Hi, my name is Dr. Yuri Burstyn
I'm a veterinarian in Vancouver BC and I'd like to welcome you to my series of practical skills for pet owners
[voiceover]: I'm here today with Claudia and my assistant Sarah
to demonstrate to you guys how to trim a cat's nails when you have two people. A lot of people asked me after my
one-person cat nail trim video, " So how do you do this with two people?" and
I'll be very happy to show you.
Now the trick here is, of course, to start with lots of squishing.
You've got to squish this cat to make her stay put and take make her feel comfortable and
to allow your assistant here to do the nail trim. So I'm going to be the cat squisher
We're gonna have a cat nail trimmer. Squisher, trimmer. Two jobs, teamwork. That's what it's all about.
So, Claudia is gonna be our little assistant. Now, as the squisher,
what I'm going to do is, I'll make a little V
with my thumb and forefinger like that
And I'm gonna drive that V behind her elbow, because she has a pointy little elbow, and use that to extend her leg
which will make it easier for the trimmer to trim the nails
So,
And there we go. So, I drove that little leg out and
I'm just gonna squish this cat, allow the trimmer to do her job
And, you see, with that leg extended, it's very easy to do it. Now, she's trying to back up so I'm gonna lean in and
squish her a little bit more with my body
because, remember, the cat's natural defense against that is to back up
And now for the hind legs, that's it, that front leg's done! And it's all about pushing that leg out
Now, I can also push the leg out with the the heel of my hand like this
I think a lot of people do it like this as well
Personally, I prefer the V, because she can pull her leg back and it'll just slip over my palm.
Whereas, with the V, I feel a little bit more secure and
the trimmer can also handle her wrist, her paw from the wrist down. Now, we're gonna do the back leg, same thing,
I'm going to squish this cat and
my nail trimmer can just get at a little paw and,
really, she doesn't need too much more for me other than some cat squishing and she can trim those nails very comfortably and safely, you
know, because if Claudia was inclined to put up a fuss,
I can really protect my team member, my assistant, my trimmer from her and
there you have it, that's all done, now,
often times, you'll be doing this with two people. When you have a cat that's not quite as cooperative as Claudia is inclined to be,
And, in those cases, we can use a towel to help us. Now, there's many excellent cat burrito videos out there
we're not going to make a cat burrito today.
Maybe one day I'll do a cat burrito video, but I feel like there's enough out there that I probably don't need to do one.
but
what we are going to do is
use this towel
to isolate the leg from the cat
so, again,
I'm gonna use my little V technique, push that little leg out and
get a towel around it and we can just do this [covers cat's body and head with towel] and, look at that.
Now, again,
I still have to squish this cat, because she's very wriggly, and I'm going to get my finger behind her elbow.
There we go
but now, if she was inclined to be a little bit more aggressive, this would protect
the trimmer and me and allow us to get the job done. Help this little kitty
this is very useful to do if they have an ingrown nail into their paw pad
It's very painful condition, and all it takes is one little snip to help them, but you have to do it without getting chomped
So, same thing for the hind leg. Now,
again, Claudia's just a sweetheart and all she wants to do is burrow in there.
But let's pretend she's a dangerous cat,
and, we're going to, again, work to isolate this hind leg
[exhales] Just like that
It's not the most comfortable position
but again, I got my little V behind her hock there and I'm squishing her.
And, again, super aggressive cat, this is probably not going to work,
but one that's just a little twitchy or if you have to clip a painful nail,
this works fantastic, and there you go. We're all done
[to Claudia] "Hey, sweetheart, how are you doing there?"
Alright, so that's two ways of trimming a cat's nails with two people
I certainly hope you find this useful, thank you very much for cooperating, Claudia.
And, thank you, Sara.
[Sara]: Thank you.
So, feel free to comment and request any more videos that you'd like because I'm very happy
to demonstrate whatever you guys are interested in!
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