Has anyone got experience of removing dew claws soon after pups are born.

You do it at about 3 days of age -and how easy or hard it is depends on the size of the claw and your equipment. Some can be huge with a lot of bone, others thin or mainly skin. I never remove front ones for a variety of reasons, but always get plenty of rear ones. I used to remove them all myself and some were really easy, but it's hard to find scissors sharp enough -you really need surgical ones. Also had a horrific one once where the toe was so big it took a lot to get off and we ended up with a hole in the skin showing the bone underneath. So I was very pleased when my new vet said he will remove dewclaws for FREE. He always offers to do both front and back but I have always declined the front ones. In fact I recently read an article saying agility dogs are more likely to get problems with arthritis later in life if they have front ones removed, and the majority of my pups go for agility.

>Has anyone got experience of removing dew claws soon after pups are born.

I've had them removed (by my vet) 24 hours after birth with no problems whatsoever.  The only time I ever waited until day 3 one of the pups cried like hell.  Totally shook me, it was horrible.  I stopped having them removed as I just couldn't get that cry out of my head.

My litter were docked and dew-clawed at 3 days, I personally wouldn't want to be having it done the first day, my Vet prefers to do them on day 2/3.

I never did this myself for starters.   Early days when I was breeding although I was out in Canada at the time, breeders in the UK used to take these off suggesting they got a neater front paw when this was done.   After the first couple of litters, and really because my respected vet out there hated doing this, even at days old when they really didn't feel anything other than not liking being restrained while it was done, I stopped.   Over there it wasn't done, as I remember in any case and gradually it was the same in the UK - especially with exporting hounds as most other countries didn't take them off.

I believe it really depends on the breed in terms of being necessary or not.   My Whippet had hers taken off in the first couple of days.   And for sure, a dewclaw injury later on, can be nasty.

My mum does ours & learnt docking & dew claw removal many many years ago. Our pups dew claws are removed at 2 days or 3 days maximum.
We altered our technique a few litters ago. We used to take mum away, do all the pups then put mum back. We now leave all pups with mum & do 1 pup at a time & it goes straight to the milk bar once returned. This seems much easier all round.

As a dog groomer - hate dew claws . So easy to catch them and they can spoil the lay of the trim AND they curl around so much when the person has failed to attend to or notice nails need doing.
Ours are removed but seeing more and more with them on since docking banned.

Thanks for all the responses.

>As a dog groomer - hate dew claws .

I loathe them on Bearded Collies.  Nothing but bloody trouble.  I have a bitch here that has ripped them so many times that she hates you going anywhere near them.

I used another vet to do the back dewclaws and she did them at 24 hours instead of 2-3 days. It was so much better! No blood or crying, snip job done, not even cauterised. I did them myself once under guidance, never again. My young GSD has them and they are awful, wiggling and wobbling all over the place. The breeder didn't bother with them UGH.

When my vet does rear dewclaws at 3 days, there is no blood, crying or anything else either and he does it amazingly quickly -and the rear dewclaws I get on my pups are the exact SAME size as the other toes. It's just like an extra toe rather than a dewclaw, so full sized toes with as much bones. I call them King Kong's dewclaws. Last had several removed in February.