Psyco about toenails

My boyfriend's mom's dog is a golden-chow mix named Chewy and is very psyco about getting her toenails cut. I groom Chewy for her, but no matter what I do, she won't sit still long enough to have them cut. She is very afraid and we don't really want her to hurt herself. We want putting her under to be a last option, because she has a condition that makes anestheisa very risky for her, and we can't get her in they door to the vet anyways. Everytime I try to cut one of them, she thrashes around so much that her eyes go bloodshot. The toenails definitly need to be cut, because they are curling around and growing into her foot and she is limping very badly. We tried sedating her but that made her even more psyco and afraid. Does anyone have any suggestions???

Wow... now that's bad!

When you sedated her, what did you use??
Have to tried tranquelizers (sp?) from your vet??

Yes, We got tranquilizers from the vet, then we tried vallium, but both of them just made her start shaking like mad and trying to bite us when we got close to her. We tried that a couple of months ago.

Will she put up with filing them? Maybe you can look around for a groomer who would be willing to help? I've heard of a few groomers using a dremel. You could also try wearing them down by having her run more on the sidewalk but I guess that wouldn't work too well at the present moment.

I have the same problem with my dog Sammy! I would take
your friend to the vets and let the pro's handle your friends behavior.
They know how to deal with psycho dogs and there nails!
Or even a professional groomer! It is not that expensive to have
nails trimmed. I tried sedating Sam and it did not work out well
either. So I took him to Petsmart and had him put on a grooming
table and muzzled him and they got the job done. I never would
have been able to get him under control long enough to do all his
nails by myself. I believe Petsmart has now changed there nail
trimming and added extra services so the charge is going to be higher. I would call around and see who has the best prices for
nail trimming. Good luck!

My dobie Lucy is nuts about getting her nails done too,, but we found that holding her tightly ,, no give at all,, in the vets works great,,, she hates it,, but at least she isnt biting or growling,,,,,

Did your puppers have a bad experience when younger? Its awfully hard to overcome phobias,, but it can be done... be patient,,, taking to dog to the vets is the best I think..

blair is the same way, the vet reccomended a traqualizer but if the dog really wants to they can easily ignore then stuff, you cant get anywhere near blairs nails, we has tried the peanut butter trick that worked for all my other dogs, but not blair, the most we have ever managed to cut was 6 nails, and that require 3 people, a blanket, a pillow, and 1 hour. his nails need cut badly but a groomer will have the same problem and we dont want him to accedetly get hurt, not to mention a groomer costs money that we just dont have right now. his nails are not overly bad yet just sharp.

The vet tried holding her down- it took 5 people and we only got one nail done, and when we got home she went and hid for a week and wouldn't eat or anything, we tried sneaking up on her today and just getting like one nail a day or something but we couldn't even position it right before she tried to bite us; I guess there's nothing we can really do except take the chance with anesteisa once and then keep them worn down by walking her on concrete or something; we're getting quite desperate because she's in so much pain she can't even walk. Just a little while ago she got one hung and tore it completely off. Yeah, she did have a bad expirience with it when she was about a year old. His mom told me that she took her to the vet to have it done and she came back with most of her toenails quicked. They did a terrible job and she didn't even squirm but now she won't let anyone get close to her feet. I just don't know what to do.
It seems like we've tried everything. I don't think a groomer could do it either without muzzling her and that could also put her at risk not being able to breathe as well; maybe if we have people she knows come help us and we just do it slowly with a blanket over her head. We're at the point right now where we really don't care if she bites us. I guess we'll just keep trying different ideas. Any ideas you have will be greatly appreciated.

Sometimes dogs act differently at the groomer than they do at home or even at the vet. Dogs still can breathe with a muzzle on, in fact they can still bite with a muzzle on if they really want to. It may be worth it to try.
We get a lot of dogs in that the owners can't get near their nails, but we can do it fine. We have a very few dogs that just never seem to get it and that it takes a few of us to do with the dog muzzled. Maybe just call the groomers or go visit and talk to one in person to see what they think.

I agree with taking your dog to the vet.. My dog Max's back nails had to be cut BADLY and that's what we did.. He is an extremely shy dog and hides whenever we take him places.. But the vet got the job done. IF your dog is muzzled then it should work out... Good luck to you.

I would also recommend taking Chewy to the vet. They have several new anesthisias that are easier on the dog than the old ones.

My sister has her pug's nails cut way back once a year by the vet because he's so hyper about his feet. I think Chewy is beyond a trim at home or the groomers.

At least call a couple of vets for their opinions.

Mary

We took chewy to the vet yesterday, and they were unsuccessful with being able to trim her nails. Afterwards, they had to put her in an oxygen cage overnight and we just picked her up this morning. They told us to just get her home and settled down and maybe try doubling the amount of the sedative that they gave us. We tried that, and she was quite out of it so with some restraining, we were able to trim her nails. She's starting to stumble around a little now. While she was out, we also cleaned her ears, trimmed the hair on the pads, cut the matts out of her, and I dremeled her nails back pretty far. She also wouldn't let us get close to her with a pair of scissors, usually. It's quite a releif; now we're going to keep them short by walking her a lot on the pavement! I have never met another dog that was so psyco about their feet, and I'm a groomer! Thanks everybody for your support and your suggestions! Life should be a little bit easier for Chewy now.

Ahhhhhhhh..... success at last!!!!! :) :) :)

Yes! It is such a releif and now she can walk! She's even running. She definitly feels like a new dog and she is really enjoying her morning and evening walks! Thanks again everyone for all your help and support!!!

Glad Chewy is feeling and acting so much better
after her "overhaul"!

But THIS is a little hard to fathom >>

Quote:

---

Originally posted by CorgiLuvr

We took Chewy to the vet yesterday,
and they were unsuccessful
with being able to trim her nails.

Afterwards, they had to put her in an oxygen cage overnight,
and we just picked her up this morning.

---

A VET couldn't sedate her and trim her nails??? :confused:

And then had to administer Oxygen all night? :confused:

WOW!
:eek:

Unless there's more to the story than you told us...

I'd be looking for a new Vet! :(

/s/ Phred

I think you should take her to a groomer and have them do it, sometimes they have better luck with things like that!

I wouldn't be blaming the vet. I have seen dogs that freaked out over getting their nails cut. There was one dog that came in once that we couldn't do. It's the only one we couldn't do.
With a lot of sedatives if the dog's adrenaline gets pumping the sedative gets over ridden so to speak, and that's if the dog lets you near it to administer the sedative. The only way to do it then would be to completely knock the dog out, but I believe corgilover mentioned that the dog had a heart problem that made that risky to do.

I'm glad that the nails finally got cut and wish you luck in being able to keep them short. Long nails are a big pet peeve of mine, but I'm sure you understand that being a groomer.

Perhaps now that they are short you can look into some kind of slow desensitization program with her?