Nail Trims
March 4, 2010
When your cat sharpens her nails on your stuff she isn’t trying to be naughty. People forget that our fluffy feline companions are finely tuned killing machines whose instincts and bodies have evolved over millions of years as efficient hunters and predators. The nails are structured in layers with sharp, healthy new nail under sheets of old nail material. These outer sheets are shed during sharpening to reveal new sharp nails underneath. As a predator she needs these nails to be sharp for climbing, grasping prey and defense. These kinds of uses will dull or break nails so the nail is built to be frequently shed and regenerated. Most domestic cats lead lives which support this behavior by either actively vertically scratching or walking on surfaces which help to dull or break off their nails. Everybody knows this.
What a lot of people, especially first time cat owners, don’t know is that this behavior is crucial to a cat’s health. As cats become older they become more sedentary in general. They may groom poorly or not at all. A cat’s nail can continue to grow until it eventually pierces the pad of the foot if it isn’t kept sharp. The photo below was taken during a recent groom and was to worst case I’ve seen. Pretty much everything below the crusty bit near the thick end of that nail was embedded in what was left of this cat’s pad. The wound was septic and abscessed. Not good.
Of course this is potentially a problem which most cats will encounter if they live long enough but the nail need not penetrate the pad in order to create problems. When the nails become very long the cat is no longer able to retract them . The nails will take a lot of the weight of their body as they walk which is painful and places stress on the cat’s joints. Picture walking on your nails and the situation becomes apparent. When your cat starts getting older check its nails every couple weeks. Nail trims are easy, we can show you how to do it if you’re adventurous. If you’re squeamish bring your cat to your local animal groomer or veterinarian for a trim when you notice the nail is thickened and long. It only takes a moment and your cat will be much more comfortable afterward.
