[Dailydrool] Trimming nails

[Elizabeth Lindsey]

That may have been me who posted information about nail trimming on Facebook.

Our Elsinore and young Charlie get periodic spinal adjustments from a veterinary chiropractor. He told me it's very important to keep a dog's toenails trimmed because it helps them distribute their weight evenly across their pads. Evenly distributed weight keeps the spine in better alignment. 

I'm never popular in my home on toenail-trimming day, but if the chiropractor says to do it, I figure he knows what he's talking about.

Other things to do to help a long, low dog maintain good spine health: don't let them go up and down flights of stairs, don't let them jump on and off the furniture, don't let them jump in and out of cars, do encourage them to use ramps instead of stairs, do keep their weight down, do lift them on and off things if at all possible. 

All these precautions help reduce wear and tear on the disks between the vertebrae. They're not a guarantee the dog won't ever have a disk problem, but they do make a positive difference. 

We learned about preventive basset back care the hard way and at our late Jane Basset's expense: three ruptured disks repaired, credit card debt for over a year to pay for it, and the loss of about 70 percent of Jane's ability to walk (though, thank goodness, no loss of bladder or bowel control). We didn't know when we got her what we should be doing to protect her back, and her vets didn't tell us until after the first rupture. But we know now and are giving Elsinore and Charlie the full benefit of that hard-earned knowledge.

Elizabeth