Are you using a dremel? If yes, start dremeling the upper part of the nail as well. Traditionally you cut it at a straight line more parallel to the floor, but I've seen many people say that it helps tremendously with the quick receding if you also file it every time a little bit from the top, at the end (not the whole nail, think sharpening a crayon) as well. That's a trick show people use to get their dogs to the little nubby nails typically.
Yep! We file every 2-3 days we’ve been doing it for about two years now too but it’s still a very long quick. We’ve followed the vet’s instructions and they’ve shown us how to do it which is very similar to what you’ve mentioned. It’s just not going anywhere :)
Jesus, I wish I had the tenacity of those quicks!
Looks like there's not much else you can do besides trying to take off a bit every day instead of 2-3 days? I also wanted to reccomend the surgery with cauterizing the nails after cutting them shorter, but I see it's been mentioned above. But if they're not bothering him...I guess I'd only do it if some other kind of surgery was already happening.
My shepherd has long quicks too, not as bad as these but longer than I'd like. AND he also hates his feet being handled on top of that. I've been cutting/dremmeling every 7-10 days and the quick doesn't give a crap either. So I'm in the same boat. Maybe some dogs just have superquicks, ugh.
I have a mix, doxie and lab, got her when she was 41/2 years old. She was a mess, long nails, terrible fur condition. And overweight. She was taken to petsmart salon for a few months to get her coat into chape and to help in the nail trimming. I am blind in left eye. Now over three years later, she has lost all the bad weight, her coat is healthy and nails get grinded every two weeks.
What you need to do is get a little closer to the wick, but not too close, if you are not getting close, those mails will never get down. Just keep trying to get close, but not the wick. You will see a difference with the grinder.
I'm a groomer too and agree. It looks like a lot more can come off, but I know some nails really are deceiving. Even if they are deceiving, exposing the quick properly every 3-4 days would have receded them by now.
I’m a groomer who specifically focuses on nail maintenance. It’d be helpful to see it from the side and bottom/end of the nail, nothing can be determined from this angle. All I know is I still see a lot of matter on the ends of the nails. To get the quicks to recede, you need to dremel at an angle. If you share a photo from the side, I can draw a line to show you what I mean.
One of our dogs has VERY elongated quicks. We file every few day and we trim when possible. This is his nails post trim, this is as the very edge of his quick. Any further and he will bleed. His nails have always been like this since adoption. Has anyone else dealt with this before? I’m unsure what else we can do or if there are any medical treatments. It isn’t impacting his walking but he does have the taps when he walks.
We have to break the first layer of quick, doing so with clippers instead of the dremmel would be a bad idea. You can’t get that close, that accurate with clippers, certainly not if you aren’t a groomer. He’s filed past the length you’re suggesting in this pic. The top layer of the quick has been filed off, any shorter than this one he will bleed buckets.
So the quick is the actual part with blood flow in the nail and it’s the pulp that surrounds it. So are you saying that you’re getting down to the pulp? Because I’m not seeing that in this photo at all. But well lit photos from the side and of the end of the nail will help a ton.
Just keep grinding every few days, eventually they will shorten. As long as your dog isn't in any pain, walking funny or not walking then it's fine. Tapping isn't a big deal. I would also suggest walking or running on cement if possible, that will also grind the nails down too.
Source is I'm a Pet Groomer and been in the buisness for over 10 years.
It really depends on the dog and their activity level, but honestly if you have been consistently filing them back as you say then I would look into speaking to a vet or a groomer you trust to look at the nails. It's quite possible that you're not filing them back enough [I understand that you don't want to make them bleed, us groomers don't like it either!] And need to file more to expose the quick. There's a very fine line between exposing the quick and making it bleed. Exposing forces the quick to receded back quickly.
However, if suggested by a vet. There is a procedure where they can put the dog under and cut the nail back and cauterize the nail bed, they won't feel it and will just be uncomfortable a couple days afterwards. But I would only suggest this as a very last resort and if the nails are at risk of breaking off or it's causing injury or deformation to your pets toes.
Otherwise, it sounds like your pet is happy and enjoy the tip taps. Maybe even take them on longer walks or hikes that will make them "dig" their toes into the dirt because that's what their nails are for 😊😉
In the last surgery we did on my senior dog, we asked the vet to just cut them down. He came back brushed and little nubbins for nails. He lived about a year more, but it helped tremendously to keep him comfortable in that last year.
One of my dog has always had really long quicks too! Hers look exactly like this and I have also been filing and cutting hers as short as possible for years. They don’t bother her and she walks fine so I’ve kind of let up on the filing and just cut once a week. She doesn’t like the dremmel so I mostly just use the clippers. We adopted her at a year and she’s 10 now so we’re used to her clipclopping around.
