Dew Claw

[SkySoaringMagpie]

Looking for opinions:

A week and a half ago one of our dogs could not bear any weight on one of his front paws. Because we live on a property that is full of evil grass seeds we assumed he had a grass seed and took him into the vet. The vet could not find anything and sent him home with instructions to for us to return if he did not get better. He did slowly get better and by about day 5 could start to bear weight on it again. So we thought nothing of it.

Tonight when OH was brushing him, we realised that he's now missing the dew claw on that leg. His breeder does not remove declaws, so we think it's likely that the limp was caused by him ripping the dew claw out. We are feeling somewhat sheepish that we didn't pick that up ourselves, but also irritated that the vet didn't notice when we took him in to be examined. The dewclaws on his other legs are intact. My initial reaction was to phone up tomorrow and ask for the consult fee to be refunded. Is this fair?

[puggy_puggy]

What sort of dog? I have heard of vets missing that dew claws were half ripped off etc and the cause of the pain in long haired dogs.

Probably a good idea to ring up the clinic to tell them you have found the problem. Doubt that they would refund the consult they may however give you a consult for free if you think he needs some antibiotics prescribed.

[Luke W]

Is this fair?

Nope.

For many reasons.

I don't think it's reasonable to expect a refund because the vet failed to make a correct diagnosis. If there was no noticeable blood and no noticeable site specific reaction from the dog, I don't think you can blame the vet. Even if there was, I still think it's possible to miss something like this, especially if you're looking for something else.

You saw the vet and was given advice. You got what you paid for.

Do you even know for sure that's why the dog was limping?

BTW - I'm not a vet.

Edited December 1, 2008 by Luke W

[huski]

I agree Luke W - I would assume as a vet he would see many dogs with no dew claws and unless there was obvious signs it had been ripped out, how would he have known?

Daisy had her dew claws removed as a pup, but one has since grown back - so she has one partial dew claw and one that is gone.

[SkySoaringMagpie]

OK,

Can always rely on DOL for a reality check ;)

Will let the vet know what we found, but will not get shirty about it

[Rappie]

Sounds like a good plan.

Also keep in mind that what you saw may not have been how things were when the vet examined the dog. I have seem some cases where a the nail bed has been traumatised by a nail catching on something, but it hasn't been pulled off but they are very painful. A week or two later once the nail has grown a bit further, the now loose nail comes off a lot more easily.