Wednesday, February 23

NailGate 2005 Revisited

Last night, once again, that chubby mutt came in from playing in the yard with a broken nail. What exactly is she doing back there when I think she is just playing fetch with one of the kids from work? We've gone almost 6 years with no nail problems, and now this was the 2nd broken nail in as many months.

This one looked like a different kind of trauma (imagine (at your own risk) pulled back from the nail bed, instead of split down the middle). I immediately decided I wouldn't waste time worrying about what to do, but that I would learn from the last incident, and take her straight to the vet.

Apparently, this time I over-reacted. It seems that pulled back nails can be more or less of a concern than split nails. More of a concern if it is pulled too far back, as the dog must be sedated and the nail fully removed - not just trimmed back. Less of a concern if it isn't too far back, as it will heal itself. (More pretty mental images for you all!)

The good news is, this time it fell into the less of a concern category - it isn't pulled back far enough to warrant it being removed and the vet is quite certain it will heal on it's own if she rests for a couple of days and doesn't participate in "aggressive running" which might re-injure it. (I told Jasper this included "aggressive fence climbing and escaping" - hopefully she'll fall for it!) The vet is also certain that there isn't an underlying problem with her nails - that it is just a coincidence that she had 2 nail 'traumas' so close together.

Also good news - the vet charged me exactly $0 for over-reacting and taking up her valuable time. I told you she was a good one.

Even more good news - the chubby mutt lost .5 pounds. I'm not yet sure if the same can be said for the chubby owner, as she is avoiding the scale until the end of the month so as to not be discouraged again.

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