HOUSTON – Trimming your pet's nails can be tough, and it can be painful for your dog or cat if you cut too deeply. Consumer expert Amy Davis is testing a product that claims to take the guesswork out of it.
It's called the PetiCare Nail Trimmer. It comes with a built-in light and magnifier to help you see the quick. That's the blood vessel in the nail that you don't want to cut.
Tracy Shipley brought Freckles and Scruffy to Channel 2 to try the PetiCare. She normally uses regular dog nail trimmers on her pooches, but she can't do it easily inside.
"I usually will go out in the yard and put them in a chair because I have daylight.. and I have to wear cheaters and I can see what I'm doing," Shipley explained.
PetiCare comes with a built-in LED light to help you see what you're doing. Shipley finds it especially difficult to trim Scruffy's nails carefully.
"He's terrier mix. His nails are actually brown, white and dark. And with those striations, it's really hard to see that quick in that kind of nail," she said.
She said the bright LED light on the PetiCare helped. The device also comes with a nail trapper to capture the clippings, which doubles as a magnifier.
That part did not work as well for Shipley. She tried to take off her readers and just use the magnifier, but she still couldn't see well enough.
Freckles' nails are lighter; so it should have been easier to see the quick and avoid it, but she was excited and wiggly. Shipley accidentally cut one of her nails too closely, causing her to bleed.
"I think she would have been easy except she was so excited," Shipley said.
One out of two is not bad. Shipley thinks the $20 price for PetiCare is worth it.
It helped her cut Scruffy's nails shorter than usual.
"I felt more confident trimming them than what I usually do," she said.
Scruffy gives PetiCare four paws up with his mom's approval.
If you feel squeamish about trimming your pet's nails, you should know that the PetiCare doesn't prevent you from cutting the quick. If you worry about that, you may prefer the Paw Perfect nail file.
