Perhaps you think that cutting the dog’s nails is silly, something totally dispensable aesthetic. Well, nothing could be further from the truth and that is that if our pet has the longest nails of the account, they can hurt their legs and even cause more serious damage by not stepping correctly.
As a rule, our dog’s nails should not exceed the pads as the animal will try to walk and will support abnormally, which in the long run can cause problems for its locomotor system .
On the other hand, a very long nail can dig into the skin and cause pain and injury. Do you realize how important it is to give the dog a manicure?
As we have already said, the nails of the animal should never exceed the pads. A typical sign that the dog has long nails is the noise it makes when walking, such as clicking through the house.
Another symptom that you need a trimming is that when you support the leg, it does not do it naturally but rather raises a finger .
It is convenient that before you cut the furry’s nails, the vet has taught you how to do it. You should know that a nerve and a small vein lodge inside the nail of the animal and that we must try not to cut them. If it happens by accident, we will first hurt you and second you will bleed. In that case, calm down, take a gauze soaked in hydrogen peroxide and press until the bleeding stops.
To cut the dog’s nails, we will choose a quiet place and we will not manipulate the animal with screams or sudden movements. Everything has to be very relaxed.
If the dog has white nails, we will see more easily where the nerve and vein run, so we will cut where they are not. If the animal has dark nails, things get complicated, but following the advice of Ana Anglada, AnagaVets veterinarian , we will not have more difficulty. The trick to know if we are cutting in the area of the nerve or not is to squeeze the nail a little with the nail clipper before cutting and see if the dog removes the paw. If you remove it, it is because it bothers you and therefore we would cut where we should not.
To get used to it, we can cut one nail at a time (for example one day and rest three), giving a snack before and after the cut as a reward. This will associate nail cutting with something nice.
Finally, to cut the dog’s nails we will use special scissors that will differ depending on the size of the animal . There are two types, common and guillotine. The latter make it easier to cut nails in large and giant dogs since their nails are thicker than those of their small homonyms, although there are also common scissors of different sizes as we can see in the video. A puppy will not have its nails cut with the same scissors that we would cut an adult dog.