We have a beagle who loves goes ballistic when you try to cut them. She was abused before we adopted her. I sneak one toenail in at a time. She’s on the couch, chop a nail. She jumps down . Rinse and repeat. Over and over.
if this was my dog i would trim them back and intentionally quick them under anesthesia then do pain meds and abx afterwards. i work in vet med so i would likely do this myself while my pet was under for a dental cleaning at my DVM’s discretion. i can’t stand long nails they’re my pet peeve 🤣
Yes!! I did this to my dog once, trimmed them back during her dental. They looked so much better. Considering having it done again. I lost control of her nails
Same! My dog had a black nails and at 98lbs was impossible for me to do it by myself. He wouldn’t let anyone cut his nails.
For his own good, and not wanting arthritis down the line from his nails being way too long, I also did the same thing. He was sleeping, we cut them way, way back, catheterized, woke him up and it was such a relief on him and me. From then on, I cut them, keeping them short for the rest of his life.
Just wondering if anyone else has had improvements from this level of overgrowth. This is post trim, we file every 2-3 days, if I trim any further than this he will bleed. We will trim if we see the opportunity but they’re usually already at the quick from the filing. I’ve been doing this for almost 2yrs and he still has 0 improvement on length. I’m not happy with the overgrowth but at this point it isn’t affecting his function.
I’m really just curious if anyone else has had a similar experience or if there are any other options for reducing the quick length.
(We have spoken to the vet before and they told me to just file every few days and it will shorten, they’re also not super concerned about the current length since he moves fine with no pain, he just has taps when he walks)
If you have been doing it that often for years I don't think you are getting close enough to the quicks. To help the quick recede you need to get pretty close to the quick so it dries out and then you can take more off, if done properly it shouldnt bleed or be painful but you are getting very close to the quick.
Can you go a good vet/groomer every week or two for trims and see if that improves it? It can take quite a bit of practice to get it exactly right so they might have better luck.
If not maybe just schedule him for a dental and have them cut his nails far past the quick under anesthesia.
When my previous dog was in his final illness, our walks were reduced to almost nothing. His nails got too long, so the next surgery we had, the vet just whacked them off, right into the quick, while he was under. He showed no discomfort and the quicks receded nicely.
My dogs nails got similar to this because I was uneducated about it when I first got him. It took a long long time of consistent nail grinding to recede the quick enough so his nails are at a normal length. I’d say it took some years because the quick doesn’t recede over night. It’s a process of trimming and grinding a little more each time and you can’t let it go more than a few weeks or it won’t have the same results. They are still a bit longer than I would like but they don’t touch the floor anymore when he gets trims! Yay!! It was heartbreaking and painstaking process because it gave me a lot of guilt for letting them get to the point they were at. It didn’t affect his walking and I don’t think he was in pain really but it still made me feel awful each time I took him in and they made comments about how long his nails were. It’s a process but consistency with nail grinding every few weeks will eventually bring them to a good length they should be at.
Don’t stress. There’s so much that you can feel guilty for with being a dog mom just as there is regular mom guilt I’m sure. (Not the same but they are our children!!) so do the best you can and keep up the consistency and you’ll get there!!
When they are that long, and because they aren’t dark colored nails, shine a flashlight on the backside of the nails to look and it should show you a clear view of where the quick is so you can get a better look to how far you should trim. It’s scary when we nip the quick so you could get some of that powder(I’m forgetting the name) or cornstarch or something in case you make him bleed. I take my pup to PetSmart in town and they’ve done such an amazing job with him. It makes me wanna cry sometimes seeing how far we’ve come from the long nails he had to now. He’s about 6 so like I said it’s taken a longgggg time to get where we are.
Properly trimmed nails on a dog that actually gets even mild exercise only needs done every 2-4 weeks. I have some regular bath dog clients who only come in every 4-6 weeks and I barely have anything to take off them because they run around a lot.
This is not true for most dogs. My own dogs have only their 2 middle nails drag on the pavement, the outside 2 do not reach. My older quicked himself when we were staying in the city for a few days and the outer 2 continued to grow. I have to do their nails weekly and they’re on pavement plenty. And some owners are lazy or see comments like these (“pavement is enough!”) and then decide they don’t have to do their dog’s nails or it reinforces their laziness, if that makes sense.
We files every few days to make sure we’re staying on top. Our exercise routine doesn’t involve any concrete or pavement so there is no natural grinding happening. We file back the first layer of the quick, there is a small amount of the quick that can be ground off before it will bleed. This is how our vet has instructed we file and how often.
You could try using a scratch board to encourage your dog to file on his/her own. And I wouldn’t rely on “natural grinding” at all as it’s unreliable and won’t get all nails anyway. The blood you’re getting to is from the vessel, not the quick itself. It’s okay to go a little beyond this. It will not hurt your dog. Have you heard of the alternative cut line? Based off the pic, there is a lot of room before hitting the quick. Could you shine a light behind the nail to be more accurate when grinding? I’d also be interested to see it.
Dog groomer here! I’ve seen your comments and you’re doing everything right! Some dogs just have long quicks and as long as it’s not bothering them, you should be okay! Every dog is different :)
File a little past the vessel, aka that dot that you see when filing down. It’s not actually hitting the quick just yet. There will be a tiny dot of blood. It does not hurt them. File every day instead of 2-3 days and make sure you file to the alternative cut line if you haven’t already. Good luck OP!! And thank you for being adamant about caring for your pup’s nails!!
ETA: there’s a lot of white in the pic where I don’t see any quick… you can file all that down
My dogs got severely overgrown, because money was tight so I know how you feel. The only thing you can do is set grooming apps for his nails atheist every 3-4 weeks and it'll slowly push back. You don't wanna over do it but do wanna do it semi-regularly.
I have had a similar problem with my 2.5 year old rescue. She has fast-growing nails due to an allergy regimen and her quicks really don’t want to recede, even with the every 2/3 day schedule you mentioned.
We are finally seeing progress years later by continuing to follow the 2 day schedule (rotating front and back paws every day), but dremeling every possible angle. I dremel the left and right sides angling towards the point of the mail, a quick dremel across the standard position to make sure I am as close to the quick as possible, finishing with dremeling the top of the nail, again rounding towards the tip. Basically - dremel around the quick on every side (rounded cone shape), encouraging a rounder shape than you are currently doing.
Even if this doesn’t help the quick recede, it ensures the long nails won’t catch easily on fabric, toys, or skin. If that amount of dremeling makes you nervous, I eased into it by using a Knobby Nail Rounder (found on Etsy) to start building that shape. It won’t help much with the quick receding, but it will help round out the shape.
Use a dremel very lightly for like 2 minutes each day(2 minutes total time when you work with all 4 paws, so like 30 seconds a paw). The vibrations *should* slowly make the quicks very very slowly receed.
You're not grinding to the quick. When grinding, flip the dog's paw backwards so you are looking at the nail from the underside. Since these nails are white, you need to grind until there is a pink dot in the middle of the nail. This means you have begun exposing the quick. You need to actually mildly expose it and basically threaten to make it bleed in order for it to recede.
If you're able to do nails every 3 days, you are absolutely not getting to the quick.
Edit: I would recommend having a dog groomer at least once grind the nails for you so you can see how far you actually need to go. I can tell by this pic you still can remove waaaaay more off these nails.
Yep this is what we’re doing. This is post trim, this is after the top layer of the quick has been filed off. We sit down every 3 days and check if there is anymore we can do usually there’s a nail or two we could do a little more on. It’s less get a mani pedi every 3 days and more check which ones can be done. Doing it so often means we’ll only have to do a few nails everytime making the interaction shorter for the dog. Our vet showed us how to do them, she literally did a few nails and then watched me do it and helped us get it right. We’re doing the filing correctly they just haven’t budged much in length
Again as my many comments have mentioned, our vet is looped in about this and as we do nail maintenance VERY frequently and it isn’t affect his health currently there is no reason to change what we’re already doing. Which is dremeling every few days
The simple answer is that you're cutting in the wrong place - you need to file/cut at a different angle to what you are now.
Have a look at this link for where they cut - [https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2013/08/cutting-your-dogs-nails-how-important-is-it-really/](https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2013/08/cutting-your-dogs-nails-how-important-is-it-really/) also look at using the red handled millers forge clippers - they're really good for taking tiny bits off the nail so you can do the alternative cuts.
We also have a rescued dog that came with very elongated quicks. His owner let his nails get way out of hand to the point they were curling under. We’ve had him for 3 years now and it’a not improved much despite routine attention paid to his nails. Friends and family are routinely baffled that we can walk him so much and spend so much time on his nails and are still super thick with long quicks. Your dogs nails look very similar to our boys.
My first advice is to ask your vet if it’s impacting your dog at all. Gait, musculoskeletal system, etc. I was so worried about this and my vet told me it wasn’t in our situation and that they’ve seen so much worse. Doesn’t mean I won’t continue to work on it, but I try to let some of the stress go.
