Nail Maintenance

Why Nail Maintenance is Important

To keep your dog comfortable, it's important to know how often to get your dogs nails trimmed so they don't become a problem. Excessively long nails can put pressure on joints causing pain and are at risk of breaking, which can expose their quick and lead to serious infection. It's important to note that long nails cannot always be nimbly treated with a simple nail trim. When left untrimmed, the vein inside the nail can continue to grow which limits how much we're able to take off without cutting into the quick. However, consistent nail trimming can help the quick to recede which will allow the nail to be trimmed shorter over time.

Dog Nails Tell Us A lot About Their Health

Like people, a dogs nails can tell us a lot about what's going on inside. Excessive brittleness, discoloration, or abnormal curvature are some of the characteristics that can be symptoms of infection, auto-immune disorders and other health issues.

How Often Should I Get Them Trimmed?

The frequency in which a dog needs nail trimming varies from dog to dog depending on how quickly their nails grow based on several factors such as activity level, genetic makeup and health. Generally, we recommend once a month, give or take a week or two depending on the unique growth rate of each dogs nails. If you're unsure how often to get your dogs nails trimmed, ask us during your nail trimming appointment. We'll nail down a good schedule!

Should I Try to Trim My Dogs Nails Myself?

We never recommend owners trim their dogs nails themselves. Attempting this on your own has several risks. Most often, cutting the dogs nerve and causing pain and bleeding. As a result, they can develop a fear of nail trimming which can make this very process in the future quite difficult. It can create a stressful scenario for a task that otherwise is fairly easy and pain-free. We want them to know nail trimming is no big deal, they can trust us. So you can breath, relax and leave the nail trimming to us!