Today is a story about a lobster claw dog. No, he didn’t eat a lobster claw, he was born with one!
It was 8am on a surgery day and we were in the midst of the covid-19 protocols. In reality, the veterinary hospital during covid-19 was a disaster. Sure, it was sometimes a relief for the staff to not have clients in the building. We could do our jobs efficiently and focus on the pets at hand without the overly concerned pet owner sticking their head out the door every time they thought they heard their pet cry (more often than not, it’s not your pet). I once had a client ask “what the hell are you doing to my dog?”, when in fact it was MY dog Sox in the back kennel singing the sorrowful song of her people because I was out of her line of sight. Covid-19 protocols meant curbside service. Which also meant runaway pets, mistaken identity, potential staff safety issues, and overly anxious and confused pet owners.
So here it’s 8am on a surgery day and one of the technicians walks through the front door with a very cute jack russell terrier mix. He had arrived that morning with an empty stomach and ready for a castration surgery. At the time, I was not the technician working directly with this dog. I was preparing anesthesia paperwork. It took me about 5 minutes of being in the same room with the dog to finally realize that his foot was not a normal dog foot. He had a lobster claw. This dog was born with a congenital defect called ectrodactyly.
What is Ectrodactyly?
Ectrodactyly is the condition when a dog is born with missing or split toes, creating that “lobster claw” effect. Sometimes these limbs are nonfunctional and small in size. This little jack russell mix was born with 3 normal paws and 1 mostly functional lobster claw. His limb was normal in size, but due to the condition of his paw, he did have a slight limp. Ectrodactyly can be painful and depending on the severity of the condition, surgery may be required to separate the toes. The exact cause of ectrodactyly is currently unknown as it is a fairly uncommon occurrence.
Back to the Story
This little guy was a champ through surgery. We placed his intravenous catheter in his “good” leg instead of his lobster claw leg because this condition can alter the normal structure of the limb. His recovery from surgery was smooth. Now he may experience some arthritis in other joints later in life due to the fact that he has a mild chronic limp, but otherwise he should do just fine. No treatment was required for his ectrodactyly limb as his toes were not fused, just missing.
Fast forward to the end of the day. It’s “go-home” time for our surgery patients and during covid-19 this meant we had to get owners checked-out over the phone and bring their pets directly to the car for them. Have you ever mistaken someone’s identity from across the parking lot? Well, this little guy’s owner did just that.
We happen to have two jack russell mixes in for surgery that day. I walked out the front door with jack russell number two. He was super excited to see his mom and was pulling at the end of the leash with his four perfectly normal feet. He just couldn’t wait to get to his mom, who excitedly called her dog from the car. Meanwhile, another gentleman started honking from his car. I glanced in his direction thinking “Stop that! Do you want to spook this dog?”. The man just kept honking. So I quickened my pace to get this dog to his mom and to safety faster. The man suddenly jumped out of his car and yelled “hey, that’s MY dog! That’s MY DOG!!!”
I stopped. Looked at the dog. Looked at the man. I had done the intake on this four normal-pawed jack russell that morning. I remembered what his mom looked like. This man was not her. All I could do was yell back across the parking lot “this is NOT your dog”. He didn’t believe me. He shouted back “Yes it is! You’re going to give away my dog!” I then apologized to the dog’s mom, picked up her dog and waved the normal paw at the man stating “this dog has four normal feet. It is not your dog.” The man was dumbfounded and quietly sat back down in his car. Shortly thereafter I also discharged his dog. He did apologize for causing a scene and for the mistaken identity, explaining that he was nervous about his dog’s surgery all day and thought I was giving away his dog.