dog seems fine. In fact the day that it happened he was running aound, no limping etc.. I kept the gauze on the first night and removed it the next day. The bleeding had stopped.
He was licking it alot so i decided to wrap it the next two days and apply some antibiotic cream, but i thought it was looking worse. So yesterday i decided to leave it unwrapped and let my dog tend to it. I've been soaking the area in warm water too. The area looks a bit better but the whole area around the dew claw is very red and he has licked off alot of the fur around it. My DH says leave it be..I,being the worry wart, think we should take him in to have it checked out for fear it could be infected. It's not oozing or causing him pain as far as i can see..just really red, looks slightly swollen (but i figure who wouldn't have a swollen finger if they pulled out their nail in that manner)...opinions?

I feel bad 'bout the whole thing but even if i did make it to the stairs on time i don't think i could've lifted his 100lb body anyhow. We have now put strips of carpeting on the stairs..something i didn't want to do but we don't want him to fall again..and now he's JUST fine with climbing the stairs. I've watched the dog whisper on the weekend and there was an episode about that very thing..he says you have to snap the dog out of their phobia..kinda hard to do when they are hanging on for dear life on the stairway. I love my dog but man is he causing me stress lately.


So has your dog had this type of injury? If yes, what was your experience?

Suzanne

Here's a picture of my doggie in calmer times.

What a sweet picture. I had a dog that split his dew claw up the middle, exposing the flesh underneath. As you mentioned, the main thing to watch for is infection. If it isn't weeping or oozing, causing pain or forcing him to favour that leg, then it's probably OK to just keep an eye on it. It takes a fair bit of time for the exposed skin to toughen up. It might be a good idea to discourage excessive licking if you can - maybe a new toy or a bone?

Good luck!

Cheryl

Definitely keep him from licking it! If it is swollen it may be worth taking him in sooner than later - it's less exprensive to deal with an infection that is just starting than to deal with an abcess.
You can check with your vet about bitter cream or spray to put around the area to keep him from licking it. We used to be able to get "Varition Cream" which was great because it had some anti-biotic properties as well as the fact the dogs hated the taste. It is no longer available in Canada but maybe your vet can still get it.

Kaat, that's kinda how i feel about the situation..it's easier to fix something small than something big. I will call the vet and ask about the spray. It did cross my mind but i didn't want to put anything on it just in case it would irritate the area. I know when i was initally cleaning the area with peroxide he pulled back a bit so i think that was irritating to the area. That's why i've been doing just the soaks..it cleans it and it's soothing to the area(i would think)..plus he LOVES all the attention when i soak his paw..he just lays their so contently while i talk with him. He will lick my hands while i hold it in the water..so cute.. mommy and baby time.lol

My husband seems to think the dogs licking will keep it clean and free of infection. I try and discourage it everytime i see him doing it..he stops most of the time, but it's when i'm not home or in the room with him that i think he does it. My sister looked at it this afternoon and she thinks it doesn't necesarily look infected either,,just red. I'll keep an eye on it.
Thanks

Oh Sweet, he is a handsome boy! What a baby face he has.

My boy got scratched on his leg pretty bad playing outside, bleeding slightly and a bruise. I tend to overreact when it comes to my kids, I mean dogs, so I thought maybe I should run him to the vet to take a look. My parents said to leave it be, I wiped it with warm water but my boy Sammy cleaned it himself and did not seem to be in any pain. The dew claw is a little bit more invasive, for lack of a better word. I would just watch it, maybe a trip to the vet in a day or two if it seems to be the same.

Ok, first stop soaking it, it is not good for a wound. You can rinse it lightly but don't soak it. Get some triple antibiotic ointment put it on liberally and reapply his bandage. If there is blood dried you can clean it with peroxide. I recommend you get a sprayer for your peroxide bottle and just spray it on and dab it off then apply the ointment and bandage. It will be red if he keeps licking. Contrary to what your husband thinks it really isn't good for him to lick it. He will be fine, this is why I always removed dew claws on my pups.

If it starts oozing or looking worse then you should take him for sure.

Thanks everyone for your advise. How long should i keep putting the triple antibiotic on for? When i was putting it on and wrapping the paw for the couple days i thought it was looking worse..that's why i was airing it out.
Thankfully he doesn't seem phased by any of it, walking moving about as usual.

Your dog looks like such a sweet baby.

-Debbie B.

Thank you so much for all the input. I took a few photos of the boo boo today so you can see it. Plus a couple cute pics of Titan as he slept by the fireplace..such a cute baby.

He really isn't licking the area as far as i know. At least i haven't caught him doing it. He's acting like nothing happened. The redness and slight hair loss around the dew claw is from a few days back when he was still licking it.

He is sooo adorable! It looks fine, the redness around it is from him licking, but it looks like it's doing good to me. The thing about goldens and labs is that they have such a high threshold for pain sometimes they dont' complain. I mean how could they jump into icy water to retrieve those ducks if they were sensitive? They couldn't. Your sweetie is sooo sweet. I love to watch dogs sleeping.

Sweet, he has such a cute face...I love that face, I have two labs and my yellows looks just like your Titans except with less hair! People think I have two ponies, to me they are babies, I pick my female up and carry her around. And both "ponies" sleep on my bed!

I hope Titan's paw heals quickly, even though he seems content and pain free!

Thanks erica. :0)

People sometimes think Titan is a lab since we keep his hair really short and shave him in warmer months. I love labs too..so cute..probably because they look so similar to goldens.lol It's funny how quickly you adjust to the size of this breed of dog. When we first got him he was 2yrs old so fully grown and i wasn't used to a large dog in the house. He did feel like a horse to me. My son was scared of him too since he was so big.lol He didn't want to go anywhere in the house without me because Titan was as tall as him.lol. Now we don't even notice him here.lol He is a wonderful dog, we couldn't have asked for a better addition to the family.:0)

I would still take him to the vet just to be safe.