Do dogs have webbed feet? Yes, some do. Amphibians are the first thing that pops to mind when you see webbed feet. So seeing dogs with webbed feet is quite surprising. You might be curious how it is possible for your dog to have webbed feet; and if it is normal as well as why. There are different reasons why this is possible, and this would be discussed extensively by Petscarehq to enlighten you.
What are webbed feet?
Have you ever heard of the medical condition, Syndactyly? It is also referred to as webbed feet. This is a congenital anomaly that occurs when the two or more toes are connected by a tissue. Webbed feet in dogs are the fusion of their toes on their paws by a membrane or a tissue.
Why your dog has webbed feet
Webbed feet, as much as it is an anomaly in some breeds of dog, is also a normal feature in others. Your dog could have webbed feet because it is part of its genetic make-up, as a result of mixed breeding or as a medical condition.
As a medical condition, webbed feet can pose a threat to the health of your dog. It alters the normal dog paw anatomy. This anomaly leaves your dog susceptible to joint instability which in turn can lead to arthritis. Sometimes it can be accompanied with other health issues which might be noticed at birth, some of which are; cleft palate, scoliosis, shortened tibia-fibula formation.
Your dog paws health significantly affects its mobility. For dogs that have this as an anomaly, a little bit of running and exercise would usually cause it to limp. This is because dogs work with their toes and so while running its toes tend to spread. Thereby stretching the tissue between their toes and inflicting pain and causing injury to their paws. When this happens frequently, do well to take the dog to a vet. This issue can be solved by surgery, although recovery might take longer.
Cross-breeds
There are a few dog owners that would like to use their dogs for hunting or retrieving. This sort of hunting would usually involve swimming. To get dogs that could swim with ease and walk over mud without getting stuck. They cross-breed their dogs with others that have webbed feet as their normal features, to get a crossbreed with their features. Some crossbreeds wildly known are the pit bulls are good example of such webbed feet dogs. But do pit bulls have webbed feet? Well, only a few do. Even if they are crossbreeds and have genes of water dogs, the probability of getting a breed with webbed feet is low.
What breeds of dogs have webbed feet?
You might be quite anxious to know this so you could quickly figure out if your dog needs treatment or was cross-bred or is a natural swimmer. Here are a few of our born swimmers.
- Labrador Retriever
- The Otter hound
- The Dachshund
- The Portuguese water dog
- The German wire head pointer
- The redbone coonhound and a few others.
The varieties of dog breeds found are stupefying. Dogs are not just man’s loyal friends but also hunters and swimmers too. The discovery of webbed fetes amongst dogs and the advantages it comes with has helped man to a great extent. Although when this arises as a health complication, it causes more harm than good. Once it does, do well to take your dog to the vet.