Happy Tail

[schultzlc]

I am so bummed. My Luna Lou knicked her tail yesterday, and split some of the skin. She's a maniac, and I am honestly shocked we've made it 6.5 years without ever having this issue. Miraculously, it didn't bleed much at all. We avoided the murder-scene blood splatter.

 

I cleaned it out, trimmed back the fur, applied antibiotic ointment, wrapped it, and am hoping for the best. An aside, I tried to find the Grassmere link on wrapping happy tail, and their website seems to be defunct??

 

Here's my question- is there any chance of this healing decently? The wound is about 7 inches up the tail, so not at the tip. Like I said, she managed to hit a spot that barely bled at all. I would like to avoid amputation if there's any chance this might heal. Has anyone ever used a liquid bandage to seal off a tail wound?

 

I will try to get a photo of the wound itself once I change the bandage. She's not super impressed with having her tail wrapped, so she's been wearing a "tail turban" that I fashioned out of an old long-sleeved t-shirt while I am home.

 

 

P.S. Here's one liquid bandage product that I was looking at: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3307+20712+21573+21318&pcatid=21318

[schultzlc]

Adding photos.

 

Here's the wound itself. It looks a little goopier than normal because there's some neosporin smeared on. This shows how high on the tail it's located, and the approximate size.

 

 

 

Here she is sporting her "tail turban" while eating dinner. One long sleeve is over her tail and tied at the cuff. I am hoping this will keep her away from the bandage, at least while I am home.

 

 

 

 

 

To be honest, this one doesn't freak me out as much as Luna's last injury (like I said, the girl is a maniac). Last spring, she tore a horrendous gash into her webbing that took weeks of vigilant cleaning and bandaging to heal. I am just hoping we can take care of this at home and avoid amputation, but I'll be keeping a sharp eye on the wound.

[Houndtime]

When we adopted Idol, she came to us with a big happy tail injury. In fact, she was bleeding at the adoption agency when we met her.

 

We kept it covered for about 6 weeks with 1/4 pipe insulation, allowing the wound to breathe thru the bottom. We checked it every couple of days to make sure that it was healing. One of the most important things is to keep it covered or padded so she doesn't bump it and keep opening it.

 

The hard part for us was that we took her and the boys on a trip in our trailer. The trailer was so tight, I am surprised that we survived it with that wound.

[greysmom]

Tail wounds can heal up just fine as long as you can keep them from re-injuring the original wound site. That usually means bandaging and padding for about two weeks beyound when the wound itself closes. I have not ever used liquid bandage or glue on tail wounds. Watch it very carefully for infection and go to the vet at the first sign.

 

The key with keeping tail bandaging on is to have about 2-3 inches of sticky tape like Elastikon above the wound, and using that to anchor the vet wrap/tape that holds on the padding and under bandaging. The anchor tape doesn't need to be changed every time. Layer on from the tail up - a clean wound, some antibiotic spray or ointment, a nonstick pad, some plain gauze. If the wound is weeping or bleeding, this will need changing every day. Over this bandaging put either a good amount of loose padding (pipe insulation or a foam hair roller), or cover the bandaging with a rigid tube (a syringe cover with the needle tip cut off or similar tubing larger than the tail) to protect the delicate tail skin around the wound. The air needs to be able to get around the wound, especially as it begins to close and granulate. Cover everything with a layer of vet wrap anchored to the Elastikon tape to hold it in place. You may need an anchor below the wound as well.

 

Good luck!

[ramonaghan]

No experience or advice, but I wanted to wish Luna a swift and full recovery. (Odd about Grassmere's website--maybe they're doing a long-overdue update?)

 

ETA: The Wayback Machine has their happy tail page archived here.

Edited September 28, 2017 by ramonaghan

[XTRAWLD]

She sure is a sexy lady sporting hot pink! No experience, but hoping the tail heals without skipping a beat.

[Busderpuddle]

OH POOR LUNA...........Hoping that healing takes place quickly.

[schultzlc]

Thank you all!! I am still working on perfecting my bandaging skills on this one, but these tips will help a lot.

 

 

 

 

ETA: The Wayback Machine has their happy tail page archived here.

 

Rachel, you're an internet sleuth extraordinaire! Thanks for finding this.

[Houndtime]

Tail wounds can heal up just fine as long as you can keep them from re-injuring the original wound site. That usually means bandaging and padding for about two weeks beyound when the wound itself closes. I have not ever used liquid bandage or glue on tail wounds. Watch it very carefully for infection and go to the vet at the first sign.

 

The key with keeping tail bandaging on is to have about 2-3 inches of sticky tape like Elastikon above the wound, and using that to anchor the vet wrap/tape that holds on the padding and under bandaging. The anchor tape doesn't need to be changed every time. Layer on from the tail up - a clean wound, some antibiotic spray or ointment, a nonstick pad, some plain gauze. If the wound is weeping or bleeding, this will need changing every day. Over this bandaging put either a good amount of loose padding (pipe insulation or a foam hair roller), or cover the bandaging with a rigid tube (a syringe cover with the needle tip cut off or similar tubing larger than the tail) to protect the delicate tail skin around the wound. The air needs to be able to get around the wound, especially as it begins to close and granulate. Cover everything with a layer of vet wrap anchored to the Elastikon tape to hold it in place. You may need an anchor below the wound as well.

 

Good luck!

 

 

What she said. I forgot about the anchor bandage. If you try to stick the insulation or any padding to the tail itself, it won't stay.

[macoduck]

Greyhound Crossroads has a slightly different method. http://www.greyhoundcrossroads.com/index.php?page=wrapping-happy-tail

[EllenEveBaz]

Jeter didn't mind being crated when he was new here, but he gave me such an enthusiastic chopper tail when I returned from my first day back at work that he cracked his tail open. It took over 6 weeks to heal, with a few backslides. In addition to the techniques posted above, I found that while my instinct was to cushion his tail as thickly as possible, Jeter's instinct was to get that thick cushioning off as quickly as possible. The lighter/less bulky the bandage/cushioning, the longer it stayed on. I cushioned it more thickly when I was at home and could give him the "ackkk" correction. Needless to say, he hasn't been crated since.

[schultzlc]

Happy tail update. These past two weeks have been a labor of love, but we're finally seeing some progress! While it was easy to keep it bandaged at night, daytime has been nearly impossible. So, I've been keeping it clean, applying neosporin, and have tried my best to keep Luna from careening around the house like a lunatic.

 

The wound itself has steadily been shrinking, with some scar tissue around the edges. She is also building up a scab over what is left.

 

Thank you all again for your happy tail tips! You've been most helpful.

 

Here's an updated photo of her tail: