One of the things I wish I had never discovered is that you should have flour in your first aid kit.
Last night I clipped the nails on Kenya's right front paw. Then I started on the left one. She yelped and blood spurted. I felt sick and experienced that awful sense of deja vu. It took me two years before I finally bought my own nail clippers because I was afraid this might happen.
I still get a really sick creepy feeling in my stomach thinking about it. I followed her to the kitchen and sat down on the floor beside her and tried to apply pressure. The blood just kept pulsing. She rang the bells on the door to go outside and I thought it might help if she put the paw in the cold snow so I let her out. She stayed out for about fifteen minutes and when I brought her in, blood droplets were scattered on the snow. It looked like a scene from Snow White.
I called Sarah to see what she would recommend. She suggested hydrogen peroxide (which I don't have) and so I went on-line for advice. They suggested corn flour.
After an hour the bleeding had not stopped and I now had cornstarch as well as blood everywhere.
Sarah suggested calling the emergency vet service in Ottawa where you can get answers over the phone. ( She had called them when Remi swallowed the SOS pad.) They told me to hold Kenya down while applying flour and pressure for 5-10 minutes. If that didn't stop the bleeding I could drive to Ottawa, pay $122 and they would do it for me. I gathered up a cookie, a towel, a bowl of flour, and Kenya and settled in on the couch with her. We watched La Vie En Rose while I held her paw and pressed on the nail tip.
After five minutes she had had enough and left. I didn't notice any more blood ... just a trail of flour.
I convinced her to come back to the couch and cuddle so that the clotting would not be interrupted. This time I stroked her head rather than pressing her toe nail. She fell asleep, and the muscles in my neck untensed, and my breathing slowed.
I know now what to do if I ever cut into her quick again, but I have a feeling I won't need the information. First of all I think I may be too scared to try again, and if I ever do get up the nerve, I will be infinitely more careful. This may become one of those useless pieces of information one stores and then can never retrieve because it is never used.
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6 comments:
I got that "sick creepy feeling" just reading about it...that's why I have never purchased a set of clippers for any of my dogs.
Oh me too. I bought nail clippers for Flea but never used them. I threw them out after he died. Then I bought nail clippers for Duncan. I've tried once to use them, but he wouldn't cooperate and frankly it was a relief not to be allowed to do it. (But he's wrecking my leather furniture by accident...)
The first time I clipped Jamie's nails, I made him bleed and cry. I was devastated and never did it again. He still bites his nails to this day.
I felt even worse this morning when dawn illuminated the snow. What had appeared as drops of blood in starlight ... like the pin prick droplets of Snow White's blood ... now looked more like the aftermath of the Chainsaw Massacre.
When I noticed I was eating breakfast, part of which was a fresh tomato, an unfortunate choice.
I bite my kids nails off, I hate clippers.
Luna is really good about nail care (only in winter) and Mica has white claws so you can see where the quick is. I've never hit it and she only needs them clipped occasionally.
According to the vet it doesn't hurt them, they just don't like the "pressure" ... but isn't pressure the same as PAIN???
Ha! What do you know about pain, mud mama?? Aren't you the woman who says late-stage labour contractions are "just like really satisfying deep yoga stretches." ?
Well thats just ME, I must have some kind of pain receptor brain damage :-)...I didn't yelp and act like its going to kill me to have a baby...or my nails trimmed - my dog does ...and she's a tough cookie so I assume it hurts her if I try and take off too much. I shave em off a bit at a time and only a couple of claws at a time. She relaxes and lets me if I'm taking off tiny bits at a time. If I try to do a whole nail she yelps.
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