Reader Sara wants to share the experience she had with Petsmart’s dog grooming service. She says that after they accidentally cut her dog’s toenail too close they tried to sell her a product to stop the bleeding.
Sara says:
I wanted to let you know what happened to our dog when we took him to get groomed at Petsmart today. We’ve taken our Lab and Boxer there many times in the past and never had a problem, but today we got a call that they had “nicked” our Boxer’s toenail and were having the on-site vet take a look at him “just in case.” We went up there to find out what was going on.
We went to the grooming salon to check out both dogs. They give you the bill before they release your pets to you and you go in the checkout line to pay. The woman in the salon looked at the bill and said she wanted to check something and told us to go over to the vet to see what was going on with Winston, the Boxer. We noticed smeared bloodstains on the tiled floor both inside and outside the salon. The vet was called out to see us after we waited about ten minutes. He said that the grooming technician accidentally cut the nail to the quick and it was bleeding. He said that the Boxer was full of energy and during the short walk from the salon to the vet’s office the dog “knocked against something” and it started to bleed again. There is an unobstructed path between the salon and the vet’s office. He said that our dog was anxious and his blood pressure was up and he hoped to keep him there while he calmed down and that if we took him home he would probably continue to bleed. He said we could BUY a product to help stop the bleeding. The vet said that nobody was at fault except the dog for “wiggling.”
They blamed the “accident” on a black nail. Boxer’s nails vary between black and white depending on the color of the skin of the toe. When we finally got the dog back to examine, it is very apparent to us that the nail was not a black nail. You can see clearly that the nail was not “nicked” but in fact there is very little left of it. This is definitely a painful condition for a dog and leaves our pet open to infection until it heals.
When I went back to pay, the bill was for full price, without a discount that I thought was forthcoming after the tech wanted to “check something.” I asked, “You are going to charge me full price after hurting my dog?” An assistant manager was called since the manager was not there. While the manager was apologetic, he said the best he could do was offer to give us the doomed nail clipping free because “your dog still got a bath and we didn’t charge you for the vet’s time.” He went on to tell us that in addition to the bleeding from the cut nail the nerve was also damaged. Nice. He eventually did give us the product to stop the bleeding for free.
I understand that nail trimming, especially with an energetic dog, is a difficult task but that is the reason we take our dogs to a professional groomer. We are not brave enough to undertake that task ourselves because we are afraid of injuring our pets. We understand that the vet was consulted for our dog’s injury but we feel that injury was completely preventable if care was taken. Our dog can’t be the only energetic dog the groomers see. When the vet offered to sell us the product to stem the bleeding we were enraged. We also appreciate that the assistant manager offered to get our “trust” back by whatever means he could, but the fact that no meaningful discount was offered was galling. After they hurt your dog and probably make it impossible for him to ever allow his nails to be trimmed again, what could they possibly do?
We were so upset that we didn’t accept the nominal discount for the nail trimming as we just wanted to get our dogs home. I don’t think this is an across the board condemnation against the groomers at Petsmart but this really shouldn’t have happened.
Ouch! Poor puppy. We suggest launching an EECB (executive email carpet bomb) on Petsmart to see if there’s anything more they can do for you. Accidents happen, but haggling over a product to stop the bleeding that they caused is, well, rude.
For more information about launching an EECB, click here.
Also, you’re probably in the market for a new dog groomer, so be sure to check out this information from the Humane Society of the United States.
What do you think Petsmart should have done in this situation?
(Photo: Jenna Belle )
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I don’t understand why this is causing that much ruckus…If it hadn’t been done in a store, there would be no uproar at all.
Professional groomers do this all the time and apply quick stop.
Haven’t any of you ever bled on your finger from a broken nail?
I used to work at PetCo (ugghhh) and we had onsite groomers as well. Cutting a dogs toenails too short is extremely common and always looks worse than it usually is.
The groomers had their own supply of ‘styptic powder’ that they would use to stop the bleeding, but the customer was never charged for applying the powder. If the customer’s dog wouldn’t stop bleeding, we would have offered to give them the powder for free. If anyone clips their own dog’s nails, they should know that bleeding is common and should have their own supply of powder on hand.
The customer in this story shouldn’t be surprised by the dog’s bleeding nails, as it is so common that groomers are prepared for it. The store should have offered free styptic powder and possibly a discount simply to make the customer happy and shut up about it. The powder is fairly inexpensive. I think we sold it for $10 or less. Small price for the store to pay to keep a customer.
But the customer should not be surprised by the bleeding. It is incredibly common. Your professional groomers probably just never mentioned it if it happened in the past. It’s not exactly something you want to bring up if you don’t have to.
Having worked in a retail grooming salon I can understand how difficult it can be to trim a wiggly dogs nails. I was often on my own on less busy days and didn’t always have the extra set of hands I needed to restrain a “difficult” dog. It didn’t happen often, but sometimes I had to recommend the dog getting its’ nails trimmed at a vet because one, the dog was so stressed out their eyes looked like they were going to burst, two, I did not feel safe (the dog wanted to not just bite me, but maul me), or three, because the dog was a hemophiliac. If that happened, the customer’s bill was almost always discounted and sometimes they received a discount off of their next visit. If a nail was ever cut too short, and trust me, even the most skilled groomer can do it, we would supply the styptic to put on the wound right then and there, and would often send home a little doggie bag of our store-use stuff to help out the owner. That was just what we did. I don’t
know if it was store-cleared or not, but we always felt bad if we cut a nail too short. Also, we would let the owner know of a quick alternative – corn starch.
It sounds to me like the nail got caught in the trimmers, your doggy wiggled and off went the nail. By no means am I saying it was your dogs’ fault. These things happen sometimes. I definitely think they should have given you the styptic powder, no questions asked. You may want to get a copy of any paperwork you filled out, like if you release PetSmart of liability if something happens, etc. Check that fine print.
I have been a dog groomer for 6 yrs. I’ve worked at private shops and now I work at a Petsmart. Quicking dogs nails is never fun but is very common. My personal solution is to tell the customer, let them know the severity of it and offer some styptic powder to go home with. To a point I can understand being upset, but its such a minor thing. Be prepared it can happen at any salon. And to the people who think the groomers are no different than the “kids who stock the shelf” you MUST be out of your mind. Petsmart is ALL about safety. And let me tell you something about private shops…your dog is more likey to get abused behind closed doors. And only some owners of these shops enforce safety while others don’t . And while petsmart may be pricey…remember they have the highest safety standards because they are a corporation. Don’t always trust your groomer at the corner.