Split Nail

[Jessca]

Hi DOLers,

Sorry probably a stupid question.

I noticed yesterday that my new boy has/had a split nail (hind leg) it wasn't bothering him, till today. We were playing and his foot and my foot collided, straight away he held it up, although tried to continue playing halfheartedly. It was bleeding, not too much, but i was wondering if there is much that you can do, or do i just leave it and eventually it will grow out??

Thanks in advance.

Regards, Jess

[poodlefan]

I'd probably try to glue it back together with superglue.

[Jessca]

Thanks for that poodlefan, i'll give it a go.

Thank you :-D

[leo01]

Heheh, just been through this with my boy!

He had split a toenail on the Friday, clean split, my OH said it bleed quite a bit but it had stopped by the time i got home. But after running around the park had been limping a little so took him to the vet the following Wednesday just to be sure and get some antibotics/creme or alike. Vet said same, nice clean split, should grow out, he might loose the nail case bit (My words not the vets! LOL) but in eaither case just some antibiotics and he should be fine.

So after being on antiboitics for a week, i came home last Friday and he had ripped the outer casing off the nail. (Like vet said may happen) It looked pretty raw poor boy but he was walking on it fine, just being a bit more carefull with that foot (He slammed it ontop of a cardboard box as he was ripping it apart and i saw him lift that foot back up with a bit of an ooooo ouch and softly put it down again and went on using his other foot to hold the box still... so obviously a little tender still)

Not great pics, taken on the mobile but its usually a black nail on that toe, you can see below its not black anymore cuase that bit has been ripped off, this was the first day he ripped it off, 5 days on its starting to look alot more white coloured, alot less red and sore really:

The vet said to me next time straight in for the antiboitics (I left it for 5 whole days before getting Leo to the vet) , as if you leave it the nail tissue next to the quick starts to die and blood flows to that area starts to slow. If it does get infected it is then harder for the antibiotics to treat it, as it is carried in the blood, and may then require full removal or the toenail or even the toe itself depending on how long its left

[puggy_puggy]

I would probably get it removed. From my knowledge infection can set in pretty easily if a nail is split.

I have had two incidences of nails being removed with my pug boy. First one someone trod on his foot and the nail was hanging by a thread with lots of blood. Vet pulled it off without sedation and bandaged the foot and prescribed antibiotics. Second time he got his nail caught under a closing door and it split down to the base with lots of blood. He had to be sedated to have the nail removed and again had his foot bandaged and a course of antibiotics.

[Jessca]

Thank you for your help leo01 and puggy puggy.

ouch, your poor doggys they sound very painful

I had a vet look at him yesterday, and she said that it was not split up the middle and by the looks of it hasn't hit a blood vessel(which i gather that's the quick). she said keep an eye on it though and if doesn't seem to be healing in a few days bring him in again.