Piggy Toenails

[cookie72]

So yesterday I noticed some blood on a towel in Guinness's cage.  I naturally freaked out because of what happened with Bedhead.  After checking her over I noticed on her front paw she has a bloody toe. It was no longer bleeding, just dried blood and it looks like that whole nail is gone. I'm assuming she got her nail caught in the towel. It wasn't an old snagged up towel, just a hand towel I had put inside her box to snuggle up in.  There's nothing else in the cage I could see her getting pinched or cut on. 

Has anyone ever had this happen before?  Do you think the nail will grow back? Do I need to worry about it getting infected now?

[SiLamb]

Cookie, I'm so sorry! My guess is that her toenail will grow back as long as the nail bed wasn't damaged. Only time will tell.

As for infection, whatever the correct procedure for caring for wounds should probably be followed. I don't know what that treatment is. If you need help researching this, I'm here to help.

Keep us posted.

[Bean]

I had one of mine catch their nail on something like that once. I think I just soaked it in salt water and it healed up really quickly. Just watch out for any swelling, redness etc and see a vet if that happens. I can't remember exactly, but I think they do grow back - it'll probably take over a month for a new nail to start to show though.

I had a pig with an extra toe on her back foot - but it was all floppy and attached via a thread of skin. Still had a proper nail on though - very weird. I used to worry about that getting caught but it never did. You can have them removed and it would have been a quick op, but while it didn't bother her, I wasn't inclined to meddle.

Hope Guinness's toe heals up nicely.

[cookie72]

Ok, I did some research on Guinea Lynx, for wound care. It lists antiseptic solutions Chlorhexidine or Betadine for cleaning/soaking, or salt water. I took your advice Bean and just now gave her paw a salt water soak. She didn't seem to mind that too much. Maybe later I'll go to the drugstore and see if they have one of those other 2 things. There's still a little dried blood that didn't come off in the soak, so I can't tell for sure if there's any portion of nail left under that blood. Toe is not red so that's good, and doesn't seem swollen either. It's hard because she's so squirmy when I try to get a good look.

I'm sure this is a sign I need to keep up on nail trimming more. I struggle so much with it, especially the front paws. The nails are so close together and when they curl towards the next toe, I'm scared I will accidentally get the neighboring toe caught in with the nail I'm trying to trim. I'm so slow at it, and when I finally get a nail situated in the clipper and ready to squeeze, she jerks her foot away and I have to start all over! My other girls were way more tolerant of nail trimming. I'm thinking I should call around and find out how much a vet would charge to trim nails.

That's interesting about the extra toe Bean!

[3piggles]

I had a pig catch a toenail once. It bled a lot, but ultimately wasn't much damage. I also soaked in wound wash, and he was fine. The bedding looked as if a slaughter had taken place, though, and that totally freaked me out!

[Bean]

Are you feeding her as you do her nails? If I have a squirmer I just give them something tasty to eat while I'm meddling and they concentrate far less on what I'm doing!

It sounds like it's healing up nicely now, and if there's no sign yet of swelling or irritation, it's looking good that it'll heal up nicely on its own.

[3piggles]

I think I posted this before, so if I did, sorry to be redundant. I put the pigs in the kitchen sink with just enough warm water to make it slippery under foot, if they squirm too much. The bright light over the sink gives great light for even someone as blind as I am to clip black piggy nails, and the warm water is soothing, even if not what they want. I only do the nails that need doing, each time, so it's not a long, drawn out process. They get wrapped in a warm towel and feed celery leaves afterwards, so they always forgive me I have to do a few nails today, as they are curving into the next toe or finger. Those get clipped much more often than the rest, and both Mia and Morty have them. Momo just has great nails, and could be a dragon lady piggy, if I allowed it

[cookie72]

With my other girls, I always fed them something nice like parsley to distract while doing nails. That worked great! Guinness is still pretty skittish about being held that she wouldn't eat anything while she's out of her comfort zone. I really think she was abused or mishandled by whoever had her before I adopted her. She wouldn't even let me touch her at all until the past month or so when I moved her into the c&c cage. Now I have easier access to her, and she's been more tolerant. But because of all that, I feel so bad to stress her out by taking her out to do her nails. After the bloody nail incident, I did manage to do 3 of the 4 feet! The toe in question looks pretty good now. No signs of infection or anything, so that makes me feel better and not so worried.
I have problems with up-close vision too, so that makes it even harder to see what I'm clipping! Maybe I need to try the over the kitchen sink trick. Sounds like a good place to do that.

[3piggles]

The end of my arms is just about where nothing is clear with my vision, so I take forever to make sure I'm not cutting off a toe, or my own finger. They are patient, but not patient enough for me to do all their nails at that pace I do like the bright light over the sink, as I have 4 paws of black nails to do.

[cookie72]

Your description made me chuckle, Piggles My sight problem is that I wear contact lenses and my prescription is so strong (for distance sight), and that makes seeing small things up close, while wearing contacts, really difficult. It's gotten worse the last few years. I recently discovered that if I put on reading glasses with my contacts, then I can read small print up close really well. I think next time I try to trim nails, I'll pop on the reading glasses and see if that helps.
I can sympathize with the added difficulty of doing black nails. Bedhead had mostly black ones, but there were a couple white ones mixed in on her back feet. Way less stressful when you can see the quick!

[3piggles]

I wear multi focals. Just move your head up or down a bit. There's a line for everything, except reading, using my phone and cutting piggy nails