Hi, my dog has completely ripped out his claw leaving the exposed nailbed. Vet has given antibiotic jab and dressed it until we revisit Monday. Will the exposed nailbed toughen up or will it stay 'raw' looking until the new nail grows over it and how long will that take ? Does anyone have experience of a good dog boot that will withstand an active collie. Thanks in advance.

It'll harden up fairly quickly.  Raine has done two toenails in the past 6 months - one dew and one regular.  Both times she's removed the entire outer casing, and both times it's started to harden within a week.  Neither toenail has grown back as before, the dew especially is just a little nub now.

Likewise when my Soli had months of nail infections, the toenails she lost never grew much bigger than a nub when they recovered.

I've had loads of ripped nails, but only once ( the first time ) did the vet leave the exposed quick, it was such a nuisance, constantly getting knocked that ever since I've asked the vet to take the whole thing off. I've found that taking it off gets it to heal an awful lot quicker than waiting for a new nail to grow over the quick, and is a lot less painful.
Taking the whole nail off does run the risk of the nail not growing back at all, but that's never happened to me, although it did happen to my friends dog, he's never been bothered by having a missing nail though.

Same as Celli, I always take mine to the vet, and get the lot removed.

My little Gandor ripped his nail about 2 months ago but it didn't come right off.  It got infected which is how I noticed it was a little loose but the vet didn't remove anything, just gave antibiotics. 

Then 3 weeks ago, after launching himself off the kitchen step to reach his dinner in one leap he ripped the same nail, quick and all, all that was left was a deep hole at the end of his toe.  There was blood everywhere but nothing comes between a pug and his dinner so I can honestly say he didn't even notice!  This time there was no infection and it has dried over and now there is just a very small blob of quick sitting in the hole, no sign of any nail so not sure if it will grow back.

My bitch did this, it was ripped right down and the vet was due to take it off but overnight before the op, it came off by itself. All we had to do was keep it clean and it was amazing how quickly the nail bed hardened off.

She wasn't limping or anything, we just couldn't take her through mud or soil etc. She got over it extremely quickly.

Thanks for the replies.My vet wouldnt remove the exposed quick as she said it would bleed to much and need quarterising. Hopefully it will harden quickly and the new nail will be fine. I've got him some childrens socks to wear with a soft rubber boot over it once the dressing comes off.