My dog is licking his paw. His nail split and has gunk. What to do?

It may be split deeply and hurt a bit or otherwise bother your dog. This is why Walt is licking it There also may be a nailbed infection. I suggest you take Walt to your veterinarian for an exam. Your vet can check the nail for a fracture, infection or injury and help so that it does not bother your dog so much or hurt. It may need to be clipped or removed to aid healing. If you have an e-collar at home, put it on Walt so he cannot lick more bacteria into it. Please schedule an exam with your vet.

Hello. It looks like she may have broken that nail and the hard “shell” of the nail is lifted off of the quick which is the pink fleshy part. This can be painful which is why she is probably licking it. It is best to have your veterinarian trim this back and maybe bandage the foot. If it is trimmed back, the nail will regrow .

This may be a resistant infection or the area may keep getting reinfected because it is in a highly mobile spot where contamination is very easy (the foot). I would recommend taking your dog back to the vet for a recheck and having her sedated for the examination. This way the doctor will be able to closely examine the toe and the nail. The doctor will then be able to clip the nails back far enough to hopefully remove the problem. There is also a specific disease of the toenails that may need long-term treatment from specific medications. This is an auto-immune disease, lipoid onchodystrophy, and has a very specific presentation. Your vet should be able to determine if your dog has this condition with a thorough exam. I hope this helps. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Best of luck.

Hi, I think the old nail should be removed. It would also be great if we could prevent Marley from licking the area as this can cause inflammation and infection. I know this is tricky given Marley’s breed ! Another thing you could do is bathe Marley’s paw in diluted Chlorexidine twice a day, dilution is normally 1:10 (i.e. one part of chlorexidine to 10 of water ) but even to make a very diluted pink solution will do and dry up with a clean cotton cloth afterwards. Hope this helps !

That one will likely need to be clipped past the split to alleviate the pressure and pain. Because doing that can be painful and typically requires a bandage for the bleeding, your vet needs to do it so they can use sedation to control the pain! If it is not bleeding you can wait until the morning for your vet to open

Swelling, pain/discomfort and itch, redness, discharge of the area involved are all possible signs. From what you described it may be possible that the nail bed is infected or there may even be a comminute fracture of the last phalanx. A check up is unfortunately needed to confirm this clinical suspicion and treat appropriately. Antibiotics may be needed. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. Please find the time to give us a feedback about the consultation as that will be used to improve our service.

Ouch, poor pup! The nail will have to be cut, but if it's growing into her paw, it may be too painful for you to cut it. Sometimes dogs who have painful nails will not let their owners cut them, and they will have to be sedated by the vet in order to get it done. You can try to cut the nail yourself, and if you are successful, you will need to clean her pad afterwards with an antiseptic soap and warm water. The next day, you can do an epsom salt and warm bath soak with her paw twice a day, and do that for a couple of days. Keep an eye on the area, and if you see redness, swelling, warmth to the touch, or pus, the area is infected and she will need to see a vet for antibiotics. If Bellas doesn't let you cut the nail, I would take her into the vet first thing during normal business hours today or tomorrow so that your vet can cut it for you and clean the area. Don't feed her the night before in case they need to sedate her to get her nail cut.