infographic – Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Bad Mom No Biscuit~Gambler Blows A Moccasin

A couple weeks ago Gamblers brother Easy from across the pond tore his toenail off you can read about it here. Gambler not wanting to have his brother feeling like he was the only one to blow a moccasin decided to blow one of his own the first day of spring training at the Sandspring ranch. On my day off I set up some blinds for G & G, we ran our blinds, set up camp for the evening and John asked why Gambler was holding his leg up…..ahhhh that would be because he broke his toenail. This would be the third toenail that Gambler has broken off. Second time while out training, the other time while attacking the vacuum.

Rut roo not good to go for a ride with mom on a work day.

This was totally my fault, I noticed over the weekend that his nails were getting long and that they needed to be trimmed but of course I ran out of time and didn’t get to it now poor Gambler had to suffer. 🙁

Broken back toenail.

He just took off the top part of the nail.

Other toenails very long. Bad Mom!

The toenail on the right is the one he broke off over a year ago, it still hasn’t decided to grow back like a regular nail. The toenail with the arrow by it is showing the quik (blood vein in the toenail- pink area) and the white tip of the toenail that is over grown and should be cut off so it doesn’t break off.

How I trim toenails.

Trimming equipment.

There are different types of nail trimmers, I like those big orange ones. You should also have on hand kwik stop to stop bleeding if you cut one too short, styptic pencils can be used too but will sting.

Gambler laying on his side.

Since I had help I had Gambler lay on his side. The holder put her elbow across his neck and used her left hand to hold his lower front leg and then put her right arm across his stomach right in front of his back legs and held his lower back leg. With those legs held if he struggles he can’t get up. I then trim the tips off the nails, I trim the skinny area right before it gets to the thick part of the nail shown above by the arrow. If they are light nails you can see the quik in the nail which is pink so you want to cut right before the quik.

Starting in the middle.

I start taking the middle of the nail off then I rotate the clippers to take some off of each side and then go back to the middle and take more off the top.

Rotating to the sides.

Opps I cut one to short.

If you happen to cut one to short, you can use kwik stop powder or corn starch to stop the bleeding. Styptic pencils can be used too but do sting so we use those on asleep animals.

Bleeding stopped.

A dremel can be used to smooth out the rough edges.

Trimmed up.

Don’t be like me and wait for your dog to break a toenail before you trim them. Granted they can still break a toenail that is trimmed up but most likely it happens when they are long. This was a minor break once it was trimmed up and cleaned up Gambler was good as new and back training. Can’t keep this hard running dog down at all.