Calgary and Area Private and Commercial Pet & Equine Photographer

Part 4: Nail Emergencies and Clipping Other Animals

In this last segment of the interview Desiree, we talk about what to do if your dog’s nail cracks or breaks and Desiree tells us stories of her non-dog clients.

What do you do if your dog comes in from outside or something, and you notice that there is blood everywhere, and you look and they’ve ripped a nail or they’ve ripped their dewclaw off. Obviously, you want to take them to the vet because you’re panicking because there’s blood everywhere, but what can you do in the meantime?

The biggest thing to do would be not to let the dog lick it because you don’t want it to be infected and you would like it to stop bleeding so the dog licks it then it’ll keep bleeding, so I always tell people when they’ve got their pet spayed or neutered at the clinic, keep your cones because you never know when you might use it again. If you happen to have a cone lying around, put the cone on the dog and that’ll help to keep the dog to leave it alone. If you’re comfortable with blood you can try just wrapping a piece of clean gauze around it if you have some gauze. Tissue kind of sticks to things so paper towel would be better but obviously the dog’s not going to love it. It’s going be really sore; it’s going to be really raw.  If it has stopped bleeding honestly there’s not much else you need to do. If it looks really dirty you’ll want to clean it if you’re comfortable doing that, otherwise take it to the clinic to get it taken care of. But really what it will be is keeping it clean, making it the dog leave it alone and getting it to stop bleeding by just putting some pressure on it.  

So this is just me but if the nail fractures and cracks could you put crazy glue on it to hold it until it grows out?

You probably good, I actually have client whose dog would rip his nails off. What I recommended to her was I gave her some really great Cocoa butter with Vitamin E in it and it’s awesome stuff. I told her to put a lot of it on her dog’s paws at night time and put socks on him and then put a cone on so he doesn’t lick it off and chew them. I tell you he went from having really ugly, ugly cracked nails, like gross nails and pads to really, really nice healthy looking nails. I also recommended that she put some salmon oil on his food – that’s also very good for skin and nails just like it is for people. So there are little tricks like that you that can help your dog grow healthy nails for sure.

Is clipping different if you have other species of animals?

So cats are very similar, I do have a couple clients that have cats as well. Cats are not easy to trim nails and that’s always fun, but we’ve always managed to get it done. So yes and cat’s nails do tend to shed so that’s normal. That’s why they scratch on your furniture and your kitty post or whatever, and they do they get talons so you do want to cut those because they will get caught in your things.

Is there anything that we should know related to the breed of your dog? Cats obviously are different but for different breeds of dogs do their nails grow differently or there’s something that you need to watch for?

Yes actually, French Bulldogs, they have very odd nails. They only grow the top round part, they don’t grow a bottom thickness…they have human-like nails and they are very odd. I didn’t really realize that until I started going to people’s houses and seeing nails every day and noticing these look like Frenchies. I had a mutt and he had French meals and I said “Does this dog in him”? and she said “He does, how did You Know?” I said he’s got Frenchy nails!

That’s pretty cool! And then do you cut those differently?

No, you cut them the same, they just grow differently … they are odd.

What about farriers? LOL, farriers … can’t tell than I’m a horse person can you! How about ferrets?

I have not been asked to do a ferret yet no, I don’t know if I would. I don’t know if I would like to.  

Would you to do bird beaks and talons?

Oh, I don’t know I don’t think so. The most interesting thing actually, one of my clients has a turtle and their turtle was really sick and she wanted to look inside the mouth. I think they’re called beaks as well, and she wasn’t comfortable opening the turtle’s beak and so she asked me would you be comfortable opening his mouth? I said well, I don’t know how and she said you just squeeze his cheeks and then he opens.  And then I said “OK, if you’re willing and you want me to”. Like I’m a curious person so I put my gloves on and I just very gently squeezed them and just got a little bit stronger and then he did, he just opened it up, and I was like cool!, now I’ve handled a turtle!

If people are interested in having their pet beaks opened, their nails clipped, their anal glands expressed, their ears cleaned, some nutritional advice for some of these critters that have significant food and environmental allergies, how can they get ahold of you?

So I have a Facebook page called Desiree’s Pawdicures so you can look me up on there, and my email address is arias.desiree @ hotmail.ca

In this 4 part conversation with Desiree we learned not only about how to clip our dog’s (and cat’s) nails, but what to do when things go wrong. I want to thank Desiree for agreeing to be interviewed and for sharing her knowledge of all things nails when it comes to our pets. Thanks so much for reading and keep and eye out for the next post! Please share if you know anyone who might benefit from learning about these topics!

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please write your comment below and we will do our best to answer it. If you are interested in having Desiree come to your home to clip your pet’s nail, do an ear cleaning or an anal gland expression, Desiree can be reached through her Facebook Page ~ Desiree’s Pawdicures.

If you are interested in having your pet star in our 2025 Pet Calendar, please consider entering the Ruff Start 2025 Pet Photo Calendar Contest. This contest is a fundraiser for a local volunteer pet rescue. Weekly prizes are awarded to those pet owners who have entered a picture of their pet on the on-line calendar website platform and have gotten the greatest number of weekly votes. Grand prizes are awarded after the contest closes on March 28, 2024 and the 12 pets with the highest number of votes will win a free photo session with Silver Hound Studios and their pictures will be placed into the rescue’s 2025 calendar. The top two grand prize winners will also win extra prizes valued at $150 or more. You can register your pet at https://www.gogophotocontest.com/rsrs . Click “Sign In” to get started!