Dew claw?

Don't know if it's called that in bunnies too, but I'm talking about the claw that's more on the underneath of a bunny's front paws.

Me & o/h trimmed Evo's nails last night - we can usually do it by o/h stroking Evo whilst he's relaxing on the floor & me going round clipping the claws, but I have real trouble doing the dew claw. Evo refuses to be picked up, so I can't turn him upside down to do it, and he gets really stressed when I try to get to the claw any other way. Short of a trip to the vets, does anyone have any advice?

Thanks,
Laura

No ideas rally you could try the vet and see if they could cut it for you, fortunatly non of my buns have ever needed there dew claws cut but we get the vet to do the dogs cause they don't like it either! Good luck

They aren't very long, so maybe they don't need cutting as often as 'normal' claws. :?

I was cutting my buns nails yesterday, don't normally touch the dewclaws and came across Speckle who's dew claw had actually curved round and was digging into her leg :shock: Needless to say I then got them all out and gave them a good cut...not all of them needed it but they all had started to curl round. So just keep an eye on it. :?

Hi Laura,
I've noticed dew claws don't grow so much as the others do as well so I normally do the dew claws on every 2nd trim.
I have many ways and means of trimming nails, just face it bunnies I am boss and they will be trimmed :twisted: :lol: Whats his reaction like when you do try to pick him up? If you do it regularly he will get better, honest! Remember Chloe her of 2 broken toes last year through me trying to pick her up??? Well now we have to have panacur nightly it means she has to be picked up nightly. She is getting a bit better about it (getting better at avoiding me though :shock: ) Well at least so far we have no broken toes anyway.
If you can get Evo picked up, hold on tightly to him and place him somewhere high up like maybe your kitchen worktop with a towel on it and ask OH to hold onto Evo tightly across his shoulders (not so tight he stops breathing though eh :lol: ) (you will have to twist yourself into weird positions to do this) if Evos head is facing you take paw furtherest away and lift to about his chest height and try to get the dew claw that way and then turn him so you can get the other side. Good thing about towel on worktop is that instead of lifting him to re-postion if OH keeps a good hold you can just swivel the towel about to turn him and then do the other nail.
You normally use the pet carrier trick to move him around rather than pick up don't you? You could try luring him into his pet carrier as usual and then unclipping the top and getting him that way so you don't have to pick him up from ground level. Have OH hold Evo so his back is against OH's chest/tummy and all legs are facing you and have OH sit on sofa or chair and then you can kneel infront of OH to get each paw in turn. Still have other ideas but they all unfortunately involve picking up bunny to a degree :?
Good luck and I hope that helps a little, hope you get em pesky dew claws.
Angela

Thumps said:

You normally use the pet carrier trick to move him around rather than pick up don't you? You could try luring him into his pet carrier as usual and then unclipping the top and getting him that way so you don't have to pick him up from ground level.

Click to expand...

That is a veeeeeerry good idea!