All my dogs over the years have had front dew claws without a problem but now one of my girls keeps damaging hers. She is due to be spayed fairly soon so am thinking of asking the vet to remove the dewclaws at the same time.
Problem is I am a bit squeamish about it and I know that this will mean amputating the toe. Will it affect her much? Do dogs get over this  op OK. She does agility and I don't want to make this harder for her but I hate it when she damages her dew claws. Although it doesn't seem to bother her very much. What upsets her is that I stop throwing the ball when she has hurt them

In slightly different circumstances one of my dogs had both her front dew claws removed.  One because it looked damaged and the other because she was being treated for an immune condition 6 months later and the dew claw/toe was needed for tests.  Both times she recovered fully with absolutely no problems, it was a few years ago now so I can't remember the recovery period but she was ok.

We keep our dew claws extremely short, (so short they are barely seen), if they were ultra short do you think she could still damage them?

Thats reassuring. I know I am probably worrying too much about it but would hate to put her through pain unnecessarily.

the one she damaged this morning is not  quite that short but definitely not very long. I think she must catch them as she is skidding round to catch the ball. She goes all out for it. She lives for her ball though so I don't want to stop playing with her, but if she uses her dewclaws for traction  while playing how will removing them affect  her.

All of our Boxers' dewclaws were removed at a few days old and all managed to play with a tennis ball, football etc. I suppose she would just get used to not having them and just use her legs and feet to hold/stop the ball.  Before you decide about getting them removed I would try filing/cutting/dremelling or whatever method you use to get them ultra short to see if it makes a difference.

My 6 year old bitch had them removed a couple of years ago, she kept ripping the them and was quite distressed by it all.
She actually recovered quite quickly from the op, my male lab has his and are not a problem.

well they are both very short now as one hasn't grown back much since last time she broke it and the other one has just come off. Will see how she gets on and speak to the  vet about it next time I go. Thanks

My girl had rear dew claws as a puppy, well they were more like floppy skin with nails on, not like a proper toe (if you know what I mean). I was so concerned about her catching them (due to their flopiness) that I had them removed at the same time as she was spayed. She recovered fine, but it took longer for the dew claw "wounds" to heal than the spay site. Probably because it was a nightmare trying to keep dressings dry, luckily our dog walker was the vet nurse, so she used to come in daily and change them foc.

T

My last dog (lab cross) had his front & rear dew claws removed at the same time of his castration, at about 6yrs old.

He was forever catching his front & rear dew-claws in things and he was very vocal about it,  making blood-curdling screams He never actually tore one, but it was obviously a mojor issue for him when he got one caught on somthing.

He healed up very fast with no problems atall :)

The only effect the dew-claw removal had from my dog was a good effect as he never had to face getting them stuck on somthing again :)

Our elder dog had his removed soon after birth but our bitch has hers (she's nearly 3).  I have have enquired about their removal with the vet, but he advised against it because it is extremely painful and takes a while to heal.  I told him I was worried that if she caught them on things that would also be painful.  He said he would only remove them if they became damaged.

Anyway, since then I have trimmed them, and on one occasion, Maisie has bitten a chunk off herself!