Nail Injury

Hello! I was wondering if I could get some advice about a nail injury my cat has. I was watching him use his scratching post and noticed that one of his claws looked bloody. I picked him up to check it out and sure enough the claw seems to have split vertically down into the quick. There's blood there, but I don't think it's bleeding anymore. I have a feeling this happened last night; my cat is sick and also a bit psychotic so I had to do the towel-wrapping thing to get him to take his medicine and he was trying really hard to claw his way free. He doesn't seem to be favoring it and I think it's already clotted and on it's way to healing, but I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on how to make sure he doesn't injure it further and maybe how to keep litter from getting in the crack. I don't think I can remove the split part without cutting into the quick/potentially re-opening the cut. I might be able to trim a bit more of his nail and reduce the size of the split though...Thanks for the help!!

This is very common. Kitties nails shed (the casing) as the new nail grows. Sometimes, near the bed where the hair is, it doesn't always slough off, so it can split or pull and cause bleeding. Kitties don't care--the amount of split nails and tiny droplets of blood I've seen in my many years of owning cats, all was good. But, keep an eye on it. Look for pus--if you see anything yellow or green and foul smelling, it's infected and you need to get to a vet for antibiotics. 

Thank you! I didn't know that; he's my first cat ever so I tend to worry about him a lot. That makes me feel better; I'll definitely still keep an eye on it as you suggested!

No worries! They are our babies and we stress when we notice anything different. Always good to ask.

I also have always made notes for my kitties about things I wanted to ask the vet etc. This always helped me in knowing when my kitty wasn't well. knowing their eating and bathroom habits to play time....all is very good to keep note of so that if they are a bit under the weather, we can tell the vet more.