Calmness, confidence and competence can get you a long way in this world, whether you’re engaged in a stand off with a bear, or trimming your pet’s nails.
Personally, of the two, I think I might prefer dealing with the bear. Unless she’s protecting cubs or food, she’s unlikely to engage with you. The chances of blood being spilled are much higher when you give your dog a manicure.
Or I suppose, if you tried give a bear a manicure.
She looks like she could use one, frankly.
If it’s a cat whose nails you’re trying to trim, you might want to make sure your affairs are in order before you begin that death defying stunt.
I exaggerate of course. Many cats are polite little moggies who will co-operate in the procedure, especially if you have been accustoming them since kitten hood to having the feet handled. That’s good advice for puppies too.
Begin as soon as your pet joins the household, by handling their feet without clipping the nails. Reward them with praise or treats when they stand or sit still for it. (The “Stay” and “Stand” commands for your dog come in handy here.) Do this until they routinely stay calm and still, then introduce the clippers. Eventually they will associate nail clipping with pleasure and praise. Half the battle of nail clipping will be already won.
Why do the nails have to be clipped at all? Well, for cats, they really don’t as a rule. Cats take care of grooming their own nails by scratching. Of course, they may choose to scratch on the furniture, which is why you may prefer to keep their nails clipped. If your cat develops overgrown nails, you should consult your vet, as that may well be assign of a medical disorder, like hyperthyroidism or diabetes.
Bottom line – clipping your cat’s nails is discretionary.
Dogs’ nails, on the other hand, if not clipped, will just keep growing, unless they are walking so frequently on hard surfaces like pavement that they get worn down naturally. Most of our pets don’t fall into that category.
Long nails can scratch your floors.
Left unclipped, your dog’s nails can crack, rip, tear or split, which will be painful for the dog. In extreme cases, they will curve as they grow and start penetrating back into the pad of the foot.
If you can hear your dog’s nails clicking on the floor when they walk, they need to be trimmed.
It’s easier if you do it regularly (or have it done by a groomer or your vet). Regular nail clipping will keep your dog accustomed to the process. Perhaps more critically, the longer the nail grows, the further the quick grows down into it. That makes it very difficult to clip the nail without cutting the quick and making it bleed. This is painful for the dog.
(The quick is the tissue that connects the nail to the skin underneath.)
On many dogs, it can be a challenge to determine what is nail and what is quick. It’s always so much easier with a dog who has white nails. Their quick will be pink and you can readily identify and avoid it.
This is our cat Maddy demonstrating a pink quick under a white nail, but the principle is the same with a dog.
The secret to fast, easy nail clipping is a good pair of sharp clippers designed for the purpose. The sharper and more powerful they are, the faster and cleaner the cut.
Don’t try this with your own nail clippers. They might work on your cat, but dogs’ nails are a lot tougher than ours.
There are a couple of different types of clippers on the market. The guillotine style has a circular opening into which the nail is inserted. You position the nail in the opening making sure that the quick is behind where the blade will come down. When you squeeze the handles, the blade comes down across the nail and cuts it off.
They other types operates like a pair of scissor or shears.
You position the nail between the two blades taking care to avoid the quick, (and other nails, and flesh) and squeeze the handles together.
Many people prefer the guillotine style, as it less likely to slip around on the nail the way open clippers do, so it reduces the chances of accidentally moving down and cutting the quick.
Also, guillotine clippers exert more pressure so may be preferable for larger dogs with tougher nails.
You may have to try several types to find what suits you best. The main thing you’re looking for is the right grip and the quickness and sharpness of action. The faster you can snip, the happier your dog will be.
Clippers of any type usually come in small, medium and large sizes. Choose the size that’s right for your dog. Too big and it won’t even reach the nail. Too small, and it won’t fit around the nail.
Remember that nail clipper blades become dull with use. If you find your cuts are leaving ragged nails, you need to buy a new pair of clippers.
If you’re never done this before, there are a couple of preliminary steps that will help assure success.
The first order of business to examine one of your dog’s toes and try to distinguish between the nail and the quick.
First bring your dog to a calm, flat area. Have him stand or lie down.
