Dog toenail ripped off

[Rubberdown]

Dog ripped his toenail almost completely off last night. I elevated and stuck it in baking soda so it would clot. Looks like he lost about a gallon of blood. Dropped him off this morning at the vet because he was snapping at me when I tried to mess with it so I’m imagining it hurts pretty bad. They are gonna have to remove it down to the base I’m pretty sure.

Made me think. How are you actually supposed to deal with that situation. I know what I do but that doesn’t mean it is right.

[sailor]

Don't be too hard on him.............
I'm sure, it hurts like ..... well you know.......
Your doing the right thing.........
The vet, can get him outta pain......

[panhandlehunter]

My lab did the same thing last week. My wife has some type of clotting powder she put on his toe and it stopped bleeding immediately. I figured it didn’t bother him too much, he was running around like a crazy dog the next day.

[TX_Hoghunter]

I have had several working dog that have had this happen through the years. They all healed up fine.

-john

[rtp]

My vet was able to lay my dog's nail back in place and secure it with a few stitches. Been great ever since. Your dog will be back to normal in short order.

[RifleBowPistol]

Or dog, is not the brightest. She is a small dog and about 13 years old. About a year ago, she started doing something that she had not done before. She has always loved to ride around on the front of the four wheeler. I have made a couple of baskets, that are shallow, but give her a place to stand or sit, without sliding off. With the Honda I have now, she had a lot of trouble not sliding all over the front end. A couple times, she almost slid off of the front of the four wheeler. When she did so, one of her front legs went under the tubing for the front rack and she went over the top of the rack. I had to grab her by the collar to keep her from going over, and probably breaking her leg. I would have gotten in a lot of trouble is that happened.

So I built another basket for her, like some of the others, I have done. I used expanded metal again. It was never a problem in the past. But sometime last year, she started this new thing, of trying to jump off of the front end of the four wheeler. When we got close to the deck on the back side of the house. When she would jump, or try to jump, she would often try to grip with her paws as the tried to launch herself. This would caused one or more of her toes or toe nails to get hung in the expanded metal. Every time she did this, I had to catch her and then unhang her toe or toe nail. Then pick her up out of the basket and set her on the deck or ground.

So I started making it a point to stop a long ways from the deck, thinking she knows it's a long ways to the ground for a short dog and won't jump. Most of the time she did not try to jump out. But one time she did, before I could pick up out of the basket and set her on the ground. That occasion, she got a toe/toe nail hung in the expanded metal and ripped the toe nail almost completely off.

I took her in the house, it was bleeding pretty good. So we used Neosporin on the toe, then some cotton balls and wrapped it up with tape. To keep her from messing with it. She did not like her foot being wrapped up, but it kept her from messing with it. After about a week the toe nail came off. We cleaned up the toe and applied Neosporin daily, then wrapped the foot back up. The toe healed up pretty quickly, looked ok, just no toe nail. Then our daughter came home and saw she was missing a toe nail and I got in trouble.

Within a couple months, maybe three months, the toe nail regrew. You can't tell she ever lost that toe nail, at this point, which is about a year later. We have had her nails trimmed at least three times, since she lost that one. Right now she needs them trimmed again. I don't remember which toe it was, you can't tell by looking at her toes or toe nails. We were sure, she would never have a toe nail on that toe again. It seemed like it took the whole toe nail, including the base, which was pretty large.

I had to cut a board to put down in the bottom of the basket to keep her toes from going through the expanded metal on the bottom of the basket. I think she actually hung it up on the metal on the front side of the basket. I am pretty sure, I had the board in the bottom of the basket when she got the toe nail hung up.

[Box-R]

I've observed a lot of dogs with really long claws.
We grind (Dremel) our dogs nails every week or two to keep 'em short so that they don't snag on something.