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| Jessie and her fancy Pink Leg Warmers |
Jessie our puppy and my No1 garden helper had to be de-sexed and have her dew claws removed from her back legs.
A dew claw is the little extra toe/thumb up by the wrist (if dogs have a wrist) of a dog and it is on the inside of their leg with it's own little claw. Dogs use the front ones for holding on to things but the rear ones do not have much of a use and I believe they are left over from when dogs climbed trees for prey (but I am not 100% sure).
Dew Claw removal is a common procedure on dogs, although it may not always be necessary and you should follow your vets advice, and it is mainly done on the rear claws.
Dew claw removal is done for safety reasons not aesthetic ones as they are not that visible without looking for them. Generally they are removed in active dogs as they can often get caught, tear and cause bigger issues.
Not every breed of dog will have rear dew claws and out of a litter of pups not every pup may have them.
In Jessie's case her rear dew claws were not attached internally by any bone or ligament and kind of just flapped about if you touched them. This was all checked out by the vet when we got her and he advised having the rear ones removed when she was getting fixed as she was already under anesthetic and as an active dog they could cause her issues.
So she had her surgery and she was a sad sleepy puppy for the rest of that day but she looked oh so cute in her leg warmers.
The vets advice to us was as follows:
1. Keep her leg warmers (leg bandages) dry - as he said this we laughed, yet again it was raining, but we said we would try and keep her on the veranda.
2. Keep her calm- have you met my puppy??? I asked, the vet laughed. Calm is not a word she knows, however again we promised to do our best.
3. Leg warmers off in 5 days stitches out in 2 weeks.
Well the first night she was calm and did keep her leg warmers dry and did stay on the veranda, mission accomplished day 1.
The next morning we were down to 1 leg warmer the other having been pulled off, still on the veranda and still calm but not as calm as yesterday, day 2 mission not quite accomplished and back to the vet for a new leg warmer.
Day 3 Mission has gone to the dogs (quite literally) hypo puppy back in full force, has escaped from the veranda a number of times and can be seen running around the yard happily barking at cows in the paddock. That night back to one leg warmer, the other one this time, and still escaping the veranda so had to be tied up (at 11pm) so she would go to sleep.
Day 4 The lost leg warmer has not been replaced and the vet has said this is ok but still to try and keep it dry.
So Jessie is confined to the veranda each morning on a long lead so she can get to the garden to do her business but is not able to run about madly as she wants. We let her off in the afternoon once the grass has dried from the heavy dew we had this morning.
Fingers crossed the other leg warmer will last one more day then it will again be farewell to that 80's fashion icon.
Glad your leg warmers have come in handy! Hope she heals soon and keeps her legs dry! She just needs a bandanna now to keep her leg warmers company :)
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