Nail It

Posted on Nov 15 in Small Dog Care, Small Dog Groomingby Jeff K.Print

The following is a quote from Dr. Jeff Vidt, DVM, a Chicago area veterinarian. The original material can be found at his website.

“Dog’s nails or claws are meant to be long. In wild canids they are used as tools for digging, ripping, gripping and fighting. In the domesticated dog these functions are no longer useful and long nails lead to problems such as damaging the home environment, causing injury to people, broken nails resulting in bleeding and trouble walking on hard surfaces.

“When a dog’s nails become too long they interfere with the dog’s gait and as the nails continue to grow, walking will become awkward and painful. In severe cases a dog’s nails can curl under and grow into the pad of the dog’s paw causing a very serious and painful infection. These types of ingrown nail problems are most common on the dewclaws. Nail trimming needs to be done frequently and on a regular basis both to keep the nails short and to maintain the dog’s training concerning nail trimming. Cutting longer nails is more uncomfortable to the dog and it is much easier to “quick” a dog or cut into the tender section of the nail when the nails are long. I recommend trimming the nails every 2-4 weeks for most dogs. If you let your dog’s nails grow too long then it could take some time to get them back to a healthy length again.

“What is the “quick”? The quick is the living part of a dog’s nail and has blood vessels and nerves running throughout. Cutting into the quick during dog nail trimming is painful for your dog and will result in bleeding. . . It is also important to note is that the quick grows with the nail. As a dog’s nails grow longer the quick will also lengthen. So if your dog’s nails are over grown you will not be able to clip the nails to the desired length without cutting into the quick. (Ed.: boldface added.) You will need to trim the tips of your dog’s nails often and over time the quick will recede. To avoid cutting into the quick you’ll want to start by trimming small pieces of the nail until you get the hang of it.”

At Kelsey’s Dog House the second most common problem we see, after matted fur, is overgrown nails. Unfortunately, once a dog’s nails are overgrown, all we can do is trim or file the nails to within 2 millimeters of the quick. Trimming any closer than this runs the risk of cutting into the quick. Once this trimming is complete, the quick will begin to recede. As the quick recedes, we have an opportunity to cut the nail back a few more millimeters about 2-3 weeks after the original trim. This will force the quick to recede further. With repeated small trims, we can return overgrown nails to a healthy length. If we wait too long between trimmings, the quick will begin to regrow into the lengthening nail and the problem of overgrown nails will continue. Note that we offer nail trimming as a stand-alone service for a small fee.

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