Toenails 101
Nothing can strike fear into a pet owners heart more than the thought of having to clip their dog or puppies toenails. Most pets don't like it and will sometimes struggle. Most people are fearful of cutting too short and hitting the "kwik", which is the part of the nail that carries the blood supply. The other side of this fear is often dogs with way-too-long toenails that can hurt our skin if they jump up or happen to get us with their paw, clicking on your solid surface floors, slipping and sliding on solid surface floors and if left too long, leading to pain for the dog if the nails actually curl under and into the toes.
There are several easy solutions to dealing with long toenails on your pet. We personally use a Dremmel tool with the sandpaper head attachment and it goes relatively quickly. We will try to get a video and some photos of this process soon. But for now, here is a good article on how to clip the nails with a standard toenail clipper you can get a any pet supply store.
Read this article HERE
Here are a couple of things to make life easier for you when you take on this task:
- If you have a puppy, start by clipping nails once a week. With a puppy, they can be "cradled" upside down in the owners lap or "hugged" against the owners body in order to make toenail clipping easier.
- Start slowly, even if the nails are long, clip just a bit off at a time.We've found the more the owner becomes familiar with clipping toenails, the more the dog will accept trimming the nails too
- Be sure to have a styptic powder on hand, such as "Kwik-stop" which can be purchased at any pet supply store. This will stop the bleeding immediately if you do happen to cut the kwik.
- Even in adult dogs, clipping the nails regularly, even once a week, will help push the kwik back further and slow the growth.
- If your dog really struggles and dislikes his/her nails being cut, get some D.A.P. (dog appeasing pheromone), spray it on a bandana and tie it around their neck so they can breathe it in. The D.A.P. brings a calm and a sense of peace to most dogs and can help calm them down
- If all else fails and you really struggle with doing your own dogs nails, you can always take them to a groomer to have someone else do them for you. If you do this, make sure they are getting them short enough and right up to the kwik.
