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Marble cracked her thumb nail, in the same direction you would cut it. The crack is pretty high up, so I'm not sure if it's over the quick. She is licking at it occasionally, so we gave her a chewie to distract her from that. It doesn't appear to be painful, as she let me handle it while I was checking on it.
Should I try cutting it off? Should I try trimming it like I would a whole nail, slicing little slices off a bit at a time? Or should we leave it alone, or take her to the vets Monday? The vets are closed today and tomorrow. The only reason I'm entertaining the idea of cutting it is that her other thumbnail is very short, about the same length as the remainder of this one would be.
Red line indicates crack, dotted line is about where her toe is under the fur.
my guess would be that the crack is above where the quick would be. if you do decide to cut it, you'd best have some kwik stop handy, or if you don't have any of that, a bowl or baggie of flour will work in a pinch. just pack it around the bleeder and it will coagulate. ....it will be painful but at least since it's a dew claw she's not going to be stepping on it.
one of my girls once cracked a nail and it 'degloved' around the quick. the cracked nail tore off but left the quick un-breached, but exposed. i left kwick stop on the counter for a few days just in case but the quick receded and kind of dried up and never did bleed.
It seems we have a similar situation...after weighing our options, I decided to clip it now to avoid middle of the night "Erica help! Marble's bleeding!" events. I clipped it, but there was no bleeding. Fingers crossed it stays that way! I do have the stipic powder ready in case it's needed. The bit I clipped off did look kind of hollow compared to usual clippings.
On the plus side the new nail clippers I got seem to work well.
Erica wrote:It seems we have a similar situation...after weighing our options, I decided to clip it now to avoid middle of the night "Erica help! Marble's bleeding!" events. I clipped it, but there was no bleeding. Fingers crossed it stays that way! I do have the stipic powder ready in case it's needed. The bit I clipped off did look kind of hollow compared to usual clippings.
On the plus side the new nail clippers I got seem to work well.
Thanks for the help!
yeah! glad you didn't turn the house into a crime scene!
i didn't have to clip when it happened to my girl. it was the oddest thing, i noticed her licking her paw and when i was checking it out i saw the cracked nail. while i was examining it and trying to decide how to deal, the cracked part slipped off.....and just as you were saying it was hollow. there was about an 1/16" of the quick visible.......soft but not cut or bleeding. . i was surprised at how quickly it receded back and the nail grew back fine i'm guessing with my girl that the nail had been damaged earlier and the nail and quick kind of separated from each other..... oddest thing.
and glad you like your new clippers! good grooming equipment is always a pleasure to use.
I'd recommend a precautionary salt-water soak for two to four sessions, as these are absolute nuisances for infection. Dew claws less so than main claws, but for the sake of a couple of tubbing sessions it's not worth the risk. That's all I do normally and it works well, but years ago I found out the hard way about infection getting into a cracked nail.
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog
