Help Asap- Our New Guy Just Got His Tail Stuck In A Door

[Guest UESBrindle]

Rob was taking William out of our apartment building and he hesitated and got his tail caught in a pretty heavy door, and now he's bleeding. He came straight home and into his crate and won't come out on his own. What should we do?? This is our first greyhound, and we are so so nervous....

 

 

Elizabeth

[djsgreys]

How much is it bleeding and does he appear to be in pain? I would put his collar and leash on and take him out of the crate so that you can get a good look at his tail and comfort him a bit.

 

 

Is there someone from the adoption group closeby that you can contact for help and advice?

[duncan41]

Poor baby! If he's not actively bleeding, you could try putting a cold compress (a frozen bag of peas works well) on the injured site and have him vet checked tomorrow. Of course a handful of treats will go a long way toward soothing his ouchies. (William! See, I'm lookin out 4 ya!)

[rycezmom]

Absolutely check in with your group. I caught my poor Ryce's tail in the door once and he didn't even let out a peep. I was horrified at what had happened when I realized why he wasn't budging. By all means bring him out of the crate and check on it. Need to make sure that it is just cut and not broken. Tails can be tricky. Your group will guide you. Kisses for that tail.

 

L.

[Guest BooBooMama]

Rob was taking William out of our apartment building and he hesitated and got his tail caught in a pretty heavy door, and now he's bleeding. He came straight home and into his crate and won't come out on his own. What should we do?? This is our first greyhound, and we are so so nervous....

 

 

Elizabeth

Greyhound tails have very tiny bones so chances are good that it is broken. These small bones with tiny blood vessels are typically not able to be fixed. Most vets will amputate just above the break. Don’t freak out about that word- amputated. Many breeds have their tails “bobbed” for fashion so it is not as horrible as it sounds.

 

If it the area below the break is very cold, or discolors, you need to take him to the vet immediately. Honestly, I feel it never hurts to have it checked just in case anyway. A broken tail can cause blood loss to the rest of the tail causing it to die and causing gangrene or decay. If it gets to that point your dog’s health/ life can be in danger.

 

Don’t be hard on yourself. This has happened to many owners. These long thin tails tend to get caught in doors! (My Jamie had a “bobbed” tail after she got hers slammed in a door. BooBoo had a crooked tails from some excited tail wagging that hit a wall!)

 

Let us know how he is.

Edited February 12, 2009 by BooBooMama

[Trudy]

You may just end up with a grey with a docked tail.

Like everybody else said, get him out of the crate and look at it.

Call your vet and see if you can wait until tomorrow or if he needs to be seen tonight.

[Guest GreytMuse]

Absolutely no advice -- just HUGS for all of you and please don't beat yourself up, accidents do happen to all of us.

[Guest UESBrindle]

Phew! With the help of Aunt Lauren, and Lisa at GAA- William is bandaged up, and seems to be completely unphased! He came out of his crate with some coaxing and treats, and had no problems letting us examine, clean, and wrap his tail. We took him back out for his evening walk, and I think at this point, we're agonizing over it more than he is!

 

On a more cheerful note:

Today he finally figured out what his giant dog bed was for and made HUGE improvements on getting up the stairs! (We live on the 3rd floor of a walk-up apartment building, so these past few days have taken a good while just to get him inside and up-- but with much success!)

 

Thanks for everyone for all of your wonderful advice, comfort, and well-wishes! We'll keep you all updated!

 

Elizabeth

[KF_in_Georgia]

Keep an eye on how and where William wags his tail. Dogs quite often will bang their sore and bandaged tails into walls and cabinets, and you'll have to be the one who keeps him from doing further injury. If he's happily knocking his tail into a wall in excitement when you come home (or when you go to the kitchen, or when you do anything else that gets him excited), be prepared to lure him quickly into an area where he has more room to swing his tail.

 

I once stayed at a motel with my two dogs. My girl would stand near the door to greet me when I came into the room--and she'd whack that tail into the corner of a desk that was near the door. She had her tail bleeding slightly the first evening. Rather than rearrange the hotel's furniture, I just draped a big bath towel over the corner of the desk, so that her tail was hitting the towel rather than the sharp corner of the bare wood. That was enough to protect her. You may need to do something similar for William.

[jamngrey]

glad to hear you got him out and bandaged. Just keep an eye on it to make sure it heals with out infection. good luck and congrats on adopting your first grey

[krissn333]

Glad to hear he's bandaged up. My advice is KEEP AN EYE on that tail and change the dressing often. I've taken care of MANY injured tails, and I've seen the best and the worst of it.

 

One of my greys had to have her tail amputated because she somehow got it caught in the door of my tv armoir when I wasn't home and pulled the end right off She made a full recovery and doesn't miss those 3" of tail at all! My point with this is, IF his tail doesn't seem to be healing right, or if the end is cold, it will need to be amputated (just keep a close watch on it). It's not the end of the world...just a fact of life living with a greyhound with a long snaky tail

[Guest FullMetalFrank]

Frank's tail survived being thoroughly jammed in a heavy storm door a few year ago, so don't despair. Tail injuries don't always end in amputation. They are notoriously slow to heal, though. With Frank, he was lucky enough to get a vertebrae stuck and not have the door close on the little space between, so there was no fracture. But he did have two peeled back sections of skin. About one inch on either side. It was pretty bad but I performed first aid, got him bandaged, and after about six weeks of diligent bandage changes, learning what would stay on and what wouldn't, he got better and now there is no evidence of his injury. Good luck with your hound, sending healing thoughts!

