I'm Dr. Clayton Greenway with
healthcareforpets.com and we're going to
show you how to trim your cat's nails.
The first thing I want you to think
about is the earlier you start with this,
the better accepting your cat's going to
be of iit. So the first thing you want to
do is try to think of it in terms of
going through it slowly. You're going to
want to try to trim one nail if your cat
has never had a nail trim by you before.
The first thing I want you to think
about is to go slow.
You're going to want to trim just one
nail, on one paw, and then reward with
treats and stop for the day. Then the
next day try a different nail by easing
into it like this, it's less stressful
trying to do all the nails in one sitting.
If your cat is not used to it, is going
to frustrate it greatly and make it more
difficult and potentially give it a bad
experience that it's going to remember
for future nail trims. Getting to the
nails is an important part of this. You
don't want to pull an arm all the way
out because that tends to make animals
draw their arm back in very closely. So
what you want to do is you want to put
them down in a bit of a hunched position
and come over top of them and come
in close. You want to make sure that
your cat is generally accepting of this
and you don't want to take any safety
risks. Keep in mind your cat may like you
most of the time but once you start to
do something like this with it you might
be crossing some boundaries and it could
bite or scratch you and you really want to
make sure that your safety is protected.
Speak to your veterinarian about that or
have the nail trims performed by them if
that's the case. So first what I do is
will lift the paw and by pushing the
paw and squeezing it you'll notice that the
claws come out and if you look at each
nail it gets very, very narrow and sharp
at the end of it, it starts to come in
towards the body and then it starts to
widen. The place where you really want to
trim the nail is right where it starts to
transition from narrow to wide and you
don't want to hit the part that has a
very pink
tint inside of it because that's the
quick, and that's where it's going to
bleed. So what I do is I bring my nail
trimmers very close so that I'm not
pulling the arm out to create the need
for the cat to pull it back in,
I'll squeeze the toes to push the nail
out and then I'll just put my trimmers
around the nail and give it a little
clip. You'll notice that Marble tried to
use her back leg to get my hand away which
is fine.
You have to remember it's still going to
be a little bit of a struggle. Your cat
may not want to do this but you have to
have a firm heart and be confident with
it because if your cat fights you and
you give up,
it means that it knows it can win and
it's going to try to fight harder the
next time. So be careful and cautious but
be firm so that you can accomplish it and
you can accomplish it safely
with a good experience. If you have a cat
that's more difficult, you can watch our
video about restraining techniques to
help you out. You may want to talk to
your veterinarian about things you could
give your cat to lessen its anxiety or
even sedated if it's absolutely
necessary.
Remember to always reward them at the
end of it so they know that it was a
pleasant experience and that in the
future they'll be more accepting of it
and good luck trimming your cat's nails.