My dog broke a nail or I cut it too short: how do I stop the bleeding?

A yelp in the park, then your dog comes back to you on three legs and leaves red spots all over the hall floor. You look at the paw: one nail is bent at a strange angle, or snapped halfway and hanging, or simply gone, with a pink dot where it used to be. Or you trimmed his nails yourself, took a fraction too much, and now it is bleeding like a serious wound. Inside each nail is a living core, the quick, with blood vessels and nerves, so it bleeds a lot and hurts a lot. It looks worse than it is. A broken nail is rarely a serious emergency, and below you'll find how to stop the bleeding, what you can do yourself and when to see the vet.

What to do in the next 10 minutes

1. Calm him and keep him still. Pick up a small dog. Lay a big one on his side on the floor, with someone calmly holding him at the chest. Keep your voice low. A dog with a painful paw can whip round and bite, you included, even if he has never bitten before. If he flinches, growls or stares at your hand, put a muzzle on him or loop a wide scarf gently round his muzzle without tightening it, and take it off as soon as you are done.
2. Find the nail. Sometimes there is blood all over the paw and you can't see where it is coming from. Wipe with a damp pad, check between the toes, and don't forget the dewclaw, the nail on the inside of the leg above the paw. Dewclaws snag easily and tear often.
3. Press. A sterile pad or a folded piece of clean cloth, pressed firmly on the tip of the nail for a full five minutes. Don't lift it every thirty seconds to look, because each time you tear away the clot that was just forming.
4. Powder. If you have styptic powder for dogs at home (the stuff in nail trimming kits), dip the tip of the nail into it, or put a pinch on the pad and press again. If you don't, cornflour or plain flour helps the clot form. It will sting a bit and he'll pull his paw away. Hold on to it.
5. The hanging piece. If the nail is hanging by a thin strand and he lets you, sometimes it comes away at a touch. If it is firmly attached or he screams when you touch it, don't pull and don't cut. Leave it for the vet, who removes it once the pain has been dealt with.
6. A bandage, if you need to travel. Pad on the nail, then a bandage wrapped loosely round the paw, then a clean sock taped above the wrist, not over the toes. You should be able to slide a finger between the bandage and the leg. If the toes swell or go cold, it is too tight: take it off and redo it.
7. Check after ten minutes. If it has stopped or only drips now and then, the worst is over. If it is still running, keep pressing and ring the vet.

What you see and what comes next

What to tell the vet and what they will do

On the phone

• Which nail, on which leg, and whether it is the dewclaw.
• How it happened: caught in the carpet, a fence or a crate, running on concrete, or you cut it.
• Whether the bleeding has stopped and how long it took.
• Whether the nail is hanging, missing or just cracked.
• Whether he is putting weight on the leg or holding it up.
• Whether he takes any medication that can affect clotting, or whether there is any chance he got at rat poison. A dog who bleeds heavily from a small wound, and pressure doesn't stop it, may have a clotting problem, and the nail is just where it showed.

At the practice

1. Pain first. A broken nail with the quick exposed hurts badly, so most vets give pain relief or light sedation before handling the paw. For the dog, that decides whether he copes with the visit or hates the practice from then on.
2. Removing the broken piece. The hanging part is cut off cleanly, as close to the base as possible, so it can't catch again.
3. Cleaning the toe and the nail bed.
4. The dressing. Sometimes it isn't needed. Other times there is a bandage for one to three days, with exact instructions on when to change it or take it off. Keep it dry: tie a plastic bag over it for walks and take it off straight afterwards.
5. Treatment, chosen by the vet: something for the pain for a few days, sometimes something against infection too, especially if the wound is dirty or the nail had been cracked for a while.
6. A cone, if he keeps licking the paw. The tongue slows healing and brings in infection.
7. A check-up a few days later, if needed. The exposed quick covers over with a hard layer in about a week, and the nail grows back over a few weeks, sometimes slightly crooked.

When it isn't just an accident

If several nails on several feet break or come loose over a few weeks without being caught on anything, that is a different conversation. It may be a disease of the nail bed (there is an autoimmune condition that does exactly this), a fungal or bacterial infection, or a nutritional problem. Note which nails, when, and how they looked beforehand, then book an appointment. The vet may ask for blood tests and cultures, and sometimes sends a nail off to the lab.

How to prevent it

Most broken nails are nails that were too long. A long nail catches in carpets, crate bars, gaps in wooden floors and wire fencing, and the dog injures himself pulling free.

You can see the right length when he stands square on a hard surface: the nails barely touch the floor, or don't touch it at all. If you can hear them clicking on the tiles, they are too long.

• Trim regularly, every two to four weeks, a little each time. The quick slowly recedes when the nail is shortened often. A nail left long for months can't be brought back in a single session without bleeding.
• Dewclaws never touch the ground, so they never wear down by themselves. Check them every time you trim; in some dogs they curl round and grow into the toe.
• Black nails are the hardest, because you can't see the quick. Take one thin slice at a time and look at the cut surface. When a darker, moist dot appears in the middle, stop.
• A nail grinder is a good alternative for dogs who can't stand clippers. It takes off a little at a time and rounds the edge, so the nail catches less easily.
• Getting him used to it saves you the wrestling match. Touch the paw, a tasty treat, done. Hold a toe, another treat. Show him the clippers, another one. Trim one nail a day and make a proper fuss of him at the end. With a dog who is already scared, a few weeks of small steps achieve more than one session of holding him down, after which he won't let you near his paws for a year.
• Look at his surroundings. Swap a wire-floored crate for one with a solid floor or lay a thick mat over the grid, keep long-loop rugs away from a dog who plays rough, and check the wire fence.
• Walking on varied surfaces wears down the front nails naturally in many dogs. In our training sessions, dogs who work a lot on tarmac and gravel rarely have overlong nails, while dogs who live on grass and wooden floors often do.

In the first aid kit at home and in the car, keep styptic powder, sterile pads, a bandage, tape, a clean sock and a muzzle that fits your dog. It all fits in a pencil case and makes the evening of that first yelp a lot easier.