Nail broken off

Hi all,

I'm off to the vet in a few hours, we got the first free slot, but I thought
I'd see if anyone here has any advice on what we might expect there so we
can prepare if necessary, like by setting up a secluded box-bed for our cat
or anything.

A few days ago I noticed that our cat's middle back nail was apparently
damaged. There was blood around the nail in the fur, and it looked split. I
have lots of experience assisting at (non-kill) shelters in first aid and so
forth so I decided to keep an eye on it, and the next day it looked dry and
clean. It clearly wasn't bothering her. Well, today, it looks wet and
bloody, perhaps a bit pussy, but she's been licking it a lot (so now it
clearly IS bothering her) so it was hard to tell what-all substances had
saturated the hair. We wrapped her up in a towel and I tried to clip a bit
of the hair away for a better look, but that hurt her so there's clearly
some inflammation. So I just parted the hair and had a look. The nail is
hanging by a thread, the entire nail, and the end of her toe is exposed and
not pretty, although certainly not green or extremely red and swollen or
anything. We wanted to leave her alone as much as possible, so I didn't
probe to see if that was a bit of bone showing or just a slight infection. I
dribbled some dilute betadine on it, we let her go, and I called the vet. I
know when I should move to professional help! (Sure, I could probably clean
it out and take care of it if I had to, say by being alone in a remote cabin
with no vet access, but I thought it best to go with locals and experience
and all that good stuff).

So... I predict anything from a spray-on local, a snip and some ointment, to
sedation, minor surgery, and bandaging, with an Elizabethan collar. Can
anyone help me narrow down the likelihood while I fret until our
appointment?

Thanks,
Katrina

Back from the vet now. She just removed the dangling claw and gave her a
pain and anti-inflammatory shot, and said to put betadine on it twice a day.
So she's fine and recovering from the bus/vet experience nicely. I wish she
liked any sort of treat so I could give her some!
--Katrina

Back from the vet now. She just removed the dangling claw and gave her a
pain and anti-inflammatory shot, and said to put betadine on it twice a day.
So she's fine and recovering from the bus/vet experience nicely. I wish she
liked any sort of treat so I could give her some!
--Katrina

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:50:03 +0000, White Monkey wrote:

Back from the vet now. She just removed the dangling claw and gave her a
pain and anti-inflammatory shot, and said to put betadine on it twice a day.
So she's fine and recovering from the bus/vet experience nicely. I wish she
liked any sort of treat so I could give her some!
--Katrin


We are sending healing purrs......hope she rcovers quickly. Do you have
any idea what she got it caught in? MLB

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:50:03 +0000, White Monkey wrote:

Back from the vet now. She just removed the dangling claw and gave her a
pain and anti-inflammatory shot, and said to put betadine on it twice a day.
So she's fine and recovering from the bus/vet experience nicely. I wish she
liked any sort of treat so I could give her some!
--Katrin


We are sending healing purrs......hope she rcovers quickly. Do you have
any idea what she got it caught in? MLB

"mlbriggs" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:50:03 +0000, White Monkey wrote:

Back from the vet now. She just removed the dangling claw and gave her a
pain and anti-inflammatory shot, and said to put betadine on it twice a
day.
So she's fine and recovering from the bus/vet experience nicely. I wish
she
liked any sort of treat so I could give her some!
--Katrin


We are sending healing purrs......hope she rcovers quickly. Do you have
any idea what she got it caught in? MLB


----- Original Message -----
From: "mlbriggs"
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats.misc
Sent: Friday, September 10, 2004 19:02
Subject: Nail broken off


On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:50:03 +0000, White Monkey wrote:

Back from the vet now. She just removed the dangling claw and gave her a
pain and anti-inflammatory shot, and said to put betadine on it twice a
day.
So she's fine and recovering from the bus/vet experience nicely. I wish
she
liked any sort of treat so I could give her some!
--Katrin


We are sending healing purrs......hope she rcovers quickly.

