toes

Ah, what could be cuter than puppy toes?

There is one day in the care of puppies that I just hate and yesterday was that day.  The horrible day when the rear dew claws are removed.

Vets are increasingly reluctant to remove these claws.  I have to say that I can't blame them - after all, "removing dew claws" is a polite way of saying "chopping off toes".  So it came to pass that with the Riemu litter, my new vet was one of those who would not do the procedure.  As it was, there was only one puppy with a rear dew claw - and she had it on only one paw.  So I took advice.  I spoke to other Lapphund breeders both in the UK and abroad.  There were several breeders who either didn't bother to have them removed or who were in the same position that I now found myself - their vets would not do it.  And they had never had problems.

In Scandinavia it is actually illegal for these claws to be removed - like tail docking here.  And that was the fact that finally made up my mind.  And, after all, the only thing worse than handing over these tiny puppies to have their unnecessary extra toes chopped off would be handing them over for this procedure to someone I didn't already know and trust.  So I made the decision not to have that single claw removed from that single puppy.

And what happened?

Before that puppy was 2 years old, she ripped that blasted dew claw and had to have it removed under general anesthetic.  And that is the reason for having them removed at 3 or 4 days old.

So this time, although my regular vet still won't remove them, I did find a vet I do know and trust who was willing to do so.  And so yesterday I took Mini with her single rear dew claw and Tuulen with his pair of rear dew claws, to have them removed.  Chopped off.  Aw, poor puppies!

Do I regret it?  Well, no.  Does it hurt them?  Frankly, yes.  So how can I not regret it?  Well, it takes a second to remove a claw, it only hurts them for that second, and then they have a lifetime of not risking the excruciating pain of injuring it as an adult. 

Below you can see the little mark where Mini's was removed.  That is followed by some random shots of irresistible puppy toes.  

mmmffnnngggh

In case you're wondering, that's about as much sense as I can muster verbally at the moment.  I did, however, get a good hour of sleep, thanks to Jay.  Thanks, Jay!

Today's mum-and-babies portrait.  If you're thinking Taika is looking tired, don't fret, she gets very heavy-lidded and dozy when the puppies are nursing.  She's actually quite bright-eyed now and you'd almost never know she had just had surgery.  Also, by necessity for the well-being of the newborns, the puppy room is hot, hot, hot and Finnish Lapphunds don't really do hot.



And so today the gang went off in their hot water bottle warmed box to have their hind dew claws removed.  In our first litter, only about half of the puppies had hind dew claws, of which one was Taika.  In the second litter, all nine had them.  In this litter, not only do all the puppies have them, one poor little mite - Grey Wolf - had double rear dewclaws!  What's in store for the next litter, all with doubles?

Double dewclaws are actually required by the breed standard in some breeds and they're not completely unheard of in Lapphunds - Neka's dad Pacsha had them, for example.  Grey Wolf says, "thanks a bunch, great-grandpa."  I did manage to get a quick photo of them but the paws are pretty small and the photo is pretty poor.  You can just about see the tiny white dot of the second one pointing towards the back of the leg.

Oh, I hate the dewclaw removal event.  It's horrible to take those gorgeous, fat little wigglers and inflict pain on them.  I'm a complete and utter coward and I hide in the waiting room with my fingers in my ears lest I hear a squawk while the vet and nurse assistant get on with it.

However, having seen what can happen to these claws on adult dogs if they're not removed as puppies, I do still think it's worth it.  I even wrote a little article about it for the SFLS newsletter.  Since then I have had another conversation with my vet about it and he had some interesting observations.  He has noticed that since tail docking was banned, many breeders who would in the past have had tails and dewclaws removed now no longer bother with the claws.  And he has seen a quite noticeable rise in the number of dew claw injuries. 

So, off they came and now I'll add bathing the wounds in warm, salty water to my list of daily chores.

Today's photos:  a selection illustrating some of the reasons puppies suddenly start to scream blue murder and you have to run to extricate them from some dire situation or other.

Dino leading Butterfly into the temptation that is the corner-under-the-guard-rail tiny spot to get wedged in.  You can see I've stuffed the very corner with newspaper in the hope of keeping them from getting too badly stuck.  The rails are designed to give the puppies an escape route when their dam accidentally squashes them against the sides, but with each litter I'm thinking more and more that they do more harm than good.  The puppies just can't seem to resist wrapping themselves around the rails.

 Usually at this age the puppies are too small to get wedged in, they just crawl underneath and are fine.  But that was before the Brown-tosaurus arrived.

I'm guessing this is Butterfly again getting herself the aforementioned well and truly stuck by using Dino for a leg up.  He fills up that space completely and in a couple of days I'll either have to get rid of the rails or grease the brown pup so we can get him out.

In every litter there seems to be one puppy who can't leave the water bowl alone.  I guess they like the cool metal, but there is always a puppy who likes to sleep with head in bowl.  Here is Dino practicing already.  Frankly, he's so big and strong I'm afraid he'll fall in and drown.  I never dreamed any of them would be able to reach the rim of the bowl at this age. 






Tomorrow a weight update, the Neka Superhero story and everything you ever wanted to know about puppy poo.  I bet you can't wait, can you?

day 3 - dew claw day

Here is the brood today. If you double-click the photo and look at the larger size, you can see a bunch of pink toes under Neka's front leg. And check out the yawn in the lower left corner!

Everyone's doing well today - including me. I had a pretty good night's sleep at last thanks to Super Jay taking Neka on most of the poo expeditions during the night. Pups are all growing fat, gaining approximately 10% of their body weight each day. That is, with the exception of one notable bitch (Cross) who looks like she's trying to double her weight by the end of the day. The Suck Monster lost a little weight his first day (my fault for not letting him feed when he wanted to!) but look how he's catching up today.

Weight Update (birth weights in parentheses):

Big Arrow (366) 430
Suck Monster (360) 455
Chew (320) 390
Little Arrow (365) 390

Spot (285) 340
Boots (297) 330
Cross (347) 417
Flash (300) 360
LMP (?) 340

They went in two separate trips to have their hind dew claws removed today. A terribly stressful time for me as I hate the thought of inflicting pain on them, even if it's only for a few moments. But when I think of how Lappies love to race pell-mell through the woods, and looking at the size of those dew claws, they're definitely better off than on. The only thing worse than having them removed now would be to damage one later.

Last litter about half the puppies were born without hind dew claws, or with only one. This time every single puppy had them on both paws. Poor little mites! I'll be bathing the wounds 2 or 3 times a day with salty water until they're fully healed.

The nice thing was that the vet said although he hated removing the dew claws, seeing the puppies had made his day.