There Isn't Enough Duct Tape In The World

[Guest tammymacb]

We've dealt with this since the day I brought him home- Willy with his happy tail. He's actually not gotten it bleeding for a long while...Until yesterday..

 

and again last night... Blood on the walls, the stove, the fridge, the new family room couch, the other dogs, the Oriental rugs... I wrapped it in 4x4s, then cling wrap. He "wagged" them right off. I rewrapped it again, this time taping a sock tightly around the end. This time it stayed on for about 30 minutes. ( And I did tie his tail to his back leg )

 

I'll head out this morning to find some kind of sticky tape to tape the dressing to his actual fur ( that'll be fun to get off ) and if not, we'll be off to the vet. ACK.

Edited September 19, 2007 by tammymacb

[GeorgeofNE]

If I might attempt to assist you! My former dog, a mix, had a SEVERE case of happy tail which eventually resulted in having two inches of his extremely long tail amputated (primarily because he was having surgery anyway...). My Grey came to me with a case of happy tail, and I intended to have the tip removed during his dental, but ended up getting it completely healed with no surgery, and it's been three months with no problems.

 

Here is what I used very successfully (my bandages stayed in place on average three days at a time, and you really don't want them on longer than that anyway. My vet's stayed on for two hours...):

 

1) Clean, apply some antibiotic ointment (OTC is fine).

2) Use human Band-Aides to cover/pad the area. Stick it right to his fur! Cut if necessary

3) Cover that with Vet Wrap. Keep the whole thing as LIGHT as possible. If it's really messed up, use a light layer of gauze over the band-aide and under the vet wrap

4) At the very top of the vet wrap, use waterproof first aide tape, and make sure you STICK IT TO THE FUR!

 

I think it's very tempting to really pad the bandage up, but the heavier you go, the more it annoys the dog, and the greater the tendency for the weight of the bandage to actually work it off!

 

The foster who had my dog had taken him to her vet for his bloody tail, and the vet shaved it. That makes it worse, as it removes the cushioning! Had I gone ahead with the amputation, I never would have known George's tail is white on the end!

 

You can do it!!!

 

Good luck! I feel your pain.

 

 

[Guest KennelMom]

That sucks, Tammy!

 

We had Harmony's tail healed up for, oh, over a year. Then one day *wham* it split open, never to heal again We ended up amputating and we are all much happier. She doesn't have a painful, bleeding tail, and my house doesn't look like a crime scene. I think the more it heals/breaks/heals/breaks/heals/breaks/etc....the harder it is to keep it healed up permanantly. We've gone through Happy Tail with quite a few others and DH is an expert now at wrapping so it doesn't come off The post above sounds pretty close to his method.

[Guest taylorsmom]

I had good success with a bandage technique I can share--

Wrap the injured part of the tail with a Telfa (non-stick) pad. (I agree with Susan--NO shaving of the area! A vet did that to Rita's tail and I really believe it removed natural padding). Get a small velcro roller, lightweight but big enough to fit over and protect the entire end, and put over the Telfa pad. I also used the pink cushion cut from those old-fashioned cushioned hair curlers, and made a lengthwise slice it in so it would fit snugly over the injured area.

Wrap the entire tail with vet-wrap (flourescent pink worked really well for us!) all the way up to the base of the tail, and secure to the base of the tail with elastickon tape. Yes it will stick to the fur but you can ease it off with mineral oil.

The next important, key step is to coat the entire bandage with some kind of gel or something designed to stop the dog from licking or biting the bandage. I used Bitter Lime gel, it is made by the manufacturers of Bitter apple, and is supposed to be used to prevent chewing on furniture. That worked like a charm, and Rita's bandaging would last 3 to 4 days at a time!!

Good luck, I know it can be SOOO frustrating!

Edited September 19, 2007 by taylorsmom

[Guest crazy4greys]

You need to use a pink soft curler to put the tail in so it will absorb the whacking. Then use elastikon to secure it on. I always use this and it is the best technique to heal happy tail.

 

You cut the curler length wise like a hot dog bun and put the tail inside, but don't put the end of the tail right at the end of the curler. leave room at the end, wrap the elastikon from the end of the curler to the other end and into the tail and fur. It will not come off until you take it off. You can leave it on for a week then change it.

 

It really sticks to the fur, so pull gently.

[Guest Tigonie]

Yep, we also used the foam hair roller method to try to heal Emma's happy tail. It works pretty well for staying on. As described, you remove the plastic part of the roller and cut a slit in the foam. Foam goes around tail, so that about 1/2 inch of the roller is below the end of the tail. Then you tape the roller and continue to tape up the tail past the roller about 6 inches. Leave the end open, so the tail can "breathe" through the end of the roller. You will probably destroy the roller as you unwrap, so you'll wind up using the package of rollers. Emma has a very thin tail, so I think I was using the small 3/4 inch rollers, but you may want to try the medium 1 inch rollers, if your dog's tail is bigger.

 

I wound up using paper tape, because it was cheap and readily available and very lightweight. Emma rarely was able to remove her bandage, but she's also the kind of dog to leave something like that alone. Vet wrap is probably the nicest solution, because it doesn't pull the fur out, but no matter what you use, your dog will have "nerd tail," and all your neighbors will ask about it.

 

We struggled with happy tail for about a year with Emma. Every time I decided it was healed up and unwrapped it, she'd bang it open again within about a month. The worst episode took me 4 hours to clean up--and that was after I was an expert at getting dog blood spots off of almost anything.

 

Finally we wound up amputating about 2 inches (maybe 3?) during a dental. We really agonized whether we should do a 2 inch amputation or simply dock her tail down to about 9 inches or less remaining. Thankfully, she's been fine with the 2 inch amputation (knock wood). We had it done 2 years ago this coming February. I'd hate to have to dock her a second time, so I'm very thankful the smaller amputation worked.

 

If you bandage/tape, make sure to let it heal for a much longer time than you think it should take (like wrapped for a month, with checks and bandage changes, of course). Yes, we tried wrapping to the point where our neighbors stopped asking what was wrong with her tail!

 

Since her tail never healed properly no matter what we did with wrapping, we decided amputation was the way to go. Every time the tail broke open, there was a chance of infection, besides the bother of cleaning up. Strangely, Emma never appeared to be in any pain related to the injury. Talk to your vet about the best thing to do, and good luck in healing it up!! It's definitely worth trying the wrapping.

 

As for cleaning up dog blood, I figured out that for many surfaces, plain white paper towels (NOT decorated paper towels) dampened with water will get off the spots. I decided it was always better to try the white paper towel with water first, before using any cleaning products; it worked in most cases. And the rule is: no matter how many spots you clean, there are always more. <sigh>

 

Oh, and don't check the ceiling for dog blood--it'll just make you mad when you find it!

Edited September 20, 2007 by Tigonie

[Batmom]

1) Clean, apply some antibiotic ointment (OTC is fine).

2) Use human Band-Aides to cover/pad the area. Stick it right to his fur! Cut if necessary

3) Cover that with Vet Wrap. Keep the whole thing as LIGHT as possible. If it's really messed up, use a light layer of gauze over the band-aide and under the vet wrap

4) At the very top of the vet wrap, use waterproof first aide tape, and make sure you STICK IT TO THE FUR!

 

That is pretty much what worked for us. Only thing I did differently was, in step #4, I used Elastikon (sticky tan athletic tape), and I wrapped it about 6" on up the tail. That's 6" above the primary bandage for the split. That was the only thing that held it on.

 

The other thing I did was, I kept a light bandage on for @ a month? after it healed and the scab fell off. The new skin needs time to toughen up before it's ready to be exposed to abuse again.

 

Good luck!!!!

[Guest KeesMom]

I'm just curious about several of you mentioning the removal of 2 inches (since we have had recent episodes of happy tail here too)..... Does 2 inches really make that much difference? I guess I'm not understanding how taking off that little will prevent it from happening again?

 

Thanks!

[Guest Tigonie]

I'm just curious about several of you mentioning the removal of 2 inches (since we have had recent episodes of happy tail here too)..... Does 2 inches really make that much difference? I guess I'm not understanding how taking off that little will prevent it from happening again?

 

Thanks!

In Emma's case, there was scar tissue only on the very tip of the tail, about the bottom inch or so. The skin was not healing properly over the very tip, and you could see the skin at the tip stretched over the bone. Bleh.

 

Some dogs damage their tails up higher, or the damage extends higher, where the blood vessels break higher up. Sometimes infection sets in, which it never did in our case. If the tail gets infected, it's often necessary to dock more, because part of the tail "dies." Also, some dogs wag so hard that they are likely to break open their tails again if the tail is not docked so that it's ~9 inches or shorter.

 

Docking a small amount (2-3 inches) is a risk. If it works out, the tail looks "normal" once it heals. If it doesn't work out and the problem continues, it means a second docking, which is traumatic for the dog and an expenditure for the humans, in addition to having to deal with all the problems you were hoping to solve by docking. We consulted with our vet about Emma's case, and she (correctly) thought that docking the smaller amount would work for our dog. Once we docked the 2-3 inches off, the skin healed properly over the end and Emma has been fine.

Edited September 20, 2007 by Tigonie