This week, we had to cut Noe’s nails. They were getting really long, as seen in the photo below.
Nail-trimming time is highly traumatic for all involved. While we have a procedure, Noe starts hyperventilating as soon as she is being held in the nail-trimming position. She will also randomly kick and squirm during the experience. It’s hard not to stress her our further when she’s doing that. While I’ve only ever nicked her quick twice and drawn blood in ~9 years, it’s stressful for us, too.
We’ve settled on doing her front paws one day, and her back paws the next. While this drags out the drama, it lets her calm down between (apparently) torture sessions. It’s hard to say which set is easier- she only has 8 nails in back (10 in front), but the back nails are much thicker and darker.
We’ve seen a rabbit nail-trimming demonstration in which one person held the rabbit in their lap, said something like “If you lean them back slightly they will just relax and rest gently against you,” and proceeded to gently snip at the nails with little reaction from the rabbit. Our speculation used to be that that rabbit was drugged or something. But I’ve helped my aunt cut her rabbit’s nails, and he actually did relax and lean against her! So the issue seems to be that Noe has a bad attitude. Oh yes, she also behaves when the vet trims her nails- so it is apparently a bad attitude toward us.