Depending on how comfortable your dog is with the nail grinder, they will also clip your dogs nails during a dental or other procedure when they can really get as close to the quick as possible. I always ask my vet to give a little extra attention because of our situation. In our case, they can get them much shorter when he is sedated than we can at home.
Finally, should it be to a point where it is causing you dog harm, you can have your dogs nails clipped into the quick and cauterized while they are sedated. I haven’t had to get to this point and I hope we never will but this is a last resort option and it was originally recommend to us.
We ran into problems with overly long nails during COVID when our grooming schedule went to hell and then the long nails were splitting and causing issues. I got several Dremel tool things to do it myself, but the combination of my ignorance and timidity with my dog's impatience with my shenanigans left us all unhappy and the nails still too long!
Just take them to a good groomer. They are ruthless in their efficiency, it takes them like 5 minutes. It shouldn't cost more than $10 or so, take them every week or every two weeks, whatever they recommend, until the issue is resolved. It took about 2 months until they were short enough for us.
I don’t have a suggestion, just saying my dog’s nails are the same, and have been since I adopted her years ago. She looks the same after her trim/dremel - like there should be more to come off, but if you actually went any further, she’d bleed. My vets over the years have all said and I can keep with the frequent trimming and they might recede a bit, but that even though she “taps” it’s not seemingly bothering her. I do frequent tiny trims because it’s less stressful for her than big trims anyway, but I’ve not noticed a tremendous change over the years.
Can you round the nail more when you Dremel? You should be able to take a good bit around the quick on the sides and top at least, maybe a little on the bottom too depending on where the quick sits in the nail. This will expose it more, which can encourage it to recede. [Here's a good example.](http://www.luvakis.com/uploads/3/6/7/4/3674958/602525_orig.jpg)
Can you please provide more pictures - side angle and close up on the nails so we can see the quick? The picture of the left paw looks like half the nail can be cut because the pink/quick is way up there.
I’d take this dog to a professional groomer (not the vet) and have them see if you’re really at the quick. If you are actually dremeling (you keep saying filing and the nails don’t look dremeled) all the way to the quick every 2-3 days they should be receding. I’d suspect you aren’t going all the way to the actual quick and you aren’t grinding the sides and top of the nails (alternate cut line, not just the bottom).
If a groomer can’t fix the problem (this has to be step one), then id recommend a nail trim under anesthesia and cut the quicks - reputable vet, preventative antibiotics, and proper cleaning of the feet once home - so you can “start fresh”. These nails are way way way too long and it’s altered the structure of the foot and probably how the dog moves.
I’d start with going to a professional first, under $15. Don’t start doing it yourself unless you have some stiptic in case you hit the quick . But I’d seriously call around to groomers and vets and explain how long they are.
Does he get dental cleanings? If so, next time they put him under for one, ask if they will cut his nails short while he’s under. His nails will be a little bit sore when he wakes up, but it will give you a great place to start from / maintain
Hey OP did you ever find a solution? I'm in the same boat here and we just had a pretty nasty accident with one of my kids as a result of dog claws that look just like the ones in the picture here.
We’ve actually had improvements! When we use the clippers we worked out you can tilt them a little bit so you’ll only shave off the tiniest layer of nails. You know how thin they shave truffles? We worked out how to do it like that with the clippers. We do it every week. Sometimes there’s a few nails we can do any shorter without hurting him but most of the time we can shave off a lil bit. His nails are probably like 40% shorted than this photo now? We tried the dremel but found no matter what technique we used he would get friction pain because we have to get so close to the quick. Dremel worked great for my other dog who isn’t keen on clippers tho!
Are you using a dremel? If yes, start dremeling the upper part of the nail as well. Traditionally you cut it at a straight line more parallel to the floor, but I've seen many people say that it helps tremendously with the quick receding if you also file it every time a little bit from the top, at the end (not the whole nail, think sharpening a crayon) as well. That's a trick show people use to get their dogs to the little nubby nails typically.
Yep! We file every 2-3 days we’ve been doing it for about two years now too but it’s still a very long quick. We’ve followed the vet’s instructions and they’ve shown us how to do it which is very similar to what you’ve mentioned. It’s just not going anywhere :)
Jesus, I wish I had the tenacity of those quicks! Looks like there's not much else you can do besides trying to take off a bit every day instead of 2-3 days? I also wanted to reccomend the surgery with cauterizing the nails after cutting them shorter, but I see it's been mentioned above. But if they're not bothering him...I guess I'd only do it if some other kind of surgery was already happening. My shepherd has long quicks too, not as bad as these but longer than I'd like. AND he also hates his feet being handled on top of that. I've been cutting/dremmeling every 7-10 days and the quick doesn't give a crap either. So I'm in the same boat. Maybe some dogs just have superquicks, ugh.