Thanks! She's been sound asleep with lots of toe curling when muttered to
and lip-smacking when settling into a new position since we got back, so we
think she really appreciates that pain shot. It also appears to be scabbing
over neatly now. Must have been awful having that claw dangling, poor girl.
Now it can heal.

Do you have
any idea what she got it caught in? MLB

No, but she does like to run up trees and pull a reverse about 2 meters off
the ground and jump down, so my most likely theory is a crack in tree bark.
She also occasionally gets run at by the neighbor's three daschunds (sp?)
(on-lead, thank goodness, when not in their yard which she doesn't go near)
and runs into the house, but the vet agrees with me that this would likely
have at least frayed the tips of a couple of other rear claws, and anyway
that makes our Dane pup bark at the Daschunds, and there was no such
incident recently that I noticed. It's definitely not a bite. She doesn't
range very far, but she does like to bum up and down the block, and there's
a long strip of shrubbery and trees lining the street between it and the
houses (the cars here take great care, as there are lots of loose cats, a
few loose dogs that can be trusted, and tons of small children). She does
like to go from our yard to the next-door neighbors' under the fence; I
suppose she could also have tried to squeeze through a new spot there and
got her toenail caught on something. It's unlikely it happened in the house
because we've never found her anywhere "weird", in that she does go some
interesting places but so far nowhere we have asked, "Now, how did she do
THAT?" and we can't really see a way it could have happened so severely to
just one claw on getting into any of her regular spots. The only traces of
blood in the house are on the spot on the bed where she likes to go
groom--she must have gone there after it happened.

Thanks for the good wishes,
Katrina

"mlbriggs" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:50:03 +0000, White Monkey wrote:

Back from the vet now. She just removed the dangling claw and gave her a
pain and anti-inflammatory shot, and said to put betadine on it twice a
day.
So she's fine and recovering from the bus/vet experience nicely. I wish
she
liked any sort of treat so I could give her some!
--Katrin


We are sending healing purrs......hope she rcovers quickly. Do you have
any idea what she got it caught in? MLB


----- Original Message -----
From: "mlbriggs"
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats.misc
Sent: Friday, September 10, 2004 19:02
Subject: Nail broken off


On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:50:03 +0000, White Monkey wrote:

Back from the vet now. She just removed the dangling claw and gave her a
pain and anti-inflammatory shot, and said to put betadine on it twice a
day.
So she's fine and recovering from the bus/vet experience nicely. I wish
she
liked any sort of treat so I could give her some!
--Katrin


We are sending healing purrs......hope she rcovers quickly.

Thanks! She's been sound asleep with lots of toe curling when muttered to
and lip-smacking when settling into a new position since we got back, so we
think she really appreciates that pain shot. It also appears to be scabbing
over neatly now. Must have been awful having that claw dangling, poor girl.
Now it can heal.

Do you have
any idea what she got it caught in? MLB

No, but she does like to run up trees and pull a reverse about 2 meters off
the ground and jump down, so my most likely theory is a crack in tree bark.
She also occasionally gets run at by the neighbor's three daschunds (sp?)
(on-lead, thank goodness, when not in their yard which she doesn't go near)
and runs into the house, but the vet agrees with me that this would likely
have at least frayed the tips of a couple of other rear claws, and anyway
that makes our Dane pup bark at the Daschunds, and there was no such
incident recently that I noticed. It's definitely not a bite. She doesn't
range very far, but she does like to bum up and down the block, and there's
a long strip of shrubbery and trees lining the street between it and the
houses (the cars here take great care, as there are lots of loose cats, a
few loose dogs that can be trusted, and tons of small children). She does
like to go from our yard to the next-door neighbors' under the fence; I
suppose she could also have tried to squeeze through a new spot there and
got her toenail caught on something. It's unlikely it happened in the house
because we've never found her anywhere "weird", in that she does go some
interesting places but so far nowhere we have asked, "Now, how did she do
THAT?" and we can't really see a way it could have happened so severely to
just one claw on getting into any of her regular spots. The only traces of
blood in the house are on the spot on the bed where she likes to go
groom--she must have gone there after it happened.

Thanks for the good wishes,
Katrina