Cut nail

panther pride

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well today I decided to cut bindi's front nails with a fingernail chipper. While I sleep he kneads on my head and even though I have long hair, its uncomfortable and I push him away.
So from time to time I clip his nails to help with that. Well this time I cut into the quick and didnt realise it until a few hours afterwords when I saw the dried blood, I feel awful


Should I watch for anything, Bindi HATES to have his nails done, he was bunnykicking and struggling while I was doing it I tried putting a towel over his head, worked a little but still not good enough, is there any way to help him become desensatized with the process? Will the nail grow back recover?
 

shelly's dad

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The nail will grow back and recover.


They do bleed like crazy when that happens. You can purchase from a drug store styptic powder. If it ever happens again, pour some powder in your hand and mush it on the nail. It's gonna make a mess whatever happens, but that will help stop the bleeding.


One of our cats lost the nail altogether. It was painful for him at first - he didn't walk with a limp, but when we touched anywhere near that toe he meowed. But it grew back in just fine.

Our cats also hated having their nails clipped initially. So rather than tackle an entire paw, we simply started when they were asleep, and we could do one claw before they fully woke up and had a problem with it. So the way we did it was to clip one claw at a time while they were sleeping. We clipped one claw every day and just kept rotating.

We got to the point where we could do two toes before they freaked. & etc. Four years later, I can hold them with no struggling, and clip all the front paw toes. We intersperse it with a little brushing, which they love. We don't bother with the back paws.

Others may have great suggestions. We just gave them all the time they needed to get used to it and got there one claw at a time.


Laurie
 
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panther pride

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Thank you, I'm glad Bindi will be fine he wasn't happy though, Now he wants me to take him outside on his leash and harness.
 

noelle&oliver

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He should recover just fine. My Noelle ripped a nail out over a year ago, and it grew back perfectly. I consider it like when human nails break far down the fingertip level. It hurts like crazy, and bleeds a lot, but it grows back.

The only way I know to desensitize the process is to continue doing it. I trim my kitties nails every 3 weeks, or so. Both hated it when I first got them, but over time, they've become much easier to manage. In the short term, though, you can try scruffing the neck when you want to clip - grasping the excess skin at the back of the neck, but not too tightly. Since it's a behavior that mommy kitty would do to move kittens, or to disapline, they know it. It calms and immobolizes them. A lot of people swear by the towel or blanket trick, but it never worked for me. Perhaps my kit's were just too wiggly for it.
 
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