Brittle nail disease

[BabyReba]

Poor Button is at the vet for the fourth time in 6 months for this problem. Another biopsy shows nothing, today they sedated him and examined his nails and cut them back and found that two are badly infected. Sigh.

Antibiotics, more tissue samples to the lab, probably going to look for fungal problems again.

[jamielvsaustin]

Are nails necessary for dogs? Would it be a bad idea to simply remove them? He probably couldn't dig...and scratching might be a little different of sensation for him...but does he really need these things that are causing him so much trouble?

For cosmetic reasons I wouldn't suggest nail removal...and I really (personally) don't like the idea of declawed cats....but in this case I think I'd consider it. Might take some time to recovery, but then (hopefully) he'd be fine...and not back at the vet yet again for another nail issue.


I don't know if it's even possible...but it's what came to mind. I've got you and Button in my happy healing thoughts

[BabyReba]

I'm not sure if you can permanently remove a dog's nails so they won't come back ... he's had 2 amputated, they both grew back eventually. I pick him up at 5 and have an appointment with the doc. I'll ask them. Because if they could do that without causing him any real harm, I'd do it.

[Misskiwi67]

There's a reason you take the last bone of the finger along with the nail in cats - and its the same for dogs. You have to take the entire nailbed with it, and it wraps around the last bone.

I've seen dogs that were declawed before, but its a true amputation, not just removing the nail. Button might need to have one of these done to get a diagnosis, they might not be getting back into living tissue far enough to diagnose the problem.

Whatever it is, it sounds really frustrating and I hope you get some answers soon for the poor man.

[BabyReba]

well, he isn't letting his nail issues slow him down, despite our attempts to keep him quiet for a few days. he went out today and went into the shed and hunted and killed a rat. i think this was his first real kill. he's always been very prey driven, but he's never been good at catching things. til now, at least.

the vet did two nail amputations to the bone already, both biopsied and came back inconclusive. lots of inflammation and signs of infection, but neither showed any definitive cause. one amputated nail grew back, partially, the other never did.

for now, he's on antibiotics and we have a couple of topical washes and sprays we have to use on him daily to try to keep his feet clean and flushed. we go back in 2 weeks for a recheck and to talk about our options.