6 Reasons a Dog’s Nail Splits

1 Overview

Today we look at why dog nails split.

Too long

Don’t dismiss this first point as obvious.

Check your dog now – time for a trim? Overlong nails split easily and can catch on things, even with scary results.

A witness account: at a supermarket, a poodle stood on the freight elevator; just as it stepped off, its long nail caught and jammed it. A passerby hit stop. Still, the poodle lost a necrotic toe to surgery.

A rare case, but take the lesson: overlong nails are a real hazard.

Play

Do dogs hurt each other playing? Rarely, unless play turns to a fight.

But play easily causes minor issues like split nails from too much force. Long or short, play can split them. No worry – just stop the bleeding.

Fungus

You read right – fungus splits dog nails.

Besides obsessive paw-licking, fungus undermines the nail bed so nails turn brittle and split.

Nail-bed tumor

Rare, mostly in dogs over 10.

First sign: brittle nails; as the tumor spreads across the foot, there’s bleeding, lameness, and ulcers.

Caught early, it’s treatable; many end in partial toe removal, but the AVMA finds amputated dogs adapt fast.

Symmetric lupoid onychodystrophy

A mouthful? Think of it as the immune system treating the nails as enemies.

Early on, nails shed whole; before that they dry and brittle because the immune system cuts off their nutrition.

Luckily it’s well treated locally – see a vet in time.

Poor nutrition

The most common, and today’s focus.

Like us, uneven nutrition causes problems. Human and dog nails are both keratin. So:

Pricier food isn’t better – the right food for your dog is; more food isn’t better either – add vegetables and fruit for better results.