Nail Triming

Nail trimming is a very important part of owning a pet. If nails are not attended to they can become over grown and very painful for your pet. Like this……

A nail can grow so long that it will curl around and start to dig into the pad, so with every step your pet takes that nail gets pushed in deeper and becomes more painful. Once that happens even after the nail is cut down, that nail could have cut in so deep that the pad will start to bleed once the nail is pulled out and may need medical attention.

                                                   If your pet grows their nails like this……

It won’t be too painful but it can (in some cases) cause the foot to become deformed and then it will become painful.

                                                      These are well taken care of nails

                           The first step to taking care of your pets nails is understanding the nail…….

This is a little diagram to help you. As you can see, the base of the nail is pink that is the “quick”(the quick is a blood vain that runs through the nail) and past the quick is white, that is pure nail and safe to cut.

                                                           Next is to buy the right tools

                                     This is what I use, it works GREAT and for all size nails

                                            Now to put what you’ve learned into practice

You are going to want to cut just after the pink. If your pet has black nails, those are a little harder, and it might be better to bring to a professional (vet or groomer (groomer will be cheaper). If you are feeling brave and want to try, just start at the end of the nail and trim a little bit at a time. As you get close to the quick a small dark colored circle will appear, stop cutting there! But if you get a little too close to the quick it WILL start to bleed. Depending on how bad you cut it will ether bleed A LOT or a lot. In that case you are going to want to use this

This is what I use, but if you can’t find “Kwik Stop” specifically, than any kind of styptic powder will work great. You will find it in the health/first aid/dewormer section at the pet store. All you have to do is grab a pinch of the powder in your fingers, then press it onto the injured nail and hold for a few seconds. I would also recommend buying it BEFORE you even attempt trimming the nails.