Okay, as detailed in this thread, I hurt my toe, leaving it black and blue.
Well, today, I started to trim the nail to relieve some of the pressure, and the whole thing just kind of broke off down to the root, (and a lot of blood). 
Is there anything I should do, as far as keeping it covered until it grows back?
You can hope it grows back. A friend of mine has, since traveling to central America for field work, has lost most of her toenails. They haven’t grown back in 10+ years. Not sure what the cause is, but she doesn’t do too much special to proctect them anymore.
As long as you haven’t damaged the underlying nail bed it should grow back back just fine.
I lost both my big toenails at once when I was 10. (I dropped a cinderblock on my feet.) I kept a gauze pad on them until the initial soreness went away, and after that I was very careful walking until the nails grew back. I wouldn’t worry about a doctor unless it starts growing back oddly or mishapen. (Or doesn’t stop bleeding, of course.)
Keep the toe lightly covered until it stops oozing ichor, and shooting needles up your spine every time it touches anything.
If you wrap it too tight, it’ll get soggy.
I lost a toenail in argument with a concrete block and a set of steps last January. In another month or so it’ll finally be time to trim the new one.
I sort of dropped a heavy vacuum cleaner on my big toe once. Balck and nasty ensued. Eventually no more toenail. BUt without any special care or bother, it did grow back jsut fine.
THat will teach you to kick the furniture GUinastasia - now you know it can fight back. 
I lost both my big toe nails when I was a teenager. They did grow back on their own just fine though it was a good six months or more before they looked “normal” again.
I lost both of my big toenails one time from running in some shoes that were too small. It will grow back but it may take a while. Mine took almost 9 months. One thing I didn’t know before this happened was that the nail grows up all at once from the nail bed. I always assumed that it grew back from the back and worked its way to the front like you would clip it.
Well, I haven’t been able to examine how much of it broke-I had to trim some of it, just because of all the blood and it was all jagged at the edges. (Yeah, major TMI there, I know.)
Wonder if there’s a Lee Press-On Toenail kit?
I had an ingrown toenail once. Hurt like Hell.
Maybe your’e better off without them! Are they needed for walking?
You might want to add a lot of gelatin to your diet. Gelatin makes nails grow, so you can shorten the regrowth time. Good luck.
I wish I had no big toenails. Mine are really, really fungi-ravaged and thickened, to the point where they irritate the hell out of their cuticles. I don’t want to take Lamasil after learning what it did to a friend of mine, so I go to a podiatrist who whacks 'em back to nearly nothing every 6 months or so. But they keep coming back, as yellow-white and crumbly as ever.
Is there an operation to just “declaw” big toes kitty cat style? What would it involve?
An ex-girlfriend underwent an operation for an ingrown nail when a child in Wales and came out with 9 1/2 toes. It was kinda sexy, but I wouldn’t want it happening to me…
I don’t know if this procedure actually exists for humans, but cutting out or lasering off the nail bed just like they do in declawing would ensure that the nail wouldn’t grow back. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work, but that’s still pretty drastic for a minor irritation.
Rather more expensive, but much more specific, would be to buy a bottle of glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM, and take according to directions (cheapest from WalMart - especially their house brand). I take the stuff for my achy joints, but it has also restored my fingernails to the strength they had when I was young. The MSM seems to have the most effect on nails (it’s the sulfur in those compounds, apparently, that has the greatest direct effect).
Note to Beware of Doug: I took the oral anti-fungal a few years back, and it worked really well for me. Of course, it’s hard on the stomach, but it was getting difficult to cut some of my toenails, and that fixed the problem. IIRC, it’s a three-week course.
Finger- and toenails are a pain to take care of, but they do protect the ends of the digits from many kinds of damage.
Sorry but I gotta hijack…What happened to your friend that took Lamisil? I took a round of it about two years ago and had no problems. Apparently there are two ways to take this med. The way I used was one pill a day for a week, for three months. That worked great for my ugly fingernail and had a side effect of fixing a toe or two. You can also take them daily for three months I believe, but the pills are VERY expensive if you don’t have insurance.
Well, it was Lamasil I believe that gave my father some major liver problems that took him out for a week (and this is a man who never misses work). He did, however, have liver problems previously, albeit many years ago. Check with your doctor.
It’ll likely grow back, but my advice- keep the area clean and disinfected. Let me repeat. Keep the area clean and disinfected.
I’ll just say that having a 103 fever from infection is NOT fun. Felt like I was gonna die.
Thanks for all the advice.
Jell-O? Hmmm, I do like Jell-O and I’m trying to lose about ten pounds or so, so that might be a nice, lo-cal snack.
Quite honestly, I’m with Beware of Doub-I HATE trimming my toenails, because I always end up cutting them wrong. To me, the only advantage of toenails is painting them.
RSSchen: My friend was continually nauseated and his liver profile went through the roof. I already take Lipitor and Glucophage, both liver-affecting meds that I need. I don’t want to add more just for the sake of two toenails.
I recently visited my podiatrist for removal of an ingrown toenail and asked about trying another series of Lamasil. Two years ago, I underwent Lamasil tablet treatment and, while my right big toenail cleared up nicely, my left bg toenail did not.
She DID however suggest that instead of another course of Lamasil tablets, I might want to try a topical treatment of Vicks Vapo-Rub or Tea Tree Oil.
I told her that I thought those topical treatments were nothing but old-wives tales. Her response was that (and as Doper, I should know this!) that those tales do sprout from a seed of truth.
She went on to say that the bug that causes yellow/cracked/brittle toenails is not the same in every person. In some cases topical treatment of Vapo-Rub or Tea Tree Oil will effectively treat the nail.
Takes some time to see results, though. Gotta keep it up daily for six months or more as toenails take a LONG time to grow out.