# Peculiar problem with my mal...



## Hoyt Yang (Dec 26, 2007)

Not sure if anyone has heard of this- but my 11.5 month mal's toe nails do not seem to grow. I first noticed that he had a problem with bleeding whenever we worked him on a hard surface. I gave him at least 3-4 weeks to heal, but noticed that the nails were still very short (close to the quick). As soon as we work him again, his nails would bleed again. It does not seem to bother him, but it sure makes a mess everywhere. For now, I got him 'dog boots,' and he seems fine.

Has anyone experiences this before? Is this some time of fungus, or even worse, genetic?

Thanks in advance!

Hoyt


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## Jennifer Cooksey (Mar 22, 2007)

Hi,

It could be this "Symmetrical Lupoid Onchodystrophy" our pitbull has this disease and she has improved greatly with a raw diet, the Omegas, Vitamin E and Niacinamide. 

The best bet is to take him to the vet to rule out a fungal infection than take him to a specialist. 

Anyhow, here is a link with more detail.

http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/dfoot.html

Good luck 

Sincerely,

Jen


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## Hoyt Yang (Dec 26, 2007)

Thanks Jen, sounds quite intimidating. I sure hope it's nothing serious!


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

He's in a cement bottom kennel part of the time isn't he? Depending on the structure of a dogs foot, some will wear their toenails down on a regular basis. I've had some Mali's who I never clipped their nails, their entire life. And they weren't kept on cement, but even on the dirt/shavings/gravel they still naturally kept their nails short. When working on cement or another similar surface, they quickly wore their nails down to the quick. With Stan being on cement, he's probably keeping his toenails the dog equivalent of a human "nail biter" So there is very little covering the quick at any given time, and it's easy to wear that away. I have to clip Cali's nails on a regular basis (actually I Dremel), but she will wear them down to the quick and bleed all over running flyball on rubber mats. When we have to do a tournament on mats I don't clip her nails for a few weeks to let them get a little long, then they wear down a lot, but not to the point they bleed. 

Oh, and yes, the shape of the foot is genetic. But a nice tight foot that wears it's nails naturally is not a bad thing


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## Hoyt Yang (Dec 26, 2007)

LOL Kadi, that was reassuring. Yes, Stan is kept in a 'cement bottom kennel'. I guess looking at it from the bright side, it saves me the hassle of clipping his nails all the time! I just wanted to make sure that it was not more serious.


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

I have a Mal who had the same problem when I kept him on cement. Now that he's on grass (and retired from training/work), I do have to trim his nails occasionally.


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## David Frost (Mar 29, 2006)

Konnie Hein said:


> I have a Mal who had the same problem when I kept him on cement. Now that he's on grass (and retired from training/work), I do have to trim his nails occasionally.


An age old secret for program managers. How often a dog's nails need trimmed tell the manager how little the dogs are being worked. ha ha.

DFrost


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## Tim Martens (Mar 27, 2006)

i have never had to trim any of my three working dogs' nails. with my first dog, occasionally when they would get long, i'd just do some close agitation on asphalt for a few minutes and he would be good....


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