broken nails on front paw - Paw Talk

Critterangels · #1 05-09-2006, 12:45 PM

Olly seems to have broken several nails on his front paw. One of them was bleeding a lot, but stopped after I bathed it. Not sure what happened. I had the three piggies in the playpen (2 put together) for floor time, went to pick him up & noticed it after he was in my lap for awhile. The wound was fresh and he was bleeding on the towel in my lap. I checked the white sheet on the floor, but no sign of blood or broken nails. No broken nails in the towel, either. Do you think he bit them himself while I was brushing him? Or could one of the girls have done this just before I picked him up? His nails were not that long, as I clip them all the time. His skin has been very dry lately, and the vet has tested him for mites, which he doesn't have. I was brushing him & he seemed to be itchy. Has this happened to anyone else?

Darko · #2 05-09-2006, 12:50 PM

If your worried take olly to the vet

Critterangels · #3 05-09-2006, 01:03 PM

It seems fine, I was just curious. Olly is going to go to the vet shortly for his hernia surgery. The vet sees us quite often!

Chrissy · #4 05-09-2006, 04:07 PM

awww poor piggy

how far down the nails are the breaks?

Critterangels · #5 05-09-2006, 04:29 PM

The breaks are pretty far down, although he still has a nail on all but one. It really seems like most of the nail is gone on that finger. It stopped bleeding after I bathed it, so I did not need to use styptic powder. What a strange thing to happen. I just wish I knew how he did it, since there is no evidence anywhere. He was fine a few minutes before I took him out of the cage! It was late at night, so I wasn't able to call the vet right away.

Chrissy · #6 05-09-2006, 08:08 PM

hrm, that is bizarre.. I've never had it happen to my pigs or heard of it happening. It's probably just one of those things.. I hope piggy grows his nails back quickly and that there was no serious damage!

Critterangels · #7 05-10-2006, 11:55 AM

Mystery solved - he did it to himself. Last night I was looking at his dry skin patches and he started biting his nails in front of me! I didn't notice it the night it first happened because he had his face buried in the towel that was on my lap. Brushing him must have hurt him & he reacted. Poor little guy! Not sure what to do about his skin problem. The vet thought stress was causing it & he had been through alot getting neutered. It seemed to clear up & now is coming back. He definately doesn't have mites or ringworm.

Chrissy · #8 05-10-2006, 01:21 PM

it's good that the mystery is solved! I don't know anything about piggy skin issues (I noticed mine has flaky skin last night) so I have nothing to suggest. I HATE hearing vets saying skin issues is stress.. every animal I've had that has had skin issues the vet says was stress but that never turns out to be the case. Good luck trying to find out what's wrong with poor piggie!

Critterangels · #9 05-10-2006, 05:33 PM

Thanks! I'm sure there is a reason for the scabs. It's usually around the rosettes (Olly is an abby). Strange, if I brush those spots, the hair falls out with the scab attached. It's not alot of hair loss. No one would notice it. I'll push the vet to get to the bottom of it when he has hernia surgery. I have heard of piggies with dry skin, but I haven't found much information yet.

Chrissy · #10 05-10-2006, 06:49 PM

That's really odd.. my pigs both have dry skin around their rosettes but nowhere else.. it doesn't fall out though and there are no scabs. I've looked and looked for info on dry skin and it's not easy to find

yikes on the hernia surgery, when is he getting that done?

Critterangels · #11 05-11-2006, 05:24 PM

I found some info that said vitamin C can help with dry skin. It's funny because the piggies recently have lost interest in some of the veggies I've been feeding them - the same ones with high vitamin C content. I'm going to re-introduce some others & see if it helps. I do remember beefing up Olly's vitamin C before he was neutered, and the dry skin was better then. He had a suture reaction & developed an infection after his surgery (even though I kept everything sterile). The hernia was a complication from his surgery. We didn't notice it until the swelling from the infection cleared up. He's had time to heal now & I should schedule the surgery this month. Poor little guy, he'll have to go on antibiotics again. I hate to do this to him, but it needs to be done.