Potential Health Problems of polydactyly in dogs
The biggest problem with this extra toe in dogs is the fact that it is not attached to the paw like the other four toes. In most dog breeds, it is only attached via the skin and muscles—no real bone.
Due to the absence of bone, the toe can get ripped off when a dog is moving, causing a lot of injuries.
Additionally, considering that the extra toe has less contact with the ground, it seldom gets filed down as the dog walks. This means that it can continue to grow and become more embedded into the skin, leading to limping, pain, and may even necessitate amputation of the leg.
However, these toes can be removed surgically before they become a problem or cause complications to your dog.
So, if your dog has front or rear polydactyly toes and having them removed surgically isn’t financially viable to you, consider checking regularly and trimming them down to healthy lengths to prevent potential injuries.
That said, polydactyly toes should only be removed if it is recommended by your vet.
Why Should You Care?
If your dog exhibits polydactyly feet, it implies that he belongs to one of the dog breeds that are known for this trait.
Thus, if you are not sure about your pup’s breed (perhaps you’ve recently adopted one from a rescue center) or he is from a mixed breed parentage, the presence of polydactyly digit can help you narrow down his potential ancestry or give you clues into the potential breeds that are involved in his genetic makeup.
How Many Toes Does the Average Dog Have?
If we look at the number of toes of various animals, we may notice that there is a general trend to have four or five toes at the end of a limb.
For example, humans have five fingers and toes and so do bears, primates, weasels, bats, and several types of reptiles.
However, several animals such as dogs, foxes, wolves and coyotes though have only four fully functional toes rather than five. Whats up with these animals? Why are they missing the extra toes?
Fossil evidence shows that animals that show a loss of digits are for the most part animals who were built to maintain high speeds for long distances, explains John Buckwalter, Emeritus of Biology at Alfred State College.
Such animals are known as “cursorial animals.” The specific features of these animals consist of long legs, shortened digits and a reduced number of toes.
The reduced number of toes helps improve velocity, considering that an extra digit could ultimately make quite a difference.
Although at a first glance, it may just weigh a few ounces, consider its impact when its piggy-backed along for the ride when the animal runs whether to catch his dinner or away from somebody who wants to eat him for dinner!
On top of reducing the number of toes, evolution also caused a dogs legs to move forward in a way that their heels no longer made contact with the ground as it happens with us human plantigrades.
By walking on their toes, dogs, therefore, became “digitigrades.” This feature, along with the longer forelegs, allowed extra speed, causing dogs to be classified, as mentioned earlier, as “cursorial,” that is, animals specifically built for running.
Can you spot the extra toe on this dogs front leg?
If you have heard about most dogs having five toes on each front foot and four toes on each hind foot, its because an extra toe has been added to the count.
This fifth toe located upper in the front feet is known as the dewclaw and is the equivalent of our thumb.
A dogs dewclaw is not fully functional though as the other toes are and therefore doesnt make constant contact with the ground as the other toes do. It is not attached to the paw, but is rather attached to the wrist part of the dogs paw.
However, research has revealed that dewclaws do
Despite its several uses, the dewclaw though is often removed so to prevent it from getting caught into things or for a cleaner look in the show ring. This is done when the puppy is very young, usually at 2 to 5 days of age.
Did you know? Your dogs dewclaws are believed to be a remnant from his distant past—as in over 40 million years ago—when Rovers ancestors (a tree-climbing cat-like animal known as Miacis) used to climb trees.
Later on though, as a dogs ancestors evolved into a ground-dwelling species (Cynodictis) they started to rely more on speed and agility to capture prey, therefore the use of this extra toe became redundant.
This has caused it to recede into the vestigial anatomical feature we see today, points out Stanley Coren in the book Do Dogs Dream? Nearly Everything Your Dog Wants You to Know.
On top of having dewclaws on their front legs, in some cases, there may also be dogs boasting extra toes in their back legs, which are discussed next.
Did You Know?
In the deep south, many southerners in the United States believe that dogs blessed with dewclaws on their hind feet have a natural immunity to the venomous snake bites. Their belief is that the dewclaws were capable of “sucking up the poison.” Of course, this is not proven by veterinary science!
12 Dog Breeds with Webbed Feet
With six toes on each foot — all of them double- or triple-jointed — and an amazing range of motion, the agile Norwegian Lundehund dog breed was used to scale cliffs and rob puffin nests of their eggs.