While trimming barley 's feet today i noticed that he has damaged one of his claws. Well damaged is the wrong word, broke would be more appropriate. Its hard to explain without a photo but i will have a go and upload a photo of said claw tomorrow. He has long quicks in his claws as they do not get cut often due the fact that it is a fight to cut them, and usually he wins as he is stronger and has more will power. He also has quite brittle nails and when they are cut they tend to splinter and break up. The claw in question has been broken in half (half of his claw is quick the other half nail) but with the quick exposed out past the nail, so the quick is exposed with no hard nail surrounding or protecting it. It is not bleeding and he is not bothered by it. I don't want to go rushing him off to the vets unless it is necessary, but what the problem is is that the quick is exposed and vulnerable so i don't really know what do with it, and as we don't know how he done it in the first place, how to stop it from happening again or causing further damage to his already damaged nail. I swear this dog loves being ill/injured and going to see the vet :
Re: Damaged claw Poor man. Eventually the nail will grown back and cover it. The exposed quick will probably dry up. The best thing you can do in the meantime is just keep it clean (probably impossible!! ). I personally would not worry with a vet trip for something like this It probably stings a bit, but it is not serious.
Re: Damaged claw Oh Annabelle,I think he likes to keep you busy for sure!the only claw experience I have is with dexter's 'cousin'here,a black lab Barnie and he often has claw problems....he rips his right out going after his ball...awful.my friend bathes them twice a day and she puts the dreaded e collar on so he doesn't lick it and infect it and generally it will get better itself.hes down with it this morning so he missed his weekend walk with us today and we love seeing him.hope is heals easily for you x
Re: Damaged claw Was going to just keep an eye on it and leave it be but barley has other ideas about that. He has cut the quick, only a small puncture hole but made it bleed. Big dog still oblivious to what he has done. Managed to do a 'make do' claw bandage, well that's what i am calling it, its just a bit of non stick pad on it then covered in lots of tape to protect it. Going to have to keep a very close eve on it in case it gets infected. Also looking at his other claws some of them are also damaged, split ends and bits hanging off so thats a question for the vet when we get them both weighed this evening
Re: Damaged claw Have you got some Hibiscrub or similar you could bathe it in, that helps keeps infection risk down.
Re: Damaged claw We have not got any hibiscrub looking into getting some though, but we have some other antiseptic spray that we bought, Leucillin have not put any on it yet as i was just trying to stop it from bleeding as claws, feet, ears and tails all bleed a lot
Re: Damaged claw I use salt and water Annabelle. It cleans, antiseptic and helps things dry up. Whenever mine do something to their feet I salt and water when we come in to clean it then try and distract if they start licking. Not easy. Unless its bleeding a lot or they arelickinga lot I don't bother with bandages as they dry up quicker exposed. Hope he heels up quick Jen
Re: Damaged claw It happened to my Lab and I kept thinking it will get better until one evening it bled all over the kitchen! Had to see vet and then G/A and have it cut right back, bandaged and instructions to KEEP IT DRY in this weather! Good luck with Barley this evening at vet's.
Re: Damaged claw [quote author=Jen link=topic=4461.msg54883#msg54883 date=1392639528] I use salt and water Annabelle. It cleans, antiseptic and helps things dry up. Whenever mine do something to their feet I salt and water when we come in to clean it then try and distract if they start licking. Not easy. Unless its bleeding a lot or they are licking a lot I don't bother with bandages as they dry up quicker exposed. Hope he heels up quick Jen [/quote] we do that as well, after walks and coming in from thew garden. We usually end up bandaging barley's cut feet up as he is an obsessive licker and even the cone of shame does not stop him, he also has a tendancy to get very defensive when he is licking and will growl if we try to stop him. The only thing that does work is a muzzle but he can't have that on all the time.
