How to Care for a Dog's Torn Toe Nail

Video Transcript

"So I am going to demonstrate for you how you would bandage a torn toenail from a dog. We are working with Ty here and he has torn his right dewclaw. Dewclaw is the nail that is upside on the leg and he has torn that completely off. So first thing that we want to do is you can see that the hair around the dewclaw is a little bit matted and the first thing we need to do is clean that area up. We need to brush that hair out. Now you can shave the area if you want to. I am trying to save the coat so I am just going to brush this area out. It is going to tender and sore so I am being very careful to hold the hair away from the skin so I don't hit the skin with the brush and it is actually matted like this because he has been licking it. Ty stop. I am going to expose the area. Put your head down. Okay, put your head down. Okay you can see that it is a little bit red and raw here, the area that he has been licking; the area around the dewclaw that is missing and in fact I will scissor the hair away from this area; make it a little bit easier to work. Okay he is very obvious sensitive in this area so I am going to work carefully. So this is the dewclaw here. It is a little bit swollen. The dewclaw itself is actually missing. We are going to clean this area out here. I am going go use some Betadyne from my first aid kit; some Betadyne and cotton. If you can leave a wound like this open for the air to heal, that is always better but if the dog is worrying it, licking it and causing it to swell up like this then we really do need to close it off. Before we close it off though, I want to clean it out. "