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The nail monster

TylerDurden

Well-Known Member
Oh wow, at least I know I’m not alone on this! Sounds like you have all had to put in A LOT of work also!

This is what we ordered. I’m sure you know, I am always open to more suggestions!

View attachment 61040

You can blame me if it doesn‘t work :)
As mentioned, it‘s not a "miracle" remedy, but we have observed very positive results in many situations. Let us know if it helps Lettie in any way.
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
You can blame me if it doesn‘t work :)
As mentioned, it‘s not a "miracle" remedy, but we have observed very positive results in many situations. Let us know if it helps Lettie in any way.

RR seems to work great for many people, it just didn't work for us and our situation. I think that it's always the logical one to suggest before stepping up to more potent things. Benadryl too, as long as your dog isn't one that it ramps up instead of mellows out. Did you guys know that Walmart has RR in the pet department now? Kind of convenient if you need it quickly and have a Walmart close.
 

TylerDurden

Well-Known Member
RR seems to work great for many people, it just didn't work for us and our situation. I think that it's always the logical one to suggest before stepping up to more potent things. Benadryl too, as long as your dog isn't one that it ramps up instead of mellows out. Did you guys know that Walmart has RR in the pet department now? Kind of convenient if you need it quickly and have a Walmart close.

I agree on the Benadryl. At least in Bane‘s case, it did have a calming effect, but the opposite is definitely possible, as well. Thanks for the information on Walmart! I didn‘t know.
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
TlyerDurden, you gave me a wonderful suggestion, I wouldn’t blame you if it didn’t work! I gave her some last night for the first time and I think it did take the edge off! Some neighbors were doing fireworks..again.

I didn’t know they sold it at Walmart! Good to know, thanks!
 

Bailey's Mom

Super Moderator
Super Moderator
I'm late to the conversation, and I really don't have much to add because I get it all done at once, I just can't keep stress her out every other day. We take her down to Pet Value and have their technician do it, with our help. I get her up on the table (she goes on command - thank God because I couldn't lift her), and then both her Dad and I hold her down and whisper sweet soothing words. She bucks every now and then and it's a work out to make it easy for the tech. And when it's done, she jumps down and does a little dance and she'll even give the tech a little affection...but, just a little. Mostly she's saying "I'm out of here." This is followed up by her shopping for her special treat (usually expensive) and she prances out the door with her treasure in her mouth.

Fortunately for us, she only needs them done once a month. We do most of our walking on concrete, so, she wears them down every day. :)
 

Smokeycat

Well-Known Member
I use the stay command with Jiggers and he is figuring out that the more he fights me the longer it's going to take so now you can see him fighting himself to stay still. He has been clipped too short a couple of times due to moving at the wrong time so that I think is why he dislikes getting his nails done. (Jiggers dislikes all grooming procedures though).
Kryten is simply told to knock it off and he subsides. He likes to see if he can get his own way simply by sounding fierce. That growl has nothing behind it and telling him to stop gets him to give up because it didn't work. Note: you do need to know your dogs vocalizations before you choose to ignore a growl like this.
Thankfully the dew claws are the only ones that need to get done on a regular basis but Kryten's grow fast so its every week or 2. Jiggers is every couple of months.
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
Thank you all so much for your replies and advice!!

Oh Boxergirl, you’ve saved the day again!! We have been working on her nails with everything we can think of with absolutely no luck. So about an hour ago I decided to make a scratch-board. I had some sand paper from my craft stuff and I just taped it to a few pieces of cardboard. I sat with it in front of me and told Lettie “paw”. I kept going and I just tried to kind of catch her paw on the board. She caught on very quickly! My arms are covered in scratch marks and a little blood was lost.... but it was worth it!! I could already see it working a little!! She’s not afraid of it at all, she was almost too enthusiastic, judging by my stinging arms lol.

I’ll have to make a new scratch-board that’s a little more sturdy. I’m so happy with the progress though!
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
Thank you all so much for your replies and advice!!

Oh Boxergirl, you’ve saved the day again!! We have been working on her nails with everything we can think of with absolutely no luck. So about an hour ago I decided to make a scratch-board. I had some sand paper from my craft stuff and I just taped it to a few pieces of cardboard. I sat with it in front of me and told Lettie “paw”. I kept going and I just tried to kind of catch her paw on the board. She caught on very quickly! My arms are covered in scratch marks and a little blood was lost.... but it was worth it!! I could already see it working a little!! She’s not afraid of it at all, she was almost too enthusiastic, judging by my stinging arms lol.

I’ll have to make a new scratch-board that’s a little more sturdy. I’m so happy with the progress though!

I'm so glad! Nails can be just as traumatic for us as it is for them. At least for me.

I have another tip for you guys. My daughter, the vet tech, mentioned that they would very firmly (like kind of hard) pat the animals on the head when they were doing stressful things and that it helped. So we just did Al's nails. My severely anxious boy. My husband was laying on Al - he finds comfort in the weight - and patting his side. I showed him ow to pat his head very firmly. It seriously helped so much. Al relaxed and my husband kept patting. We wiped the nails out in record time with the dremel and very little stress. When I say firmly, I mean hard enough to move their head a little. So not hitting, but definitely not just patting.

I then remembered watching a show on tv about tapping for anxiety. I wonder if it's kind of the same thing. Interesting stuff.
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
I tries the head patting and it hasn’t worked yet, but I’ll keep experimenting on location and pressure.

Update on the scratch board: it’s still AMAZING!! Seriously priceless. We made a nice big sturdy one and she’s pretty enthusiastic about it too! She’s such a quick learner!

One problem though.. she had a nail break a few weeks ago. It split but didn’t hit the quick so we were able to just pull the hanging part off. So she has one nail that is shorter than the rest. So we have been watching that nail to make sure it doesn’t get too short on the scratch board. Tonight I saw a little streak of blood while we were using the board. So we stopped and sure enough she quicked that nail. No big deal, just a little, she didn’t even notice. So, what now? I feel like we can’t use the board until that one grows out and then we will have also lost all progress on the other nails :confused: help!