My new greyhound...tail amputation...food issues

[Noclue1122]

So...the VERY FIRST day that we had Fionn, (Mon. Dec. 7th) I got his tail caught in the door. =-(. When he came in from his walks, blood would spray EVERYWHERE!!!  I took him to the vet just to meet his new vet, and get him tested for parasites. (The adoption center did not do this, as it is too cost prohibitive.). Anyway...no parasites, YAY!  However, I was told that he needed the tip of his tail amputated due to me catching it in the door.  $1,000.00 later (YIKES) and he is doing much better!  Today (Tues. Jan. 5th) when my hubby took him out of his crate (with muzzle on because of amputation), his bandage was off.  The vet told us that the bandage has to stay on for 2 weeks.  So...we called the vet, and the doctor put on a new bandage ($45.00). Needless to say, that lasted about 30 minutes.  He was playing with his blanket, and it fell off.  We tried to rebandage it, but, I must have hit a sore spot because he yelped and jumped, and caused my hubby to get a bloody nose! (His head hit my hubby’s nose). Anyway, I called the vet AGAIN, and she said to let it be, and try to just wrap a gauze around it tomorrow.  It is not bleeding, and he is not bothering it.  I’m wondering if it could just stay off for now?  Also...when we first brought Fionn home, he LOVED bananas as a treat, and Earth Bones.  Today he wanted no part of either one of them.  Could it be due to his injury, or do greyhounds change what they like and what they don’t?  We also got him a big bone from our local farmer that he LOVED on Monday and Tuesday, and showed absolutely NO interest in it today.  Should I be worried?  He is eating his normal food twice a day, so that’s good...he’s just not interested in treats today.  Maybe he’s in pain from his bandage coming off?  I might be overthinking things, and hopefully everything is okay!!

[mansbestfriend]

Hi. Ouch. Greys can be either 'wussy' or extremely stoic when it comes to pain. Losing interest in treats is an indication that there's some pain or other stress. My grey had a broken tail for a day or two before I 'connected the dots', the vet confirmed it was broken and a small section was amputated. I kind of miss his flicky/whippy bit at end of his tail but the recovery was uneventful. Keeping the wound clean and bandaged is important to help prevent infection. I'd personally suggest to give the wound some fresh air as soon as the vet says it's safe to do so. Good luck.  

[HeyRunDog]

If the wound has scabbed over then the risk of infection is minimal so as mansbestfriend says give it fresh air and keep it clean. If he's eating normally apart from the treats don't worry.

[JohnF]

Buy some rolls of vet wrap tape (elastic) and wrap it over a small amount of non sticky bandage (even cotton wool). This will stop the tail being wagged too hard into walls and radiators etc. When Peggy had her tail problem the vet used a splint that had four arms to it. I think you can get a mesh thing today under the trade name of "Dog Ends"

[EllenEveBaz]

I feel your pain.  I always crate my new dogs during the day while I work.  Jeter has a very long and very enthusiastic helicopter tail.  The first day he was in the crate and I came back from work, he broke open the skin on his tail just whipping it around the crate in joyful welcome.  The wound was 5-6" up from the tail tip.  I had never dealt with "happy tail" before but had read plenty about it on here on GT, so cobbled together a bandaging system that included muzzling him during the day, toilet paper rolls, sanitary napkins, vet wrap, gauze, and big square adhesive bandages, although not all at one time.  It took a couple of months, including a few setbacks where one good whack against a kitchen cabinet set back weeks of improvement, but it finally healed.  

I never did put him back in the crate.