Do the Right Thing

Dewclaw removal was something I did not do the last litter and was not sure I'd do this litter but ultimately decided I would. I'll be honest, I just like the cleaner leg. Deb, a friend who has Pulis, came over to lend a hand and although she'd never done such a thing she was a great assistant.




This was the first time I'd removed dewclaws without my parents there to supervise - eventually a girl's gotta fly on her own right? It was a simple process but I changed the technique from how my parents do it. They use a small pair of scissors but I couldn't find them at any store so I used the clamp method.




Hold out the puppy's leg, press the vein above the dewclaw to stop the blood flow, slip a Kelly clamp under it nice and tight to the leg and then quickly clamp it shut and lock it. The puppy squeaks a bit but it's a pretty swift process. Then I snipped the skin with sharp scissors and the nail fell off(apparently you are supposed to be able to just scrape the nail off with your fingers but whoever said that never tried this on a thick skinned Ridgeback puppy). Tapped some styptic powder onto the incision, waited a minute and released the clamp. There was very little blood and the whole litter went to sleep quickly in their warming box.



It took us some time to work out a good technique and a bit of trial and error but the over all result was a success. They are all scabbing over nicely and some of the snips are so clean there will be hardly any scarring.





There are arguments that the dewclaws are used by the dogs, that they are an all natural breed ... whatever, I prefer the look and I do it for my own edification. Although, if the second puppy we did had been the first he would have been the only! He was a squirmer and squirmers bleed!