Start by lifting your pet’s foot. The first thing you’ll realize is that his foot only bends in one direction, so you will be looking at an upside down paw. Position yourself so as to get the best view.
Exert gentle pressure in the middle of the paw to spread the toes.
Now, pick a toe and exert gentle pressure near the end of it to make the claw appear.
These photos are of another one of our cats again, but same thing. You will see the nail on top, which will extend over the quick.
The quick is the sort of wedge shaped tissue immediately under the nail. Try to make out where the quick stops and how much nail there is extending beyond the quick. That is the part you want to cut off.
The other thing you need to think about before you start your nail clipping, is what you will do in case you accidentally cut the quick and the blood starts to flow.
This is not an uncommon occurrence. Don’t panic. Yes, it will hurt your dog, but no more than a nail torn to the quick hurts you. The main thing is to stop the bleeding. Otherwise your place may end up looking like a murder scene as your dog runs around leaving a trail of bloody footprints.
The easiest and most reliable way to stop the bleeding is with styptic, the same thing men use if they cut themselves when they’re shaving.
That is, the men who don’t want to walk around covered in bandages like a doofus.
Styptic promotes clotting by contracting blood vessels. It contains benzocaine to help the hurting stop. It will also help to stop bacteria entering the wound and causing an infection.
Styptic is sold both as powder and as a pencil. Buy the powder.
As you will see below, you will need to apply pressure to the cut nail. The styptic pencil is much harder to position on a dog’s nail, especially when the dog is yelping and trying to get away from the pain of the cut, squirming around like an atheist in church.
Styptic will stain your clothes and carpet if it gets on them, so some people do prefer the styptic pencil. If you opt for that, make sure you get the right thing. Don’t confuse it with a caustic pencil. The latter contains silver nitrate, and chemically cauterizes skin. It is painful. It’s what they use for burning off warts.
Shake about a heaping teaspoon of styptic powder into a small container or onto the palm of your hand. Dip the cut nail deep into the powder, wherever you chose to put it. The nail will be wet with blood. The blood and styptic will form a sort of paste.
The idea is to get a good amount of styptic paste onto the bloody nail and hold it there with firm pressure for about thirty seconds. The holding is important. If you don’t apply some pressure it won’t work properly to stop the bleeding.
Some people dip a moistened cotton ball into the styptic and apply the cotton ball to the nail. In my experience, this doesn’t work as well or as quickly, as it may dilute the styptic powder too much and the paste doesn’t form. The cotton buffers the wound so the pressure is not as uniform.
If it’s still bleeding when you remove the pressure after thirty seconds, repeat the styptic treatment.
Don’t be alarmed if the bleeding starts up again at some point after you finish the rest of the nails and release your dog. Just apply the styptic again, applying a thicker layer of paste and holding the pressure for a longer period.
It’s a good idea to try to limit his activity for half an hour or so. Vigorous activity increases the chance of the bleeding recurring.
If the bleeding doesn’t stop after 20 or 30 minutes, you may want to call the vet to get some advice.
If you don’t have styptic, you can try mixing water with cornstarch, flour or baking soda to form a thick paste. You can also soften a bar of soap, stick the nail into that and hold it there. Or break off a piece of soap, and moisten it into a paste and hold it on the nail.
But these home remedies won’t stop the bleeding right away like styptic does, so you will have to apply pressure for a few minutes instead of thirty seconds.
Some people advise wrapping the foot with the cut nail in a bandage. Unless the bleeding keeps re-starting, I personally wouldn’t do that. What with dog not having ankles, most of us find it a challenge to get a bandage on a dog’s foot in such a way that it doesn’t come off.
You might tape a sock over it, just to try to keep the dirt out for a while. Otherwise, a bandage is a trial for both you and your dog.
The main thing is to act quickly and don’t panic. A cut, bleeding nail is a minor emergency. You’ve got this.
Once you’re satisfied that you know your target area, and are ready to deal with a bleeding quick, you can plan your nail clipping session.
Grab your clippers, and have your styptic handy, along with anything you intend to use with the styptic, like a small bowl and/or cotton balls. It’s good idea to have a bowl of clean water and a rag to hand, in case you need to wipe up any styptic spills – or blood.
Some people use a file to clean up any ragged edges left after you clip the nail.
Some even use a motorized Dremel tool for that purpose. I never aspired to such pristine levels of manicuring. I found that as long as my clippers were sharp, I didn’t have too much trouble with scraggly bits.
If you do decide you want to have that poised finished edge, then that is something else you will have to desensitize your dog to.
If you have a dog with particularly hairy feet, it might help to clip away the hair that is hanging over the nails.
You may want to have a helper to hold the dog. It’s critical to the success of the operation that the dog not jerk his foot around while you are in the process of using a sharp cutter on his toes.
You might also think about investing in a grooming table with a restraint pole that you can clip the dog’s collar too, especially if you do other grooming tasks with your dog yourself, rather than taking him to a groomer. The table brings your dog to eye level and generally makes it a lot easier to manage than if you are both on the floor. The portable ones have legs that fold up, making them easier to store.
After I got a grooming table, I wondered why I hadn’t invested one long before. Brushing, nail trimming or clipping the hair between the toes, which is what I’m doing to Toby in this photo; it’s all hell on the old back.
It’s advisable to start with clean hands (you) and clean feet (your dog), to reduce the risk of infection. You might make nail clipping part of an apres bath routine.
Take the clippers in one hand and the dog’s foot in the other. Exert pressure to extend the nail. Position your clippers well to the front of what you’ve identified as the quick and snip.
Err on the side of caution when positioning the clippers to reduce the chance of cutting into the quick. You can always keep doing a little further back each time. In other words, trim less, but do it frequently.
Don’t forget the dewclaws.
If there are some ragged bits and you want to file them down, go for it. Otherwise, you’re done.
It’s not uncommon for dogs to injure their nails all on their own.
If your dog starts limping, licking at her feet, or you notice bloody footprints or even just a few drops of blood on the floor, have a look to see if they have cracked or torn a nail. Remember that your dog be in pain, so muzzle or restrain her, or have a helper. A dog in pain may snap.
It may be that she has cut a pad or picked up a foreign object like a burr or thistle. But most commonly, it’s a problem with the nail.
Sometimes both the nail and quick have completely broken off. You might just get away with applying styptic to the nail bed where it’s bleeding.
Cracks and splits occur from time to time, especially if the nails are long. Depending on the length of the split or crack, you may be able to deal with it yourself, by clipping down to the injury and removing the broken part.
If in doubt though, the vet will be able to apply a local anaesthetic and remove the whole nail.
My least favourite injury is where the quick separates from the nail bed and flops about on its own. It looks so painful. That will certainly require a local anaesthetic, a call to vet is indicated.
In almost all cases of damage to the nail, the nail will grow back normally.
Finally a note about the vinyl nail caps or covers you glue on your pets’ nails, like Softpaws or Top Paws.
I’ll get my prejudice right out there right in front. I’ve never understood how any benefit they provide can be worth the fuss and bother involved in using them.
First, they are not substitutes for trimming your pet’s nails. They don’t stop nail growth. You’re still going to have to deal with that.
Secondly, because the nails still grow, the covers will have to be removed from time to time so the nails can be clipped back to fit the covers.
Thirdly, you’re going to have to check them at least daily to make sure they haven’t fallen off. Figuring out how much glue to use is a challenge. Getting the correct sizes can be problematic. Some people report not being about to get them to stay on no matter what size they buy.
Fourthly, while they reduce the damage that cats do with their claws, they don’t totally eliminate it. At least, that seems to be the prevailing view among those who have reviewed these products.
Okay, they come in neon colours and look cool. When you apply them properly, they will at least minimize the damage done by a cat scratching with sharp claws.
But that’s about it on the plus column.
If you decide to try them understand from the outset that you have to be determined to make them work. As one Amazon reviewer said, you have to become a Nail Nazi.
As with nail trimming, it will be easier to use these products if you first accustom your cat or dog to having their paws and nails handled regularly.
Practically speaking, they are only for that subset of people who are both totally committed to using the product correctly and who totally freak out at the prospect of their furniture being damaged. If you are in that set and are considering getting your cat declawed, try this first.
Remember too that there are techniques you can use to discourage your cat from clawing where it does damage.
The rest of us will take our chances with the old nail clippers.