Pet Nail Trimming Tools

Keeping nails trimmed on your pet is more than just good hygiene, it's vital to a pet's health. Nails left untrimmed can interfere with the way a pet walks, cause pain, split and bleed, and grow into the pets pad or foot. Whether it's you, the groomer or the veterinarian trimming your pet's nails it's a good idea to know your options.

  1. Plier-Style Trimmer

    • The plier-style nail trimmer comes in sizes for small, medium and large dogs and is better suited to heavy duty nail trimming for pets with thicker nails. The crescent shaped blades show exactly where on the nail your cutting before you squeeze the handles and make the cut.

    Scissor Style

    • Scissor-style trimmers work exactly like scissors and are better suited for smaller animals such as cats, birds and rodents.

    Guillotine Style

    • Guillotine clippers require the nail to go through a loop at the top, which can make it difficult to use on pets with very thick nails. When the handles are squeezed a blade descends and cuts the nail. The blade on this style needs to be replaced regularly to ensure a clean cut.

    Dremel Tool

    • The dremel should not be used by anyone except a veterinarian. Veterinarians usually use this tool to trim nails in cases where they can't use a clipping tool because of nail irregularity or if the pet is sedated and the nail needs to be brought past the quick, which is the live part of the nail. Some veterinarians will do this while your pet is sedated for another procedure if the quicks are so long as to make regular nail trimming difficult. Commercial dremel-style pet nail trimmers are available with guards around most of the bit but are low power.

    Extra Information

    • Keep styptic powder on hand when trimming nails to stop the bleeding if a pet's quick gets cut. Press the powder to the open quick or roll the wet tip of a cotton swab in the powder and apply it to the bleeding nail. All clippers should be kept sharp so that they are cutting the nail and not crushing it, which can cause splitting and pain.