How do I fix this nail?

[human friend]

Yesterday my red Irish, who is 4, got one of the claws on his front paw snagged in some hessian. I managed to free it eventually but the thread was jammed in because he has a split longitudinally down his nail. Now, this is not able to be fixed with the clippers, so what do I do? I thought maybe duct tape to bind around it? I really don't know. If I leave it, it may snag again. Any ideas? I'm not sure why this one claw has fissured like this in the first place.

[Howard Glansfield]

There's not a lot you can do ,we found out by the same thing happening to one of our dog's claws.We cut the claw back as far as we could and left it to the dog,usually they will chew at it .It is possible to seal it with super glue but you have to be very careful that it dries before the dog goes anywhere OR tries to lick it! I don't think the vet can do anything.

Sorry I can't be more helpful,

Howard

[James Doran]

The bigger danger is the nail may become infected and it could spread up into the bone. If there is no danger of infection then I agree with Howard that it will need to be sealed in some way until it grows out. If you have any doubts at all then consult your vet.

[human friend]

Well, all I have done so far is cut a thin length of duct tape and wrap it around. I don't expect it will stay on long, but you never know! Super glue won't work, unfortunately, in this case because I can't press the claw shut enough so the two sides touch each other - it possibly has been sort of pried open and stayed like that. It's pretty dry and he has tough, black nails. What I need is something that I can bog it up with that will set quickly and that is obviously not too toxic.

[Jennifer S]

I had this happen with my little girl Teagan. We take our pups for rides in our motorcycle sidecars often but one day she pooed in the sidecar and decided to get as far away from it as possible. My husband slowed as fast as he could when he realized she was going to jump but was still going about 5 mph when she hit the ground. She was very lucky in that her injuries were just some road rash here and there but unfortunately some of her nails were ground down. One nail in particular had split longitudinally in two places down to the quick. I briefly considered repairing it with super glue but didn't because of the fear of infection. Instead I treated it with warm salt water soaks once to twice a day for a week. Little by little the quick healed and the broken nail bits started to fall off. I helped by trimming them as much as I could without hurting her. I have a medical boot too that I used when she ran outside to help keep it clean. It healed perfectly!