Nails Breaking

Food, Fitness and how to keep them healthy.

Postby Marinepits » April 19th, 2009, 4:03 pm

Tucker tends to break his nails very easily. They don't seem overly thin, they're not peeling, and they aren't long. His nails are a mixture of dark, white, and striped. The white nails do seem softer than the others and tend to tear off more often, but even his dark nails break. He's in VERY good health, eats good foods, and gets fish oil pills and acidophilous supplements.

When he hauls ass around the yard, he nearly always comes back with at least one nail torn off, and it's usually at the pad. I've watched him run and he really digs in and turf flies everywhere. And he's running on yard dirt and grass, nothing hard or terribly rough.

I hate to stop his running especially since all he wants to do is RUN and chase his ball, but every time he breaks off another nail, he's on the "injured list" for at least a week until the nail grows back enough to stop bleeding when it's used.

Outside of booties (which he REFUSES to wear, to the point of having a tantrum and ripping them to shreds), anyone have any ideas about how to either toughen up his nails or protect them from tearing? I've even thought of painting them with a nail hardener, LOL. :oops:
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Postby iluvk9 » April 19th, 2009, 8:10 pm

What about those "fake slip on nails" they put on little dogs for fashion? Maybe they have large ones that would stay on?

http://www.softpaws.net/faqs.html
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Postby Marinepits » April 19th, 2009, 8:14 pm

Yeah, I was looking at those today. I dunno -- anyone ever use them?
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Postby Hoyden » April 19th, 2009, 10:00 pm

When Pete's did that we added unflavored gelitan to his food.

It seemed to work because the horrible breaks stopped.
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Postby BullyLady » April 19th, 2009, 10:23 pm

Marinepits wrote:Yeah, I was looking at those today. I dunno -- anyone ever use them?


I used them for my kitties before they were declawed. They are super easy to use, and as long as you can get a good bond on they stay for-EVER. The hardest part was getting the cat to hold still long enough to apply them.

I think the gelatin is a great idea, that's what I would do.
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Postby CinderDee » April 20th, 2009, 5:13 am

I would try the gelatin too.
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Postby katiek0417 » April 20th, 2009, 10:06 am

Hoyden wrote:When Pete's did that we added unflavored gelitan to his food.

It seemed to work because the horrible breaks stopped.


I hadn't thought of it....but Nemo's nails broke a lot when I first got him...then, you all know the issues I had with his weight...so I started to feed him satin balls...there is gelatin in satin balls...he still gets satin balls every other day...and his nails have been fine since he started eating them!
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