Caution: If you are squeamish, eating breakfast, or both, you may not want to read this. Consider yourself warned. You can turn to another more pleasant subject. May I suggest Cooper's first camping trip or homemade recipes. There is bleeding involved... all right then - if you insist.
So as if it isn't bad enough that the old guy is arthritic, last night on our walk I step on Curly's foot and BROKE his toenail. Completely snapped it - right through the quick. I didn't even know he was hurt. He didn't yelp or limp. Nothing. I had no idea until we got home and saw all of the blood. And boy did he bleed. The toenail snapped to a couple of centimetres from his toe and the toenail was still hanging on at a really disturbing angle. At first I thought I broke his toe and was mentally going over who I would call at 10:00 at night to fix it. So after checking his paw for signs of injury, I determined it was only the toenail and I sterilized some scissors to cut the hanging toenail off so it didn't catch on something. There is a reason why I skipped a few biology labs. ICK! Poor kid. I spared you the picture but I briefly thought about taking one. So we bandaged him up but the bleeding kept up for about half an hour.
I found out today from our groomer that corn starch will stop the bleeding. I am assuming she means when you accidentally cut the quick as you are clipping nails and not when you trod all over your dog's feet breaking his toenail in half. You dip the toenail in corn starch to help clotting.
You can also use a styptic pencil found at your local groomer, pet store or drug store - which is why I phoned the groomer in the first place. I knew they had some magical solution to seal the nail and stop the bleeding. A styptic pencil has aluminum sulfate in it or you can use alum powder. Some people say the styptic pencil can sting a bit. I have no idea. I guess the best thing is to try it on myself first. It is also used to stop bleeding from shaving nicks - predominately aimed at men. Or in my case, a hasty leg shave. Come on ladies - you know the one. There is usually an ankle involved and it happens about five minutes before you have to head out the door. There may or may not be water involved and there is always plenty of bleeding. Styptic pencil or corn starch is the answer. And a little pre-planning on what I am going to wear that day.
Just in case you are unfamiliar with the quick, it is a bunch of nerves and blood supply in the dog's toenail. And boy is it ever a blood supply. Here's a picture of the quick on some white nails.
Curly has black nails making it very difficult to see the quick when trimming, which is why he goes to the groomer for that. I can't bear to do it. In fact, he was due to go in for a clipping this week but I think we'll hold off on that for a wee bit. No need to torture the poor guy any further.
I feel SO BAD. But he is an amazing little guy. He's not limping and shows no obvious signs of discomfort. He did get a lot of treats to ease the pain. I'm not sure that it works that way in his mind, but it did a little bit to ease my guilt. The bleeding stopped on it's own even after I washed his feet and disinfected the toe today. I guess we'll both watch where we are going from now on. And it is a good idea to have your emergency number handy for more serious accidents. He seems to bear no grudges. He's such a good dog.
Sorry if that was too graphic but hopefully there was some useful information in there. Plus I just had to share.
Hope you have a great weekend.
mavis
近年、生活水準の継続的な改善と、人々の欲望が社会活動に参加しても、ドレスは、より多くの人々は、特殊な状況で使用されているされており、増加しており、過去からリースに着用者のいくつかの購入またはコレクションを表します。一方、過去の市場に比べウエディングドレス販売台数が大幅に増加している。しかし、業界カラードレス格安、製品の品質問題の急速な発展は、非標準の市場はますます顕著になってくる。
Posted by: ドレス | April 29, 2011 at 09:19 PM