To fight tooth and nail is to fight with all your might, almost viciously. This comes from the idea of fighting with all your teeth and all of your nails, which I guess would be a fair idea if you had sharp fangs or piercing claws.
i.e. She valiantly fought tooth and nail at CVS for that last box of Crest Whitestrips, but her recently manicured claws and braces-decorated-teeth prevented her success.
My thinking is that fighting tooth and nail implies someone really duking it out without restraint (and manners, duh), invoking something rather primal and beast-like. Thus tooth and nail would bode quite well if you had foot-long tusks or the fangs of a sabertooth tiger.
Alas we're humans and should probably only fight tooth and nail with other humans.
Photo cred to the movie, 10,000 BC! (An interesting movie to say the least!)
Eric
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