Torn Claw

[Animal Freak]

Yesterday I cut my cats' claws and, as I worked on Ember's paw, I noticed one of her nails was broken really low. I mean, there was barely any claw left. I was quite shocked as I hadn't noticed any signs of discomfort. I would have expected to see blood everywhere. I hit the dog's quick not that long ago and it bled a ton. I can't believe Ember's claw could have broken so low and not have left a trace. And she's quite attached to me, so it seems like I would have noticed any behavioral changes. I have no idea how or when it happened though. It looked like it must have been painful, but she didn't seem too bothered with me touching it. She was getting squirmy, but I think it was just because I was taking too long with cutting her nails. However, I did not some dark spotting at the base. I'm not sure what it was though. She wasn't letting me get a good luck and I didn't want to stress her too much. I'm just not sure if I should be worried, if there's anything I need to do... I've never seen any of them break a claw, let alone so low. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[mservant]

Cats can be in severe pain and not show any sign. One of my previous cats managed to pull a claw out competely by catching it in carpet as she raced out of a room and if she hadn't left a trail of bloody paw prints I wouldn't have known: The vet put a dressing on to keep it clean and it grew back pretty fast thankfully. She was never as happy about my trimming that claw so I think it remained sensitive.
Mouse recently caught a back claw on something but rather than breaking the claw he tore the skin back around it. Again no indication of injury at the time and like you I noticed it when trimming his claws. By then I think the injury was a few days old and scab formed around the base of the claw. I had the vet take a look and they said to leave and let it heal naturally. The skin around that claw is now a bit loose so I worry about it being prone to infection and will keep a closer eye on it when I trim his claws. He is less keen on me looking at that paw though....
I expect your cat will be fine but not quite so happy for you handling the paw, at least for a while.
It is useful to try and figure out how / where the injury happened if you can, if only to look at preventing something similar happening again.

 

[Jem]

However, I did not some dark spotting at the base. I'm not sure what it was though.

My cat ripped a claw out completely one time, and although he did show signs of pain, as it healed, it became very dark and almost black. In our case, it was the blood, scabbing and bruised tissue. We kept it clean by dipping his paw in a saline solution a few times a day. Everything grew back perfectly fine.

 

[Animal Freak]

Cats can be in severe pain and not show any sign. One of my previous cats managed to pull a claw out competely by catching it in carpet as she raced out of a room and if she hadn't left a trail of bloody paw prints I wouldn't have known: The vet put a dressing on to keep it clean and it grew back pretty fast thankfully. She was never as happy about my trimming that claw so I think it remained sensitive.
Mouse recently caught a back claw on something but rather than breaking the claw he tore the skin back around it. Again no indication of injury at the time and like you I noticed it when trimming his claws. By then I think the injury was a few days old and scab formed around the base of the claw. I had the vet take a look and they said to leave and let it heal naturally. The skin around that claw is now a bit loose so I worry about it being prone to infection and will keep a closer eye on it when I trim his claws. He is less keen on me looking at that paw though....
I expect your cat will be fine but not quite so happy for you handling the paw, at least for a while.
It is useful to try and figure out how / where the injury happened if you can, if only to look at preventing something similar happening again.

Thanks for the reply. Her hiding pain doesn't surprise me too much, especially with a feral father. She definitely seems to have picked up some of his survival traits. But I really would have expected some blood.

She came right back, so I don't think she minded too much. I always take turns with them. Cut the claws on one foot, move to the next cat, cut the claws on one foot, move on to the next cat, and so on. I still had her back claws to do after that and she came back and let me cut them though she was a little extra squirmy.

I do want to find out how it happened, but don't know how. I'll be keeping an eye out on for a claw, I guess, but that would be easy to miss and I don't know when it happened so it could have been vacuumed up by now.

My cat ripped a claw out completely one time, and although he did show signs of pain, as it healed, it became very dark and almost black. In our case, it was the blood, scabbing and bruised tissue. We kept it clean by dipping his paw in a saline solution a few times a day. Everything grew back perfectly fine.

Thanks for the reply. It is nearly black. I was wondering it was blood or perhaps bruising, but didn't really know what to think of it since I had never seen anything like it before.