Bandaging Happy Tail

[BatterseaBrindl]

Thankfully, we have never dealt with Happy Tail (touch wood) but an aquaintance who is a vet and also has Great Danes posted this on one of our other common chat forums.

She has tried it on her own dogs with success.

 

Anybody ever tried this??

 

http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/mending_a_tail.htm

 

Here are her 'notes' on what has worked for her, with a photo of one of her Danes...

 

But, I've modified it a bit to make it even more easy to manage. First, instead of using terry cloth or similar material to tie the tail around the dog's "waist", I have used a giant breed wide buckle collar instead. It's super easy to put on and take off, and it's comfortable for the dog and won't bunch or bind over the dog's back like the fabric did.

To fasten the tail, I use black or silver duct tape which holds better than any other tape I've tried (and I've tried MANY). I put two wraps around the tail about 1" from the tip to give a broader base of support, and I make sure it's not on tight but that it is "stuck" to the hair of the tail all the way around. Then I take a 1/2-wide strip of duct tape and put the swivel part of the snap through and tape it to the tape base already on her tail. Then I just clip it on. I only change the tape as needed (once or twice a week at most). With this sling set-up, the dog has enough room to poop & pee without letting the tail down (both for male & female dogs), and the wounded tip can be kept open to dry out and heal.

I've had my Danes (when required) in this apparatus for 3-4 wks or longer. They don't mind it a bit, and the tail tip heals better than *any* other bandaging attempts I've tried (and trust me, I've tried everything out there and then some!).

The one caution I'll give is to use a shorter clip because if the tail is hanging down further (i.e., with a longer clip), they can catch their hind foot toes over their own tail when lying and then are "hobbled" when they try to get up (not good!). That's the only problem I've encountered with this system, and it was easily remedied by using a shorter clip.

 

Edited December 22, 2012 by BatterseaBrindl

[Riverhound]

That is brilliant! (Hope I never need to try it, though.)

[jamngrey]

Interesting

[Guest mld]

Very cool!

[JJNg]

I'm having trouble seeing how the dog would urinate or defecate without getting it all over their tail?

[Sambuca]

Don't they poop on their tails? and my boys would end up peeing on that belt and possibly even the tail. Maybe the belt sits a little differently on a bigger dog though.

[Guest undergreysspell]

Looks to me like it could be unclipped when the dog goes out to do his doo .

[Batmom]

Wow. That's a really bad idea.

 

If it got caught on anything -- dog's own foot, furniture, another dog's foot or mouth -- you'd have a much worse problem than you started with. Dog could also reinjure or create a new injury when trying to wag.

 

Where lightweight padding (gauze, vetwrap, pipe wrap) won't do the job, there are plenty of other lightweight options -- toilet paper tube, large syringe casing, oldfashioned hair curler.

[Guest zombrie]

Wow. That's a really bad idea.

 

If it got caught on anything -- dog's own foot, furniture, another dog's foot or mouth -- you'd have a much worse problem than you started with. Dog could also reinjure or create a new injury when trying to wag.

 

Where lightweight padding (gauze, vetwrap, pipe wrap) won't do the job, there are plenty of other lightweight options -- toilet paper tube, large syringe casing, oldfashioned hair curler.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this is a bad idea. Makes me cringe looking at it. Plus, I know my dogs would be freaked out if a contraption like that was put on them, they would hate that!

Edited December 23, 2012 by zombrie

[a_daerr]

Yeah, it looks good in theory... but I doubt either of my guys would tolerate something like that. Plus, like other have said, the whole tail could get ripped off if the hardware got caught in something. After many months of dealing with happy tail, my favorite solution was the self-adhesive pipe insulation. It allowed the tip to breathe, but still protected against further trauma.

[ChiliDog]

I used to use a pool "noodle" (swimming pool float thing) It already had a hollowed out middle (which I hollowed out even more) and put it over the sterile gauze and secured the whole thing with Hypafix tape (6" wide roll) and then vetwrap.

 

Worked like a charm for pepper's first incident last year but this time he would not keep it on and kept eating the bandaging (even thru the muzzle).

 

The pipe insulation was ok (as were the alumafoam finger splints) however it was detrimental to Buffy & Joe's health as they kept getting whacked by it and I didn't want it to hurt them. Foam pool noodle was great

 

Now we have no issue because he had to have his tail "bobbed" as it got infected and was not healing ....

[Chicocat]

Wow. That's a really bad idea.

 

If it got caught on anything -- dog's own foot, furniture, another dog's foot or mouth -- you'd have a much worse problem than you started with. Dog could also reinjure or create a new injury when trying to wag.

 

Where lightweight padding (gauze, vetwrap, pipe wrap) won't do the job, there are plenty of other lightweight options -- toilet paper tube, large syringe casing, oldfashioned hair curler.

Couldn't agree more!

[BatterseaBrindl]

Hey...dont; shoot the messenger!!

I was just putting the idea out there.

 

The owner of the Great Dane in the photo is a vet, and she has used this method on her own, and others, with success.

[Batmom]

No, no, not shooting the messenger! Different things work for different people .

[krissy]

I used a human toe bandage (sponge tube basically) and then taped and bandaged around that. Worked pretty well.

 

What I can see being good about this posted method was I found that any time Summit shook himself he reinjured the tail.

[fittafika]

I can't see this method working on most dogs, but that's great if it's working for some people! Happy tail is a pain to deal with.

 

We used a large syringe case for Carlos after his tail docking surgery. His happy tail was so bad that they needed to dock half of the tail, and we needed a sturdy bandage if there was any hope of it healing properly. He whacked his bandaged tail on almost everything, but the syringe case protected the wound while allowing the end of the tail to air out and heal.

[ChiliDog]

I can't see this method working on most dogs, but that's great if it's working for some people! Happy tail is a pain to deal with.

 

We used a large syringe case for Carlos after his tail docking surgery. His happy tail was so bad that they needed to dock half of the tail, and we needed a sturdy bandage if there was any hope of it healing properly. He whacked his bandaged tail on almost everything, but the syringe case protected the wound while allowing the end of the tail to air out and heal.

 

Pepper's now got the tail of a "mutant Boxer" (because it's so skinny!! LOL) . No more whacking on anything - it's just too short.....