Key facts at a glance
- In the event of a claw injury, any bleeding that may be present must first be stopped and the claw examined.
- For first aid, dog owners can disinfect the wound themselves and bandage their four-legged friend’s paws.
- If the torn claw is bleeding or has not just broken off, a veterinarian should be consulted in any case
- Depending on the severity of the injury and the pain associated with it, a visit to the veterinary emergency service may be advisable.
A torn claw is no reason to panic
If your dog sustains a claw injury, it is first and foremost important that you remain calm and do not panic. This also applies if the claw is bleeding heavily and your four-legged friend is obviously in pain.
Keep in mind that your dog will orientate itself towards you and may already be nervous because of its torn claw. If you react in a panic yourself, you only increase his nervousness and make it more difficult to provide first aid to the injury.
Stop bleeding and examine claw
In order to get an idea of the condition of the torn claw, you must of course examine it more closely. If your four-legged friend is bleeding, you should first stop the bleeding as much as possible with the help of a pressure bandage, clean the injury and ideally also disinfect it.
Next, you can take a closer look at the claw injury and check how badly the claw is damaged and if there are any other parts of the paw that are affected by the injury.
Connect claw injury
When you have cleaned the wound and, if necessary, trimmed the hair on the affected paw a little, you can bandage the injury. For this purpose, first apply a disinfecting ointment and place a sterile dressing on the wound of the four-legged friend.
Now you can connect your dog. The bandage should be wrapped and fixed around the entire paw including the thumb claw. Make sure that the bandage does not exert too much pressure so that the blood circulation is not impaired. It is also important that you copy every space between the toes, including the area under the thumb claw. To do this, you can tear off pieces of bandage cotton and use them. Do not pad, press your toes together and injuries may occur.
When a claw injury is a case for the vet
If the claw has simply broken off and your four-legged friend is neither bleeding nor in pain, veterinary care is usually not necessary.
However, if your dog’s torn claw is bleeding profusely, a visit to the vet is definitely advisable. This also applies if it is split or broken and maybe even the nail bed has been affected or the toes are affected by the injury.
If your four-legged friend sustained the claw injury in the evening or at the weekend and you were able to treat the wound without any problems, it is usually sufficient to contact the veterinarian the next day or after the weekend.
If you are unable to stop the bleeding or find that your dog is in severe pain, an emergency visit may be advisable. If your vet’s office offers emergency service, call them. Alternatively, you can of course also contact a veterinary clinic, which is usually staffed around the clock.
Torn claw – our conclusion
If in doubt, it is of course always a good idea to have minor injuries such as torn claws examined by a veterinarian. After all, only a veterinarian can reliably say whether further treatment measures need to be taken.
In addition to a professionally applied bandage, the veterinarian can prescribe a suitable painkiller and antibiotics for your four-legged friend if necessary, thus ensuring that there are no inflammations and infections on the paw.