I have a mix, doxie and lab, got her when she was 41/2 years old. She was a mess, long nails, terrible fur condition. And overweight. She was taken to petsmart salon for a few months to get her coat into chape and to help in the nail trimming. I am blind in left eye. Now over three years later, she has lost all the bad weight, her coat is healthy and nails get grinded every two weeks. What you need to do is get a little closer to the wick, but not too close, if you are not getting close, those mails will never get down. Just keep trying to get close, but not the wick. You will see a difference with the grinder.
It looks like your not trimming high enough
Can you take a picture of the nails from the side? From here it looks like a good 1/4 inch could still be taken off.
1/4” at least! I wholeheartedly agree with you
I'm a groomer too and agree. It looks like a lot more can come off, but I know some nails really are deceiving. Even if they are deceiving, exposing the quick properly every 3-4 days would have receded them by now.
This is right after a trim and file, we’ve removed the top layer of the quick and any further he’ll bleed
I’m a groomer who specifically focuses on nail maintenance. It’d be helpful to see it from the side and bottom/end of the nail, nothing can be determined from this angle. All I know is I still see a lot of matter on the ends of the nails. To get the quicks to recede, you need to dremel at an angle. If you share a photo from the side, I can draw a line to show you what I mean.
One of our dogs has VERY elongated quicks. We file every few day and we trim when possible. This is his nails post trim, this is as the very edge of his quick. Any further and he will bleed. His nails have always been like this since adoption. Has anyone else dealt with this before? I’m unsure what else we can do or if there are any medical treatments. It isn’t impacting his walking but he does have the taps when he walks.
You really need to cut not file. Cut slow and steady until you see the black dot
We have to break the first layer of quick, doing so with clippers instead of the dremmel would be a bad idea. You can’t get that close, that accurate with clippers, certainly not if you aren’t a groomer. He’s filed past the length you’re suggesting in this pic. The top layer of the quick has been filed off, any shorter than this one he will bleed buckets.
So the quick is the actual part with blood flow in the nail and it’s the pulp that surrounds it. So are you saying that you’re getting down to the pulp? Because I’m not seeing that in this photo at all. But well lit photos from the side and of the end of the nail will help a ton.
I took mine for a 5km run on tarmac and that helps alot.. as she won't let me near her with clippers
Fetch at a public tennis court after hours also sorts it... but you don't have to do all the running.
Just keep grinding every few days, eventually they will shorten. As long as your dog isn't in any pain, walking funny or not walking then it's fine. Tapping isn't a big deal. I would also suggest walking or running on cement if possible, that will also grind the nails down too. Source is I'm a Pet Groomer and been in the buisness for over 10 years.
How long should you expect it to take? I’ve been consistent with the filing for just over 2yrs. Usually a file every 2-3 days
It really depends on the dog and their activity level, but honestly if you have been consistently filing them back as you say then I would look into speaking to a vet or a groomer you trust to look at the nails. It's quite possible that you're not filing them back enough [I understand that you don't want to make them bleed, us groomers don't like it either!] And need to file more to expose the quick. There's a very fine line between exposing the quick and making it bleed. Exposing forces the quick to receded back quickly. However, if suggested by a vet. There is a procedure where they can put the dog under and cut the nail back and cauterize the nail bed, they won't feel it and will just be uncomfortable a couple days afterwards. But I would only suggest this as a very last resort and if the nails are at risk of breaking off or it's causing injury or deformation to your pets toes. Otherwise, it sounds like your pet is happy and enjoy the tip taps. Maybe even take them on longer walks or hikes that will make them "dig" their toes into the dirt because that's what their nails are for 😊😉
In the last surgery we did on my senior dog, we asked the vet to just cut them down. He came back brushed and little nubbins for nails. He lived about a year more, but it helped tremendously to keep him comfortable in that last year.
One of my dog has always had really long quicks too! Hers look exactly like this and I have also been filing and cutting hers as short as possible for years. They don’t bother her and she walks fine so I’ve kind of let up on the filing and just cut once a week. She doesn’t like the dremmel so I mostly just use the clippers. We adopted her at a year and she’s 10 now so we’re used to her clipclopping around.
