Trixie Lost A Claw...

[Guest BlueCrab]

We woke up Monday morning in our NY house - which Trixie things is just a big gymnasium - to hear her barrel down the stairs as usual and run a lap around the downstairs. She really does leap off the steps and then runs like a mad woman in a loop thru all the downstairs rooms, so there is a lot of rambunctiousness. No "ouchy" noises. But shortly thereafter, lots of blood - everywhere.

 

Got her to lay down for inspection and we found her outside claw on the left front was gone. We figured she'd snapped it off or caught it in the berber carpet and yanked it off somehow. We stopped the bleeding, I did a quick search of GT on my hand-held and found enough info to know that it probably wasn't the end of the world if we just kept it clean. She didn't seem at all concerned or ouchy about it, but I did catch her later licking it and told her to stop, which she did. She romped around this morning like nothing happened.

 

I later found the claw lying on the carpet and inspected it closely. There aren't any signs of trauma. It's not broken or snapped - it appears to be a clean removal, almost like it just slipped off. Yuck. It wasn't stuck in the carpet like she'd snagged it and pulled it out - it was cleanly lying on top of the carpet.

 

So I know some greys have SLO and that it involved loss of their claws, but know nothing about it. How do I make a determination one way or the other that it was traumatic removal versus something like SLO - and is there any other cause that I may be missing?

[Guest zombrie]

I don't know much about SLO

But Minerva did the same exact thing when I first got her. She was running in the yard, and like you experienced, there were no screams, yelps or limping, just blood everywhere. Just cleanly ripped off. It's been about 4 months and it has almost completely grown back.

[3greytjoys]

This link may help re: SLO (includes photos):

http://www.grassmere-animal-hospital.com/SLO.htm

 

Hopefully, others with personal SLO experience will chime in too.

 

One of our hounds yanked off most of his dew claw during a play outing (not SLO). Very painful with profuse bleeding. E-vet finished cutting it off deeply into the quick next to leg. Sent us home with antibiotics. It healed well and dew claw grew back fine, after many months. (Great lesson to ensure our cars are equipped with a pet first aid kit.)

 

He has lost toenails here and there but nothing too serious. I keep "Clotisol" (veterinary blood suspension agent) for these minor bleeding wounds. Available at www.entirelypets.com

[Guest BlueCrab]

Thanks for the feedback and the very useful link to Grassmere's info. I tried a couple methods to look up info on SLO, but kept coming up with "San Luis Obispo" which really didn't tell me anything acout dog feet! In all the years we've owned different dogs, this is the first time we've had someone lose a claw, so I was kind of stumped.

[brandimom]

It is symmetrical lupoid onchodystrophy. Try googling the whole three words and a lot of information will come up. Our gh has SLO. I have joined a SLO yahoo group which has been beneficial. If you are interested in the SLO group send me a pm.