brittle nails?

[Ashley V]

Yesterday I was looking at Chip's paws and I noticed how brittle his nails are. On a few nails the sides are flaking off. I'm just concerned if this could hurt him and what maybe I can do to keep it from flaking? I know that for humans we can use that Sally Hansen or similar stuff, but is there anything like that for dogs?

[Nancy1999]

Do you get them clipped every couple of months, perhaps he needs it more often, if the edges are breaking off. If you are feeding a good dog food, nails should be plenty strong, humans usually have weak nails because we do so much with out hands, including soaking them in detergents.

[Ashley V]

The food isn't the absolute best, but it's nothing like Science Diet or Purina or anything. He's been eating this food for 2 years now, but I just changed the flavor of it because I had too... I was feeding Fish and Potatoes, but now it's Chicken and Rice... perhaps he needs some Omega's back? He gets his nails clipped every time he goes to the groomer every 5-6 weeks and his last grooming was July 3rd, so maybe he needs it done every 2 or 3 weeks? I just don't want his nails to get caught on something and he get hurt or expose the quick too much and hurt him... and of course my groomer is on vacation out of the country. Go figure! lol

[Nancy1999]

Originally Posted by Ashley V

The food isn't the absolute best, but it's nothing like Science Diet or Purina or anything. He's been eating this food for 2 years now, but I just changed the flavor of it because I had too... I was feeding Fish and Potatoes, but now it's Chicken and Rice... perhaps he needs some Omega's back? He gets his nails clipped every time he goes to the groomer every 5-6 weeks and his last grooming was July 3rd, so maybe he needs it done every 2 or 3 weeks? I just don't want his nails to get caught on something and he get hurt or expose the quick too much and hurt him... and of course my groomer is on vacation out of the country. Go figure! lol

I don't think the food needs to be the best to be adequate, are there any other symptoms, it sounds like your doing everything right. Sometimes a low thyroid can cause brittle nails on humans, I wonder if it would do the same in dogs? It might be something to ask the vet about, if you just treat a symptom, you don't get to the underlying problem.

[xmasbaby75]

Have you ever caught him biting his nails? My Brandi is nail biter, and hers sometimes look like this too. I use the nail grinder on her, but she is still always biting at her nails.