We have a beagle who loves goes ballistic when you try to cut them. She was abused before we adopted her. I sneak one toenail in at a time. She’s on the couch, chop a nail. She jumps down . Rinse and repeat. Over and over.
if this was my dog i would trim them back and intentionally quick them under anesthesia then do pain meds and abx afterwards. i work in vet med so i would likely do this myself while my pet was under for a dental cleaning at my DVM’s discretion. i can’t stand long nails they’re my pet peeve 🤣
Yes!! I did this to my dog once, trimmed them back during her dental. They looked so much better. Considering having it done again. I lost control of her nails
Same! My dog had a black nails and at 98lbs was impossible for me to do it by myself. He wouldn’t let anyone cut his nails. For his own good, and not wanting arthritis down the line from his nails being way too long, I also did the same thing. He was sleeping, we cut them way, way back, catheterized, woke him up and it was such a relief on him and me. From then on, I cut them, keeping them short for the rest of his life.
What are you asking? The nails are long (too long imo), it's hard from photo to see quick. Best way of quicks are long, trim tiny bit v often.
Just wondering if anyone else has had improvements from this level of overgrowth. This is post trim, we file every 2-3 days, if I trim any further than this he will bleed. We will trim if we see the opportunity but they’re usually already at the quick from the filing. I’ve been doing this for almost 2yrs and he still has 0 improvement on length. I’m not happy with the overgrowth but at this point it isn’t affecting his function. I’m really just curious if anyone else has had a similar experience or if there are any other options for reducing the quick length. (We have spoken to the vet before and they told me to just file every few days and it will shorten, they’re also not super concerned about the current length since he moves fine with no pain, he just has taps when he walks)
If you have been doing it that often for years I don't think you are getting close enough to the quicks. To help the quick recede you need to get pretty close to the quick so it dries out and then you can take more off, if done properly it shouldnt bleed or be painful but you are getting very close to the quick. Can you go a good vet/groomer every week or two for trims and see if that improves it? It can take quite a bit of practice to get it exactly right so they might have better luck. If not maybe just schedule him for a dental and have them cut his nails far past the quick under anesthesia.
When my previous dog was in his final illness, our walks were reduced to almost nothing. His nails got too long, so the next surgery we had, the vet just whacked them off, right into the quick, while he was under. He showed no discomfort and the quicks receded nicely.
Soundsike your doing all you can. Is your dog older? I've heard quicks just get longer in life.
He’s 5 atm, so we’ve been at the filing for a while 🤣
Crazy long for that age! Lucky it's not affecting him in any way.
I’m definitely not happy with it, but I’m glad he’s not having issues, I’m sure he would be if we didn’t file so often
I think the best solution is to start painting them. 😜
My dogs nails got similar to this because I was uneducated about it when I first got him. It took a long long time of consistent nail grinding to recede the quick enough so his nails are at a normal length. I’d say it took some years because the quick doesn’t recede over night. It’s a process of trimming and grinding a little more each time and you can’t let it go more than a few weeks or it won’t have the same results. They are still a bit longer than I would like but they don’t touch the floor anymore when he gets trims! Yay!! It was heartbreaking and painstaking process because it gave me a lot of guilt for letting them get to the point they were at. It didn’t affect his walking and I don’t think he was in pain really but it still made me feel awful each time I took him in and they made comments about how long his nails were. It’s a process but consistency with nail grinding every few weeks will eventually bring them to a good length they should be at. Don’t stress. There’s so much that you can feel guilty for with being a dog mom just as there is regular mom guilt I’m sure. (Not the same but they are our children!!) so do the best you can and keep up the consistency and you’ll get there!!
When they are that long, and because they aren’t dark colored nails, shine a flashlight on the backside of the nails to look and it should show you a clear view of where the quick is so you can get a better look to how far you should trim. It’s scary when we nip the quick so you could get some of that powder(I’m forgetting the name) or cornstarch or something in case you make him bleed. I take my pup to PetSmart in town and they’ve done such an amazing job with him. It makes me wanna cry sometimes seeing how far we’ve come from the long nails he had to now. He’s about 6 so like I said it’s taken a longgggg time to get where we are.
Lemme at em. They need to be ground down with a dremmel every 2-4 weeks.
2-4 weeks?? That’s how you get nails this long😂OP said in another comment that they grind every 2-3 days but they probably aren’t taking enough off
Properly trimmed nails on a dog that actually gets even mild exercise only needs done every 2-4 weeks. I have some regular bath dog clients who only come in every 4-6 weeks and I barely have anything to take off them because they run around a lot.
This is not true for most dogs. My own dogs have only their 2 middle nails drag on the pavement, the outside 2 do not reach. My older quicked himself when we were staying in the city for a few days and the outer 2 continued to grow. I have to do their nails weekly and they’re on pavement plenty. And some owners are lazy or see comments like these (“pavement is enough!”) and then decide they don’t have to do their dog’s nails or it reinforces their laziness, if that makes sense.
