You're not supposed to hurt YOURself

Let me tell you a story about a "special" beagle named Sam. He was a unique find and a very good fit for our family. He's definitely a one of a kind and I cannot imagine our lives without him. He is always up to something and brings lots of humor into our world. Don't get me wrong, we love our first beagle Ranger too. But Ranger is different. He's a VERY good boy. He hardly ever gets himself into trouble. The only "strange" thing about him - he is afraid of everything (and I mean everything) - OH and he has the worst breath ever!!! I think Ranger is the best dog I've ever owned. Very easy going, if not a little snobby at times. And then there's Sam. One look in his big brown eyes so full of love and you will be hooked. I love that every time he comes over to the couch how much he loves and appreciates every ear stroke he gets. He's the sweetest dog I've ever owned - even with his crazy food obsession!

So onto the hurt yourself part . . . Sam has this strange way of walking. He doesn't pick up his front paws when he walks. I'm not sure if it's laziness or how he is built but when he is walking on any surface besides carpet it sounds like he is shuffling in his old man slippers. One afternoon, before Ryan got out of school, Doug had gotten off work early and my work load was really light so we decided to take the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood. We don't walk them nearly as much as we should and this was a treat. The dogs were in heaven! Sam did his usual shuffle with his nose sniffing at everything that he could. Later on that day, we noticed blood on the floor. After doing some investigating, it turned out that Sam had filed his own nails down to the quick which was causing them to bleed every time he walked.

Quickly, we jumped on the Internet to look up options for this. So, we washed his paw with antibacterial soap, stopped the bleeding with corn starch, put on some antibacterial ointment and then wrapped it up so that he couldn't lick at it. He was pretty good natured about the whole thing. I think once we got it wrapped it actually felt better.

For two days, he walked around with his leg bandaged up. We removed it to take a look and the bleeding was stopped and the nails were actually okay to be let out again. They haven't bled since. We are keeping an eye on the length of those nails now. And, no, he hasn't learned to pick up his paws when he walks. He still shuffles like an old man wearing slippers.

Doug washing Sam's hurt paw:

Sam taking a nap under my desk with his bandage on: