Biting toenails

[Cookiebaker]

I confess that I have *never* heard of this, but Emerson has started biting his toenails. Eww!

I noticed that he has been knawing on his foot, and thought maybe something was bothering him. So I got down to take a peek, and his dew claws are very, very short and a tad ragged.

Does anybody else's dog chew their toenails? Should I be concerned? I am just hoping that he doesn't make them bleed or anything like that.

[DogLover9501]

Yes! You should be concerned.

My cousins pitbull started this, and they thought nothing of it, but his foot got infected and very sore, and they later found out that dogs can have a habbit, the same as people biting their nails, and they can make their paws very sore.

[catnapper]

Yep. Nicki does all the time... but only her back paws and she stops when she starts getting near the vein. She's had BAD experiences with getting her paws trimmed - like everytime we took her, they cut the vein not once or twice, at least 6-8 times. She will not let anyone trim her nails anymore. She's very very delicate about her nail trimming and even the vet has commented on how neat she is. I keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't gnaw too much off, but she never has and she's been doing it for 7 or 8 years now.

[K9soul]

Tasha has done this most of her life, but has never bitten off too much or had anything bad happen. She "does her nails" probably once or twice a week. She keeps her back feet trimmed up the best and I just have to clip dew claws and one she misses off and on.

I think it's something to keep an eye on, but not something to get overly concerned about unless it looks like it is going to be harmful.

Yesterday evening I actually "caught" Tasha with the camera for the first time when she was "doing her nails" but it didn't turn out well because of bad lighting and because the keyboard tray corner got in the way. She stops what she is doing the moment the camera goes off though so I only had one chance

[ramanth]

Kia has chewed at her nails but as far as I can tell she's never bitten any of the nail off. She seems to chew her dew claw more than any of the others.

Kia's nail chewing is rare....I catch her doing it about once a month.

[robinh]

Out of our five, Muffin is the only one who does it. We watch her closely so that she doesn't chew them too short or that they don't get too raggedy snag and tear.

[lv4dogs]

Yup Nook is a nial bitter too, he has never ever caused any damage to himself, he more or less knaws on his whole foot. But again he has never chewed himself raw or anything. I just let him do it.

I wish he would actually chew the nail itself it would save me some trimming! LOL

[ChrisH]

My RB Dobie, Max, used to bite his nails and never had any problems.