Happy Tail

[Guest StriderDog]

Foster with intent has a loooong tail that he cracks like a whip.

 

All. The. Time.

 

Seriously, this dog never stops wagging his tail.

 

We live in a townhouse, so everything is stretched out and narrow - there are walls and furniture everywhere. So, naturally, he's got a bloody tail and all of the hallways look like murder scenes.

 

How long do I wait before I go to the vet and tell them that this dog needs to have 5 inches less tail? I can't see this resolving itself any other way - he's not going to stop wagging and the house isn't going to suddenly open up to accommodate his crazy tail.

 

 

Guide me, experts of greytalk! What's a girl to do?

[JohnF]

Go to the Vet anyway and have a tail splint and ventilated bandage put on. It can be held in place with vet wrap, you have to allow it a chance to heal and grow hair and that will take a while. Even if they snip 5" off it will still take just as long to heal and will still whip dangerously. I put soft bath towels over all the hallway radiators when Peggy had her tail issues last year and made sure there was no wagging in confined places. She also had baby socks taped over the end of her tail for nearly 4 weeks after the splint was removed. Someone suggested cutting a length of pipe insulation foam and using duct tape to hold it together; and that kind of works as long as you don't mind your Grey looking like a Stegosaurus.

[Houndtime]

We used 1/4 pipe insulation and kept Idol's tail covered for 6 weeks until she was fully healed. We have close quarters in our travel trailer, so I know what you mean about the town house. But, it can be done. Don't give up.

[Batmom]

I kept Batman's covered for a couple weeks after it healed and the scab fell off ... and then intermittently for a couple months if I expected something exciting to happen (e.g., car ride). Our trick for keeping the bandage on was to slap a piece of Elastikon (very sticky tan tape) further up his tail, to anchor the bandage to. That way I could change the bandage over the owie bit easily, yet it stayed on through various waggings, etc.

[Guest KennelMom]

The more times the tail is healed/split open, the greater the likelihood that it'll never stay fully healed...the scar tissue just isn't as hardy as regular skin.

 

If you amputate, you'll have to go more than 5 inches. I would recommend amputating much more than that to ensure you aren't in the same position in a year or so...those uber waggy tails are just prone to it. Harmony used to wag her stub like there was no tomorrow though...Here's a pic of her post tail-amp...it's not terribly long, but not too short either. Problem solved after years of battling happy tail. We were ALL much happier.

[GeorgeofNE]

The first dog I had with happy tail wore a bandage for SIXTEEN WEEKS and then, because he was having major surgery anyway, I had the vet cut off the damaged part. The vet doubled up the skin on the end, and it was never a problem again.

 

George came to me with happy tail. When he had his dental (four days after I got him) I asked the vet to do the same. When she took a look at it, she refused. She made the right call. A month of good bandaging, and it healed up just fine. Also letting the fur grow back (the foster took him to a vet, who shaved the tail...) helped.

 

It's opened up once in the past four years; two weeks of bandaging and it was fine.

 

Contrary to what most people do, I believe that less is more in happy tail bandaging.

 

The more weight you add to the bandage, the more likely it is to come flying off.

 

I had great success using knee-sized bandaides, white first aide tape, and a bit of vet wrap.

[MP_the4pack]

Bubble wrap the tail.