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Broken toenail- what to do?

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Freela

Freela

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My piggie Linney tore one of the toenails on her front foot- from what I can tell it got caught as she was jumping in or out of the cage for free play time. It scared the heck out of me as there was blood all over the floor and all over her... I was relieved to find it was just coming from her nail! It is broken near where it joins her foot, but is still hanging by a thread and I'm not sure what to do... am I better to cut it off where it broke, even if this leaves her with almost no nail on that toe? Or should I just try to trim it back so it doesn't catch on anything else but leave it to grow out a bit before I cut it off at the break point? Do I need to put anything on it to keep it from infecting? Just concerned about infection as it obviously exposed the quick. She seems okay otherwise... she is just resting on my knee after her obviously stressful evening!
 
Hi Freela

Sorry to hear your piggy has a broken nail :( one of our piggies caught his foot while jumping back into the cage and like you say there was blood everwhere :)>>>

We took him to the vet and they said all they could do was take it right back to the quick which left him with no toe nail at all, the vet then cauterised it with like a cotton bud thing and his nickname is now stumpy :))

I, personally wouldnt attempt to cut it back myself

Hope your piggy is ok

Karen x
 
Freddie had his nail ripped off when he decided to jump in a cage that wasn't his!

there is a huge amount of blood isnt there!

The vet just removed the bit hanging off and cleaned it up. and told me to bathe it in salt water.
Freddie healed up really quickly and has a stumpy toe too! :))
 
One of my past pigs, Charlie, did just the same thing. He was jumping into a cage also!

It's a good idea to have the vet remove the nail safely, other than that it just needs keeping clean, saline/salt water is suitable for this. Antibiotics may be prescribed by the vet as a precautionary measure, this is open to debate, but it is not vital in my view, provided the cage is kept clean for a couple of days. The toe will heal over in a matter of hours.
 
My Pixel lost a toenail too. Although I have no idea how she did it! I too just treated with salt water soaks.

Her nail was ripped off completey though but it has now grown back perfectly and you'd never know she lost one :)

Hope Linney is okay x
 
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