[rascalsmom]

Same thing happened to Buddy a few years ago. DH accidentally caught his tail in the storm door, and it was actually "skinned" in the midtail area. TOok him to the vet, they x rayed it (not broken) and put a dressing on.

 

BE SURE to change the dressing DAILY....the vet told us to wait a few days, and by then the dressing was STUCK FAST. It was not easy to get it off, but we did with my sister's help (she's a nurse). After that we changed it DAILY. It took awhile to heal but it did.

 

Best of luck to you...just keep after it!!

[DaisyDoodle]

Hopefully it's not broken and just needs a little attention.

 

If you need to bandage it, be careful not to bandage it too tightly. My mix Lucky had "happy tail" shortly after we found her. (Blood blister at the end of her tail; blood everywhere.) It was a real pain trying to get the bandage to stay on. I ended up bandaging it too tightly and nearly killed the end of the tail I was trying so hard to save by cutting off her blood supply.

 

Hope it's a minor injury and that everything will be fine.

 

DD

[Guest lizmego]

Keep an eye on the tail and watch for him chewing on it. Also check the end of the tail's temperature. if the tail feels cool/cold then no blood flow is getting to the tail and it will need to be amputated. Power got his tail shut in our heavy front storm door and it was bleeding very badly. We took him to the vet, and I asked them to go ahead and dock the tail, but the vet thought he could save the tail since it wasn't broken...so Power had surgery. One week later, Power was gnawing at his bandage on his tail, because the end of the tail was dead. Thankfully, our vet removed the end of Power's tail free of charge since I wanted them to dock it in the first place.

[Guest Willerton]

Similar thing happened to my dog--like everyone else says, keep a really close eye on it. I ended up doing an amputation about 2 weeks after the initial injury because his tail was dying and he was in so much pain.

[Guest greytloves]

Been there, done that and no-one will let me forget it!

 

The one thing I did, was to do a daily bandage change and then took a syringe (w/no needle) and a bowl of water and did a little hydrotherapy for about 5 minutes. I think that helped for me to keep an eye on it, keep it clean and to speed up the healing. I remember GTers had a lot of great ideas on the bandages.

 

and yes, the guilt I had for weeks was escalated by his darn helicopter tail that kept reopening the wound. Be prepared for that!

 

One of my greys had to have her tail amputated because she somehow got it caught in the door of my tv armoir when I wasn't home and pulled the end right off

 

 

OW! My phantom tail hurts for her!

[dbullwinkel]

Missy was in the backseat of my car on the way to the vet for another issue..she let out a scream. when we go to the vet, she was bleeding and it was broken. luckily the vet bandaged it up and she was fine! I thinks she broke it on the seat belt.

Glad you got it bandaged..just keep an eye on it!

[LisaB]

We have and have had several greyhounds at the QCGA kennel with cropped tails--so, if it comes to that, it just makes for an extra-cutey patootie!!! All will be well...

[Guest nerak254]

This has always been my nightmare.

[Guest myjazzy]

I closed a van door on Gem's tail. The tail survived, but it took forever to heal. You do need to change the bandages daily. The bandage helps cushion the tail so it doesn't get re-injured, and keeps them from messing with it. EMT gel was what finally got it to heal. You may also need to put on a muzzle to keep him from trying to lick it. It is not fun, but it happens a lot with their skinny tails.

[Guest IrskasMom]

 

 

First of all WELCOME To GT Elizabeth and Rob and of Course William I really have

no Advice just lot's of Hugs for William

[MerlinsMum]

DH closed the car window on Merlin's tail shortly after we adopted him. He is our first grey, DH was mortified, I was sooo worried - so we rushed him to the e-vet. They put him under and stitched him up. Poor baby Considering how crap the e-vet's bedside manner was, if this happened again today I'd try to wrap the tail until I could see my regular vet, but I WOULD take him in.

 

Glad he seems to be doing ok Do keep an eye on it though because it can easily get infected. Maybe have the vet check it too, if you're worried.

 

Welcome to GT

[KF_in_Georgia]

A few things I've heard about bandaging--

 

1--Don't bandage too tightly.

 

2--Stick just a little of the sticky bandage material to his hair (to keep the bandage attached to him); most of the sticky material should be sticking to the gauze bandage that's over the wound.

 

3--If the sticky material sticks too well, tease it off with some mineral oil on a cotton swab; next time you bandage, stick the sticky bandage to your shirt first, so the sticky stuff picks up some lint and becomes a bit less sticky.

 

If he's slinging his tail around and thus tossing the bandage across the room (or whacking hid tail into the furniture), you can try attaching a bit of gauze to the bandage and tying the other end of the gauze loosely around his leg. If he'll tolerate this (and many dogs will), you can limit the range he's got to swing his tail in so he doesn't sling the bandage across the room; but if the gauze "tether" annoys him, just remove it before he starts chewing his tail to get the gauze off.