nail problem

Question
I have a 4 year old German shepherd dog who has declawed till now five of his nails in fore and hindlimbs. the vet. explained the problem to me as his nails haven't been clipped at all since he was seven months old and so they became longer and curled a little pit upward and also become weaker and hurting him till it get dettached and must be surgically removed,,I have another dog almost with the same problem,,tell me what can I do..

Answer
Hi Medo,

A dog's nails are attached to a bone, which is not retractable as it is in cats. Cats claws are mostly attached to tendons and soft type tissue, dogs nails are attached very deeply and have nerves all the way to the root. If a nail is removed, (usually due to injury where the nail has been caught in something and broken off below the skin) healing is slow and painful, even if the nail never grows back, nerve damage can plague the dog its entire life. Pain is often accompanied by not only limping, but chewing and licking, which damages the skin and nerves further and may cause infections in the skin or deeper tissues.

Dogs nails do provide some stability to the foot itself, especially when the dog is leaping or running and propelling itself at high speed.

Some surgeries are not worth the risk, and removing a dogs nail is usually one of those surgeries that isn't' worth it.

Rather than having your dog declawed, it's going to take some time to trim your dog's nails back to a manageable size. It may not be done all at one time, because the living center of the nail (the "quick") would bleed. If you are unable to trim your dog's nails, have a professional dog groomer do it, as often as it's called for, until the nails are an acceptable length. From here on out, once a month either trim your dog's nails, or have a dog groomer do it, so you won't have this problem again.

Best of luck,

Patti