Our dog has a split toenail!

[Trac]

Anyone have experience with this? It's split from tip to top. It isn't bleeding, and she's not licking it or anything, so I don't think it hurts her even though it looks like it would! I noticed it not long after her last trip to the "spa" a couple weeks ago. Not sure if I need to take her to the vet...can I get it right again by just keeping it well trimmed...is it likely to get worse if I don't deal with it? She's a 10 y.o. (her birthday today!) German Shepherd, about 80 lbs., if that matters.

[number572]

My dog had to have a surgery to remove a broken toenail once, but it was bleeding and she was crying She was scratching her neck and the toenail got hung up on her collar & tore it. In your case, would one of those pet toenail covers work - like the ones that you can get for cats so that they don't destroy furniture? Until it grows out? The surgery was around $300 so I'd avoid it if possible... we could not avoid it tho.

(edited to +) Happy bday, pooch!

[Ola_]

I would trim it as far as you can without causing it to bleed or hurting her. We've had several nail injuries with our two dogs and normally not too much care is needed. Keep it generally clean, soak in an epsom salt solution to clean out gunk (I'd do it just once, and only repeat if you see any issues), and let it heal. My two would generally be more mellow (less jumping and being boisterous) if it hurt but we never had issues with healing. I'd probably avoid long walks, hikes in wooded/rough areas, too much jumping, etc. just to prevent it from extending and injuring the vein.

Have you called the spa (I'm guessing you mean a groomer?) to see if they noticed anything? It's possible she injured it there. Was a nail trim part of what they did?

[russsk]

My dog split his nail right down through the bed. I put honey on it to prevent infection, bandaged it, then put hot sauce on the bandage so he wouldn't lick it. It healed enough in a couple of days to take the bandage off and he was fine a few days after that.