Nails changing color?

Christine565 · Feb 5, 2015

Hi everyone! So it snowed last night and when I brought Sansa in, I wiped her feet off. In doing so, I saw she had a black nail. I thought it was just dirty, but it was the actual nail. I checked her other paw and there were two black nails. She is 7 months old.
I'm wondering if this is something normal or if a vet trip is in order. The white nails sure made trimming easy, haha!

trini · Feb 5, 2015

Black nails are common...and, yes, they make it much harder to see how far back to trim than the white nails do. Unless you see inflammation around the nails in question, I wouldn't be at all worried.

Trini

vickaaayhay · Feb 6, 2015

Nails changing color as they mature is normal ^^ You will probably see it happen to the other ones too. Mine used to have all white nails, but now at 5 months she has a mixture of black/white nails. I agree the white nails made life so much easier haha. Looking underneath the nail I can usually see the pinks of my puppy's nail. Or you can just trim them slightly at the tips until the next time you see the vet. :biggrin2:

tesslynn · Feb 6, 2015

it was easier

vickaaayhay said:
Nails changing color as they mature is normal ^^ You will probably see it happen to the other ones too. Mine used to have all white nails, but now at 5 months she has a mixture of black/white nails. I agree the white nails made life so much easier haha. Looking underneath the nail I can usually see the pinks of my puppy's nail. Or you can just trim them slightly at the tips until the next time you see the vet.

Savannah's nails have gone from pink/white to dark now at 5 mths too, and I don't like it. It is much harder to judge how much nail to clip.

Christine565 · Feb 6, 2015

Thanks everyone! I was a little panicked

Caro · Feb 6, 2015

My Tully has all black nails - she's a shaded mahogany sable (and her dad was a bi-black), Deska only has 2 (he's sable with the merle gene).

Out of interest - are darker coloured shelties more prone to black nails?

vickaaayhay · Feb 8, 2015

tesslynn said:
Savannah's nails have gone from pink/white to dark now at 5 mths too, and I don't like it. It is much harder to judge how much nail to clip.

Right? Aimee was my first dog, so when first clipping her nails I was wondering why clipping nails was perceived as such a tricky thing by some people. It's half black half white now, crossing my fingers it doesn't get any blacker :fl

tesslynn · Feb 9, 2015

Caro said:
My Tully has all black nails - she's a shaded mahogany sable (and her dad was a bi-black), Deska only has 2 (he's sable with the merle gene).

Out of interest - are darker coloured shelties more prone to black nails?

my first one was sable/white...had white nails-so easy to clip, but she chewed her own so rarely trimmed much...my 2nd I called tricolored but I guess that wasn't correct..I guess she was a shaded sable (?) front paws white nails, back paws darker, she chewed her nail on one back paw, so only one to watch and clip that wasn't easy to tell how far. Kaleigh my tricolored has DARK nails-makes me nervous to clip hers, Savannah my fair haired sable had the pink/white nails that are darkening, :cry:

. No rhyme or reasoning to nail color from my experience. And the pups seem to grow nails grow faster than my previous ones ever did...not sure why