Nails really are a bit like self-defense. But to be totally honest, they are a lot easier to pull off. When I was a kid, my mother used to tell me to never rub the bottom of my palms as a deep digging technique. Back then, I didn’t fully understand that “deep” was the main purpose of scratching and pressing the bottom of one’s palm to reach the underside of a nail. Recently, my older cousin came over for an afternoon birthday brunch and asked if I’d lick the end of her fingernails, one by one. “What is the function of licking the end of your hand?” I asked, and her response stunned me: “It’s to create friction and ridges, for the beauty of people’s nail beds and to help with your manicure.” So true! In my experience, deeply working on top of a nail is an essential tool to working on the bottom. But many cat owners don’t even know the importance of deep working.
In the interest of cat people, here are 15 tips to make removing your cat’s nails as easy as possible.
1. Have your manicurist blend a paste out of baking soda, rubbing alcohol, and water. Some newer nails are resistant to getting dry as a bone when applied on wet or cool surfaces. Those ones need extra brushing for more traction, which will make it easier to remove the top coat.
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2. Take your cat to the vet or a professional groomer with more experience on not just cleaning nails, but on feet too. They have special cleaning equipment. Some have a chest attachment for lifting the soles off your cats shoes. And some have a nail-clipping device that attaches to the back of the claws for back and paws cleaning.
3. Does your cat need a cleaning? This is a simple, quick swipe and scrub with your old nail clippers. Just try not to scratch any hard surfaces, such as hardwood or concrete.
4. Keep a short timer and plain soda bottles in your bathroom or a dark area where your cat likes to spend time.
5. Always remove the top coat. It’s tough to cut long nails on wet surfaces. But before you can eliminate a top coat, get rid of the root of the nail before you start the cutting process. Often, they’re wet from drool and other contact.
6. Bite your nails hard until they start bleeding. Skin is thicker than bone, so after a while, the sharp edges will kind of blend in with the body of the nail. And if they don’t blend in, then they won’t heal very fast.
7. Never just switch over from talons to feet. There’s a reason she’s called a cat and not a dog. If you go to the groomer after your cuticles are raw and rough, the growth spurts will spur on the skin and leave you with many wounds on the palms and nails that have to be removed. Do not insert your nails into the skin as you would with your toes. This will make it difficult to straighten. Your digits will also get an infected cut that may lead to infection.
8. Press the top of your nail to the underside of your cat’s. This will help out the big bones that protrude from the bottoms of her feet.
9. Try not to scratch around the bottom of her front feet. Her feet are not only bones, but they are also balls of fluff like the balls in a balloon. These bulky and fragile bones would withstand a lot more trauma than the knees or paws.
10. Don’t overbrush your nails, including your arches. Your cat’s top will likely be flat or curved. Brush down to the base, or the base of your nail, and then cut a short wedge into your nail.
11. Always wear gloves. A pad under your hand can help cut down on injury when you can’t see your hand over your entire body.
12. Always apply nail polish straight out of the package. Keep them tightly packed, or the product will be too easy to remove later when your manicure dries.
13. Use all products on one joint or sole, but not on another joint. This prevents your manicure from getting damaged and has a beneficial effect on the nail itself. That said, you can never use on all parts of your nails at the same time.
14. Always leave out the speckles and dead skin as you remove the top coat. They can ruin the polish.
15. Get a clean cuticle tool before you try to clean a nail in between treatments, so there are no injuries to the skin.
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