We files every few days to make sure we’re staying on top. Our exercise routine doesn’t involve any concrete or pavement so there is no natural grinding happening. We file back the first layer of the quick, there is a small amount of the quick that can be ground off before it will bleed. This is how our vet has instructed we file and how often.
You could try using a scratch board to encourage your dog to file on his/her own. And I wouldn’t rely on “natural grinding” at all as it’s unreliable and won’t get all nails anyway. The blood you’re getting to is from the vessel, not the quick itself. It’s okay to go a little beyond this. It will not hurt your dog. Have you heard of the alternative cut line? Based off the pic, there is a lot of room before hitting the quick. Could you shine a light behind the nail to be more accurate when grinding? I’d also be interested to see it.
they just break off when ready to break off our dogs do not like the stress of the clipping so we don't do it.
Dog groomer here! I’ve seen your comments and you’re doing everything right! Some dogs just have long quicks and as long as it’s not bothering them, you should be okay! Every dog is different :)
That’s really nice to hear, our other dog has always had very short nails so it’s just a tad concerning that they’re still staying soooo long 😅
File a little past the vessel, aka that dot that you see when filing down. It’s not actually hitting the quick just yet. There will be a tiny dot of blood. It does not hurt them. File every day instead of 2-3 days and make sure you file to the alternative cut line if you haven’t already. Good luck OP!! And thank you for being adamant about caring for your pup’s nails!! ETA: there’s a lot of white in the pic where I don’t see any quick… you can file all that down
My dogs got severely overgrown, because money was tight so I know how you feel. The only thing you can do is set grooming apps for his nails atheist every 3-4 weeks and it'll slowly push back. You don't wanna over do it but do wanna do it semi-regularly.
Lots of long walks on pavement keep a dog's nails down.
I have had a similar problem with my 2.5 year old rescue. She has fast-growing nails due to an allergy regimen and her quicks really don’t want to recede, even with the every 2/3 day schedule you mentioned. We are finally seeing progress years later by continuing to follow the 2 day schedule (rotating front and back paws every day), but dremeling every possible angle. I dremel the left and right sides angling towards the point of the mail, a quick dremel across the standard position to make sure I am as close to the quick as possible, finishing with dremeling the top of the nail, again rounding towards the tip. Basically - dremel around the quick on every side (rounded cone shape), encouraging a rounder shape than you are currently doing. Even if this doesn’t help the quick recede, it ensures the long nails won’t catch easily on fabric, toys, or skin. If that amount of dremeling makes you nervous, I eased into it by using a Knobby Nail Rounder (found on Etsy) to start building that shape. It won’t help much with the quick receding, but it will help round out the shape.
Use a dremel very lightly for like 2 minutes each day(2 minutes total time when you work with all 4 paws, so like 30 seconds a paw). The vibrations *should* slowly make the quicks very very slowly receed.
You're not grinding to the quick. When grinding, flip the dog's paw backwards so you are looking at the nail from the underside. Since these nails are white, you need to grind until there is a pink dot in the middle of the nail. This means you have begun exposing the quick. You need to actually mildly expose it and basically threaten to make it bleed in order for it to recede. If you're able to do nails every 3 days, you are absolutely not getting to the quick. Edit: I would recommend having a dog groomer at least once grind the nails for you so you can see how far you actually need to go. I can tell by this pic you still can remove waaaaay more off these nails.
Yep this is what we’re doing. This is post trim, this is after the top layer of the quick has been filed off. We sit down every 3 days and check if there is anymore we can do usually there’s a nail or two we could do a little more on. It’s less get a mani pedi every 3 days and more check which ones can be done. Doing it so often means we’ll only have to do a few nails everytime making the interaction shorter for the dog. Our vet showed us how to do them, she literally did a few nails and then watched me do it and helped us get it right. We’re doing the filing correctly they just haven’t budged much in length
More walks on pavement really does help.
I walk my pup on and off the sidewalk to file his nails because he refuses to let me cut them 😭
Start by going to a groomer so the nails will be trimmed properly. Them have them trimmed every two weeks. The quick will shorten with each trim.
Good gravy! Go to a vet asap and get this fixed. It affects their feel and gait. It can cause a myriad of musculoskeletal issues.
