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Q: I recently had my 6 pound yorkie ‘s back toe nails cauterized on the advice of my vet because the quick was too long. He said this was a problem with the breed as well as my groomer was not cutting them short enough. The dog is still not himself and it is now a week since the operation. He is not as active or eating his normal portions. He is not infected or anything I am just assuming that this is a painful operation to recoup from ? Should I be concerned or just give the little guy more time to heal?
A: There are a couple of possibilities to explain why your dog is not himself since have his nails trimmed back. I’m assuming that your dog was anesthetized or at least sedated for the procedure. Some animals can take some time to recover from that and may not behave completely normally for a week or so. They may also have some digestive upset which may affect their appetite.
Another possibility is that he actually does have some pain from having his nails cut back very short. I think that this is less likely as dogs that have this procedure done do not seem to have a great deal of discomfort once the nails are actually cut and cauterized.
One last possibility to explain your dog’s behaviour is that he was psychologically traumatized by his experience. This does happen from time to time and dogs usually recover within a couple of weeks. If your dog doesn’t seem to be improving over the next few days then I would bring him back to his vet to have him checked out. If he’s slowly returning back to normal then I would just give him more time to recover. In order to avoid or at least reduce the frequency this procedure in the future, I would suggest that you or your groomer trim his nails shorter and more frequently.
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