Overgrown Nails

[BowWow]

My Bull terrier bitch's nails have overgrown badly. My other two dogs are fine, it's just the older one. She's not as active as my other two and their nails are managable and I do them myself, but her nails have grown at a funny angle and she won't let me touch them. Her paw pads look terrible with the weird nail growth too. The vet has suggested I take her in to get them cut right back under a general, and he'll then cauterize. From there on in I should be able to manage them myself again, but at this point I won't be able to cut them back myself enough and surgery is necessary. Has anyone ever had this procedure performed on their dog and what can I expect.

[dancinbcs]

I had it done on a dog that had arthritis in her feet. I was having trouble keeping the nails short enough to stop them adding to the arthritis pain but cutting them caused even more pain. They were trimmed regularly but I just couldn't get them short enough. The dog needed a general for some other procedure, so I got the vet to cut them and cauterise. This makes the vein in the centre shrink back futher so cutting the nails in future is easier and hurts a lot less.