Samantha
,@samanthamarie
0
Friends
Hi!
For a couple weeks I have noticed my dog chewing on his back paw… he normally has pretty strong allergies this time of year and he is a licker anyway.. however tonight when I got home from work I took another close look at his paw (it was looking very pink) and noticed that he is missing a nail.. it’s completely gone ! He is in no pain as it seems.. hes walking, running, playing and eating as normal.. the only thing is he is obviously licking the area where his nail was.. it’s not bleeding and doesn’t look infected…
what advice do you have for this type of situation? I have been reading and watching videos about this but it’s half and half of I should take him to the vet or if I can take care of this at home.. Thank you
I have never had a situation where the entire nail has been gone- a few times we have had a partial rip and then we did have to make a trip to see the vet or vet tech to have it looked at and snipped. I’m guessing, if there is no pain, swelling, soreness- that it may have happened a bit ago? If there is still a “wound” opening, I would keep it clean and keep an eye on it. If it feels swollen, or sore then definitely call your vet. And honestly, I’m a nervous nelly, so I would probably call my vet anyway and double check with them to see if I should bring them in to be seen…
My suggestion? Get all the nails much shorter and keep them shorter to prevent this in the future. Torn nails, broken nails usually happen due to excessively LONG nails. Keeping them short keeps them safer from this sort of accident.