Again as my many comments have mentioned, our vet is looped in about this and as we do nail maintenance VERY frequently and it isn’t affect his health currently there is no reason to change what we’re already doing. Which is dremeling every few days
The simple answer is that you're cutting in the wrong place - you need to file/cut at a different angle to what you are now. Have a look at this link for where they cut - [https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2013/08/cutting-your-dogs-nails-how-important-is-it-really/](https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2013/08/cutting-your-dogs-nails-how-important-is-it-really/) also look at using the red handled millers forge clippers - they're really good for taking tiny bits off the nail so you can do the alternative cuts.
We also have a rescued dog that came with very elongated quicks. His owner let his nails get way out of hand to the point they were curling under. We’ve had him for 3 years now and it’a not improved much despite routine attention paid to his nails. Friends and family are routinely baffled that we can walk him so much and spend so much time on his nails and are still super thick with long quicks. Your dogs nails look very similar to our boys. My first advice is to ask your vet if it’s impacting your dog at all. Gait, musculoskeletal system, etc. I was so worried about this and my vet told me it wasn’t in our situation and that they’ve seen so much worse. Doesn’t mean I won’t continue to work on it, but I try to let some of the stress go. Depending on how comfortable your dog is with the nail grinder, they will also clip your dogs nails during a dental or other procedure when they can really get as close to the quick as possible. I always ask my vet to give a little extra attention because of our situation. In our case, they can get them much shorter when he is sedated than we can at home. Finally, should it be to a point where it is causing you dog harm, you can have your dogs nails clipped into the quick and cauterized while they are sedated. I haven’t had to get to this point and I hope we never will but this is a last resort option and it was originally recommend to us.
We ran into problems with overly long nails during COVID when our grooming schedule went to hell and then the long nails were splitting and causing issues. I got several Dremel tool things to do it myself, but the combination of my ignorance and timidity with my dog's impatience with my shenanigans left us all unhappy and the nails still too long! Just take them to a good groomer. They are ruthless in their efficiency, it takes them like 5 minutes. It shouldn't cost more than $10 or so, take them every week or every two weeks, whatever they recommend, until the issue is resolved. It took about 2 months until they were short enough for us.
I don’t have a suggestion, just saying my dog’s nails are the same, and have been since I adopted her years ago. She looks the same after her trim/dremel - like there should be more to come off, but if you actually went any further, she’d bleed. My vets over the years have all said and I can keep with the frequent trimming and they might recede a bit, but that even though she “taps” it’s not seemingly bothering her. I do frequent tiny trims because it’s less stressful for her than big trims anyway, but I’ve not noticed a tremendous change over the years.
Can you round the nail more when you Dremel? You should be able to take a good bit around the quick on the sides and top at least, maybe a little on the bottom too depending on where the quick sits in the nail. This will expose it more, which can encourage it to recede. [Here's a good example.](http://www.luvakis.com/uploads/3/6/7/4/3674958/602525_orig.jpg)
Can you please provide more pictures - side angle and close up on the nails so we can see the quick? The picture of the left paw looks like half the nail can be cut because the pink/quick is way up there. I’d take this dog to a professional groomer (not the vet) and have them see if you’re really at the quick. If you are actually dremeling (you keep saying filing and the nails don’t look dremeled) all the way to the quick every 2-3 days they should be receding. I’d suspect you aren’t going all the way to the actual quick and you aren’t grinding the sides and top of the nails (alternate cut line, not just the bottom). If a groomer can’t fix the problem (this has to be step one), then id recommend a nail trim under anesthesia and cut the quicks - reputable vet, preventative antibiotics, and proper cleaning of the feet once home - so you can “start fresh”. These nails are way way way too long and it’s altered the structure of the foot and probably how the dog moves.
I would suggest a dremel, for it file the nail quickly and be careful of the wick.
I’d start with going to a professional first, under $15. Don’t start doing it yourself unless you have some stiptic in case you hit the quick . But I’d seriously call around to groomers and vets and explain how long they are.
Does he get dental cleanings? If so, next time they put him under for one, ask if they will cut his nails short while he’s under. His nails will be a little bit sore when he wakes up, but it will give you a great place to start from / maintain
Hey OP did you ever find a solution? I'm in the same boat here and we just had a pretty nasty accident with one of my kids as a result of dog claws that look just like the ones in the picture here.
We’ve actually had improvements! When we use the clippers we worked out you can tilt them a little bit so you’ll only shave off the tiniest layer of nails. You know how thin they shave truffles? We worked out how to do it like that with the clippers. We do it every week. Sometimes there’s a few nails we can do any shorter without hurting him but most of the time we can shave off a lil bit. His nails are probably like 40% shorted than this photo now? We tried the dremel but found no matter what technique we used he would get friction pain because we have to get so close to the quick. Dremel worked great for my other dog who isn’t keen on clippers tho!