Quick Kwik Guide

One thing many rescuers and adopters have probably observed when bringing home a dog from the shelter is grossly overgrown nails. Unfortunately, you cannot just clip the dog's nails nice and short and be done with it. Often, these dogs have gone a long time without their nails being trimmed and therefore, the kwik has actually grown out with the nail. You can see this illustrated in the diagram below. 

 

A simple solution for an overgrown kwik is to file the nails every day. A chunky acrylic block nail file will give you plenty of surface area and a good grit to file down the dog's nails. It is non invasive and often relaxing if you pet the dog while filing the nails. If the dog does not show any fear or trepidation, a dremel tool or pedipaws file can be used for the same results. These files are electric and cause many dogs some anxiety; however, there are plenty of dogs that will gladly accept the rotating file if you will give him a belly rub while you are filing away. Slowly introduce the clippers after a week or two of filing. You can do this by clipping a very tiny slice of the tip of each nail. Make it a habit to praise and speak in happy tones while filing and clipping. Play with the dog's feet constantly, in between clippings always making the feet play a fun game. Soon enough, your shelter pet will have a healthy set of nails that are easy to trim.

 If you clip the dog's kwik you can expect a yelp and/or a nip followed by a good amount of blood. The veins in the dog's quick contain many blood vessels and nerve endings which will excrete a lot of blood in a short amount of time. It is important to have styptic powder (kwik stop), corn starch, or a bar of ivory soap on hand when trimming nails. If you do accidentally trim the nail too short, pack the toenail in styptic powder or shove the nail directly into a bar of soap. This will stop the bleeding. Ideally, you want to avoid ever trimming too short, causing injury to the kwik, to prevent future fear of having nails clipped. Dogs with white/clear nails are much easier to inspect for the location of the kwik versus dogs with black nails. When in doubt, file or use a dremel only.