[Dailydrool] Splintering nails..... Help?

[Carmen Kraus]

I've been fighting with Kelvin from day one to trim his nails often 
enough for them to not splay out his toes so bad. At first I thought the 
ragged edges and soft nails were a result of malnourishment but it is 
not resolving. He only has one nail that is hard and it's hard enough 
that I can't trim it AT ALL, it's like a piece of iron. The rest... they 
are still so soft and tend to splinter along the sides and underside. 
I'm worried that I'm going to hurt the poor thing since, like a said, 
it's a fight to trim his nails.
None of the other bassets here are like this, except for the nails of 
iron, Curie could win the grand prize for hard nails.

Ideas?? What could be causing this??
And no dremel suggestions, he runs and hides when he sees the box, pees 
himself when I turn it on... he's just too frightened of it for me to 
even try.

Carmen