Pepsi2004 Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 I have been off the board for almost two years. Getting settled in Canada and a life without Mike has been very draining. I drove to Texas 3 weeks ago with Charlie and my JRT Sydney. Am here until April. Charlie, the Grey has been having an awful time. He feasted on ligustrum and suffered from severe diarrhea, as well as anorexia, dehydration and depression. After dosing him with Kaopectate and adding Pedialite to his water, he finally is feeling good as of yesterday and is eating and his usual happy self. Today, coming through the door he got his tail caught and skinned to the bone.My friend is a nurse and soaked it with betadine and then wrapped it with gauze and tape, after putting the skin/hair back over the wound. Is there any chance that this will work\/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesiRayMom Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 This is what Desi's tail looked like after I caught it in a door at work & degloved a big spot. The piece at the top was loose & floppy, rest of the way down was down to ligaments/bone. This is how it ended up being bandaged. Nothing left of skin to put back together. We changed bandage frequently, that top loose piece of skin eventually died & fell off. As I remember, it took over a month (maybe 6 weeks) for that wound to fill in & heal. A year later, his tail looks a bit wonky, but the hair has grown back and only those of us who knew what happened would be able to tell how yucky it was. Best wishes & smooches to Charlie for his owie. Quote Blessed is the person who has earned the love of an old dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feisty49 Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Welcome back. You must be glad you'll be spending the winter in a warm climate. Poor Charlie. I have no advice other than to have a vet's number handy in case it's needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscarsmom Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Oscar got his tail caught in our backdoor and it chopped of 2 inches and skinned another 2 inches. They ended up having to cut 3inches of it to get it where they could stitch it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dancer Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 My boy recently had something very similar...I took him to the vet, and the vet put him on antibiotics, and gave us a topical cream to put on it and recommended daily bandage changes. She said that the issue with tail injuries is that if they don't heal, then the only option is amputation. And there is typically is less blood flow in the tale than in other areas of the body - so chances of healing are reduced. That said, we followed her instructions and it healed up beautifully. The biggest problem was the bandage changes - it was very painful to him when we touched his tail. So we ended up getting the bandage wet so that it came off easily... Hope you enjoy the winter weather . How are you adjusting to the reduced light at this time of year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverfish Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Welcome back! Sorry you've been having such a tough time. Whether the tail heals or not depends on how much has been degloved, and how good the blood supply is. If your nurse friend thought it had a chance, go get hold of some Manuka honey with a high UMF factor. They call it something else, nowadays, too, but look for a high number on the label. It will be much more expensive than the low UMF honeys, but think of it as a course of antibiotics!Get some non-stick wound dressings big enough to cover the wound, and some bandage plus sticky tape. You'll need quite a few dressings, because what you'll have to do is generously smear some honey on the dressing, slap it on the wound, bandage it - tightly enough, but not too tightly, of course - and then use the tape to stick the bandage to the fur, top and bottom - just like the picture that DesiRaysMom posted. Leave the dressing on for two or three days before changing it. Best to use woven bandage so that you can see any seepage and know you need to change it. Once the wound has healed enough to leave the dressing off, you can still use the honey and it will still help the wound to resolve fully.Click here for details on how and why it works. Quote The plural of anecdote is not dataBrambleberry Greyhounds My Etsy Shop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neighsayer Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Manuka honey works great, but sometimes the tail just won't heal. I used honey on Gigi's happy tail, and the wound was healing great. At the six week point, we thought we were out of the woods. At seven weeks the tail died, and Gigi now has a cute stub! Ace degloved his front leg just before I got him. He came to me with 72 stitches in his lower leg, and an infected mess under the bandage. There wasn't enough healthy tissue to restitch, so it had to heal as an open wound. Manuka honey on a non stick pad, gauze over that to wrap it, and tape to hold it on. I used paper tape because it was easier to get off for bandage changes. Antibiotics and manuka honey may save that tail. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest skinnerjenna Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 If they are hitting the wound spot against things when wagging, you can also put the foam part of a hair roller around the spot. Just cut it up the middle, bandage under and over it to keep it in place. Greyhounds get this all the time. We call it "Happy Tail". -Jenna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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