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Feet and Nail Care
The most important aspect of foot
care in dogs is to keep them clean.
Some dogs seem to recognize this fact instinctively and will wash
their own feet. The routine cleaning that the animal receives in its
bath is quite sufficient for ordinary foot hygiene, although
additional cleaning may be necessary if the feet happen to get
especially soiled. It is not a bad idea to clean the feet every once in
a while with a piece of absorbent cotton saturated with alcohol. This
will tend to prevent disease conditions that may occur between the toes
as a result of uncleanliness.
Special precaution should be taken
during
the winter season of the year, especially in large cities, where snow
is often saturated with rock salt. The rock salt can cause an annoying
irritation of the feet. Cleaning them daily during this season with
cotton and alcohol will tend to prevent this minor ailment. In the
summer time, the areas between the toes should be checked for ticks,
which commonly attach themselves to this area. (This seems somehow
natural since the dog will often step into a place where ticks happen
to be, and the foot is, after all, the most convenient spot where the
tick can take hold.) Many general ailments can occur on the feet,
especially a variety of irritations. In such cases, the feet should be
kept especially clean and also swabbed with ordinary household
antiseptics, such as tincture of iodine. If the irritation does not
heal or at least improve in a very few days, it is advisable to have it
checked by a veterinarian in order to avoid any serious complications.
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Clipped and Unclipped Toenails
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The nails should be trimmed whenever necessary. They should not extend
further than the foot pads. When the nails are too
long, they cause pressure and discomfort. Care should be taken not to
cut the nails too short because there is a small blood vessel in the
nail which can be easily severed. If this blood vessel should happen to
be cut, this should cause no undue alarm. The blood will clot in a few
minutes and there is rarely any complicating infection. To avoid
cutting this blood vessel, only the white portion of the nail should
be clipped, and even this should not be clipped off altogether.
A small
white tip should be allowed to remain on the nail. If the nail is all
black, one must proceed with special caution in order not to cut the
nail too short. It is better to leave the nail slightly long than to
clip the nail too short and to have the inconvenience of bleeding. The
nails may also be filed. Special care should be given to the dew claws,
the nails on the inside portion of the feet that do not touch the
ground. If these
claws are not kept short enough, they may grow into the pad of the foot.
With many dogs, clipping of the claws is unnecessary because the
animal wears them down by running on hard pavement. Of course the dew
claws are not affected by this and still have to be watched. Because of
the natural sluggishness that comes with old age, and in the case of
fat, lazy animals, whose limited exercise does not give the nails an
opportunity to wear down, the nails have to be watched more closely
and clipped more often so that any discomfort caused by elongated nails
can be avoided
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