Clipped my dog's dewclaw too short, but that $15 cornstarch trick from the feed store saved me a vet bill

After 6 months of winging it with a cheap styptic pencil that never worked, I finally got a real powder coagulant from the feed store in Lubbock and it stopped the bleeding in like 30 seconds flat, has anyone else had to learn the hard way with at-home grooming?

3 comments

3 Comments

shane1704d ago

Had a buddy who tried the cornstarch route on his Aussie after a similar oops, and he said it worked okay but the real scare was when he panicked and grabbed the wrong bag from the pantry, ended up using baking powder instead which just fizzed and made a mess. He finally broke down and bought that Kwik Stop powder from the same kind of feed store and told me it was night and day difference, stopped the bleeding before he even got the towel wrapped around it. I still remember him telling me how he just sat there on the kitchen floor with the dog licking his face like nothing happened, swearing he'd never try the cheap stuff again.

the_laura4d ago

Wait, he grabbed the wrong bag and used baking powder instead? Oh man, I can just picture that fizzy mess on the kitchen floor, probably scared the dog even more than the cut did. I've been there with the panic fumbling though, trying to find anything that looks like it might work while the dog is bleeding everywhere. That Kwik Stop really is something else, I had a similar moment where I was fumbling with cornstarch and it just wasn't clotting fast enough for my liking. Did your buddy ever double check his pantry labels after that scare?

zarat374d ago

The real game changer is having a clean towel ready before you even start clipping. Cornstarch works fine for the panic moment but keeping pressure with a dry cloth first does way more than any powder.