Pet Lady Question
Nail Clipping
Q: Our
A: Nail clipping can
be a pretty fearful process for animals.
Many animals don’t like to be held tight and have someone touch their
feet. If the nails are cut too short,
the quick may be cut causing the animal pain and leading to even greater
dislike of the process. To help animals
get over the fear of having their nails clipped, you need to start with some
handling exercises. Get your animals
used to be touched all over. If your
animal is sensitive to touch (some cats get over-stimulated and lash out), just
touch your animal a few times for the first few sessions. Slowly increase the amount of touching. Don’t just touch your animals on the back and
head. Handle their feet, look in their
ears, lift their lips and look at their teeth.
Get you animals used to all sorts of touching, looking, and holding. Start the process when an animal is young so
they will think it’s natural to be touched all over. This will make vet visits and grooming much
easier. As far as a fear of nail clippers,
start associating the clippers with good things. Put them next to her food dish as she
eats. Show the clippers to her and give
her a treat. Touch her nails with the
clippers, but don’t cut them. Give her a
treat. Desensitizing a dog to any kind
of fear takes time. This process cannot
happen in just one day. Spread it out
over a few weeks. If your animal is not
ready to go on to the next step, take a few days extra. Don’t push too fast and always end on a
positive note. When you do get around to
clipping the nails, only do one nail the first day. Give lots of praise and a treat. It may take over a week to get all her nails
done at first, but a least they are getting clipped. Long nails can damage an animal’s foot. Eventually you will be able to clip more
nails at a time. The idea is to leave
things on a happy note. Cats usually do
a good job of keeping their nails sharpened, but some people like to snip the
tip so they won’t be too sharp. If you
have a senior cat, you may need to cut their nails more often as older cats
often don’t use the cat scratch anymore. To meet important grooming and health needs of
animals, it’s important to get both cats and dogs used to handling. Along with nail clipping, your animals should
allow you to brush their teeth and hair, clean their ears, and easily bathe
them. If your animal is overly
aggressive during any of these times, please get professional help before
proceeding. A muzzle may be necessary to
keep everyone safe and should be introduced properly so that the muzzle does
not become another trigger for aggression. Private sessions are
available at
