Why Nail Trimming Is Vital To Your Dog's Health

I think we all know that nail trimming is important for the prevention of scratches on our furniture, carpet, and floors but did you know that proper nail length is an important factor in our dog's health and safety? 

The 3 reasons to keep nails at the proper length are as follows: 

1) Helps in our dog's ability to comfortably jump and make sharp turns on agility courses or while playing in the backyard. 

2) Prevents painful feet: When nails are long, the hard surface pushes the nail back up into the nail bed which puts pressure on all the toe joints or forces the toe to twist to the side.

3) To help geriatric dogs long term health to improve and/or be stabilized by their ability to distribute their weight correctly and not have a slumped back. In other words, if a dog's back nails are too long he will compensate by putting all of their weight in their front paws where their nails are at the correct length. 

Dr Leslie Woodcock, a Team Canada veterinarian and owner of Woodcock Veterinary Services, a clinic that specializes in rehabilitation for dogs post surgery or post injury posted an excellent 14 minute informational lecture explaining why healthy nail length is  important. 

Dr. Leslie suggests that our goal should be to cut our dog’s nails short enough that you CANNOT hear them on your tile floor. In order to get the nails this short without hurting the dog (or making their nails bleed) your goal should be to get the “quick” (or soft bit that supplies blood to the nail) to recede.

Most people when cutting nails try to cut directly across the dog’s nail (as in the diagram below):



However, Dr. Leslie recommends the best way to cut your dog’s nails without hurting them AND get that quick to recede is to cut the sides of the nails on angling back.

By cutting nails this way it becomes easier to get your dog’s nails shorter without hurting them. 

Take a look at these before and after pictures of nearly 17 year old Buzz above. On the left is Buzz before a nail trim and on the right is him after his trim. To the right he is distributing his weight correctly and comfortably. You can tell this because his posture in his front and back legs are uniform (all four legs are straight and erect).

Dr. Leslie’s information is a real eye-opener and I hope it will be used as a point of reference when your dog needs a trim in the future! 

Why Daisy and Her Friends Recommend Marrow Bones as a Treat

Have you ever spent your well-earned money on expensive and in some cases unsafe chewable treats such as rawhide, pig ears, bully sticks, etc, only to find that they did not last as long as you hoped? Or have you found that your dog had absolutely no interest in your chew treat choices at all? If you answered "yes" to both of my questions then my advice is to purchase raw marrow bones (please do not cook them) in your grocer's freezer (some butchers will personally cut them to size and quantity) and I promise that your dog will be entertained and nourished for hours or days at a time!

 

Because I knew that my coon hound, Daisy, and her Teacher's Pet Sitting Service pals,

 

Potato and

Sammi could use some extra entertainment I spent ONLY $6 on these bones which equaled three days of serious teeth cleaning! Now that's what I call a bargain!

Before purchasing marrow bones please bear the following in mind:

* Since these bones are initially very messy I advise that your dog chew them on flooring that can be washed easily.

* The size of the bones shouldn't be any smaller than the ones I've presented to you or else they could easily lodge on their jaw. 

* Bones should be larger than the length of the muzzle so it is impossible to swallow whole.

* It is best to monitor your dog while he chews and to keep the chewing to 15 to 30 minutes at a time and then rinse the bone in cold water and then store it in the freezer. Toss the bone out after 3-4 days.

If you have a success story about marrow bones I'd love to hear all about it in the comments below! 

Anal Gland Issues AKA How to Stop Your Dog From Smelling Like Fish

If your dog suddenly starts to smell like fish it is not because he needs a bath but instead it is because his anal glands need to be expressed. The term "expressed" is just a nice way of saying that the greasy, liquid substance needs to be removed (or squirted) from his anal glands either at the vet's office or by yours truly! 

When I first adopted Daisy she needed to take a trip to the vet a few times and, as you can imagine, the foul smell before and even after the procedure was so overwhelming (and also uncomfortable for her) that I took it upon myself to research how I could stop this unpleasant experience from repeating itself.

After reading  Dr. Karen Becker's 'Anal Gland Issues in Dogs' I learned the following: 

1)Eliminate all grains and switch your dog to a biologically appropriate diet. She also recommends that we switch to a novel protein for your dog. If, for example, he’s been eating only beef and chicken, make a transition to bison or rabbit. 

2) A constant diet of just one or two types of protein can trigger an allergic inflammatory response.

3)  Unnecessary manual expression will also reduce the effectiveness of the glands over time so stop the routine manual expression. The anal sacs are delicate little organs that are easily injured by pinching or squeezing.
 
4) Stop feeding any food that contains corn, potato, oatmeal, wheat, rice or soy.

5) Adding probiotics and digestive enzymes to your pet’s diet can also assist in creating consistently firm stools.

6) Adding organic canned pumpkin and unsweetened coconut will naturally keep your dog's poop from being in liquid form thus eliminating his need to be expressed. These additions to Daisy's diet helped immensely!

7) Unaddressed food allergies are a quite common cause of chronic anal sac issues so talk to your vet about this possibility as soon as possible.

I hope this information is helpful for your dog's health and well being! 

If you have any further helpful hints please leave a comment below!