How Often Can I Dremel Her Nails?

[Jerilyn]

Lila's toenails are not horrible, but longer than I would like them. Her foster mom said to do them every two weeks, but even Dremeling once a week is not making any real progress.

 

I am new to the Dremel and Lila's toenails are black, so I don't know what is going on in there. How fast do the quicks recede? How often can I Dremel without causing her any pain?

 

She is such a good girl and just lies there quietly when I Dremel.

[kolarik1]

I believe it depends on the dog's quick...try shining a flashlight through her nail from the back side to see where her quick is. I have heard that you can do it every couple of days to get the nails under control. I have done it as frequently as every 4 days, but Pop's quicks seem to recede rather slowly....whereas with Zelda her quick recedes more easily. Just my 2 cents, I'm sure others will have a better idea for you.

[KF_in_Georgia]

My advice: Try concentrating your Dremel efforts on the edges of her nails, and don't bear down right in the center (where the quick is). If you grind too much in the center, you can make the nail bleed, and she'll feel the heat of the friction even if you don't actually quick her.

 

But if you concentrate on going around the outside edges* of the nails, smoothing that down, you can leave the center of each nail--where the quick is--sticking out a bit, where she can wear it down in regular walking. That should help the quicks draw back better.

 

And if you just smooth around the edges a bit, you actually can do it every couple of days without worrying about quicking her nails and making them bleed.

 

Quicks grow longer when the nail surrounds that vulnerable tissue and gets long enough to let the quick expand down the center of the nail. But if you can grind back the long nails around the quick, then normal walking should help drive the quick back to match the length you've ground the nail to. At this point, you take more off the edges of the nail and the quick retracts to match.

 

*Just to clarify, especially for any readers who aren't native English-speakers: the edges is not the same as the sides of the nail. Ideally, the nail has sides, and has a "end"--the flat part that hits the ground when your dog walks. I'm just talking about smoothing and rounding the part where the side of the nail meets the end of the nail.

[kudzu]

What an excellent explanation, KF!

[Guest Swifthounds]

I dremel not less frequently than once every week to 10 days. With especially long nails and/or quicks, dremeling a bit at a time every other day or every few days is helpful in getting nails to a manageable length. If you dremel twice/week the quick will have time between sessions to recede just a bit.

 

The frequency with which you dremel isn't going to cause her any pain. Two things cause pain: 1) touching the dremel to the toenail for more than a second or two at a time so that the nail heats up, or 2) dremeling to the quick (you'd see blood). I should say those are two things about dremeling that could cause pain. Walking around with overly long nails is, in fact painful, and can lead to other discomfort and pain.

 

One of the tricks to being able to see the quick, even on dark nails is to dremel the underside of the nail.

[3greytjoys]

My advice: Try concentrating your Dremel efforts on the edges of her nails, and don't bear down right in the center (where the quick is). If you grind too much in the center, you can make the nail bleed, and she'll feel the heat of the friction even if you don't actually quick her.

 

But if you concentrate on going around the outside edges* of the nails, smoothing that down, you can leave the center of each nail--where the quick is--sticking out a bit, where she can wear it down in regular walking. That should help the quicks draw back better.

 

And if you just smooth around the edges a bit, you actually can do it every couple of days without worrying about quicking her nails and making them bleed.

 

Quicks grow longer when the nail surrounds that vulnerable tissue and gets long enough to let the quick expand down the center of the nail. But if you can grind back the long nails around the quick, then normal walking should help drive the quick back to match the length you've ground the nail to. At this point, you take more off the edges of the nail and the quick retracts to match.

 

*Just to clarify, especially for any readers who aren't native English-speakers: the edges is not the same as the sides of the nail. Ideally, the nail has sides, and has a "end"--the flat part that hits the ground when your dog walks. I'm just talking about smoothing and rounding the part where the side of the nail meets the end of the nail.

 

 

In addition to KF's reply...

 

I stop grinding one nail after 3 seconds (so the quick nerves don't overheat from the dremel). Then, I move to a different nail. If more grinding is needed on a nail, I go back to that nail after it's cooled down, later in the session. When trying to shorten quicks, I usually dremel about every 3-4 days (if the nails grow enough to allow it).