Tail docking?

[Fizzyknickers]

Is this our only option? Springer spaniel, v long, v waggy tail. Currently splattering blood all over my house. She’s not bothered by it at all. Even when I touch it. But nothing is helping it heal :(

Has she caught it on something? My staffs cross took the very top off the end of her tail and had to have nearly the whole thing amputated because of damaged tissue!

Talk to your vet. If it's not healing due to excess wagging (your dog is just too happy!) you may need to have it partially amputated to avoid bone infection.

I have seen various suggestions. There's one sling type idea and one that uses a pool noodle. You need to protect it and let it heal. If it keeps getting injured and won't heal then it may need the end taken off. (Not to be docked short.)
What does your vet say?

Fuck no. Don't do it. Ever.

If a dog has an infected wound or is constantly injuring their tail then taking the injured part away under anaesthetic may be the only solution Bucking.

@buckingfrolics it would obviously be done by a vet!

She’s 17 months old, and absolutely crazy. Super bouncy. I don’t know how she did it the first time. The vets dressed it, I followed their advice. But because she’s so waggy, she’s constantly knocking the scab off.

They said docking is probably the best in the long term, but I was hoping someone would have some super secret, genius idea to mean I do t have to do that to her! She’s my baby 😢

You can see in the pic how long her tail is, so it hits everything. And also the splatter of blood across my newly mopped floor. That was after less than a minute of being let in there :/

Apologies
@buckingfrolicks

The problem will be that even when it’s docked you’ve got to protect it whilst it heals or you will have the same problem with the wound constantly reopening . We had a similar problem with a split ear , which kept opening every time dog shook his head , it took many weeks of constant redressing , have you tried just using Elastoplast and normal plasters as that’s what we resorted to in the end and it did work .

I rescued a springer when he was 18 months & he had the same issue. I think it initially split when he was out and about in bushes & fields. It never healed. Ever. I tried taping it up, I put a sock on it & even pipe insulation foam! It just kept bleeding & getting infected.

He had it amputated on the vets advice after 12 weeks of going back & forth & no healing. It was getting necrotic to be honest. It wasn’t an easy option as it took ages to heal, about 6 weeks in total. But, now he’s perfect, it’s a little stump but it still wags like mad, in fact his whole back end does.

We had this with our lab. DH is a vet (not smaller though) and after trying syringe case (#lethalweapon and sweaty) he finally sussed a dressing that helped the tail heal - but as it was infected we had a 2 weeks of twice daily changes before dropping to daily. We did have to cut a bit off - but had trouble healing the rest - succeeded eventually.

Dressing was Melolin over the wound, tensoplast (sticky bandage) over the tail and dressing to well below the wound and then polsterplast (ridiculously sticky foam dressing stuff) over that like a flag... polsterplast must not stick to delicate skin - hence tensoplast underneath!

Back to the vets tomorrow. Poor Maggie! :( i hate the thought of her having it docked but it’s got to be sorted somehow :(

Better a shorter and healthy tail than pain and possible infection though. Good luck.

You’re right @Wolfiefan
This is the cut. It’s about the size of a fingernail. How can it cause so much mess??? 😩😩😩

have they applied glue? A layer of tissue glue or less ideally super glue would create a barrier. Dress with Elastoplast and pipe lagging

Oh bless. That looks sore. Any infection?
Do have a look at the pool noodle trick. If you can get it to heal then great. If not then it's kinder to lose a bit of tail than subject a dog to pain and suffering. (You know that. And you're right!)
I have a dog of a breed that's prone to this. I keep telling the kids and DH they mustn't greet her until she's in a big enough space to wag safely. They think I'm nuts.
(They are probably right!)
We worry so much. Thankfully our dogs don't.

Our rescue greyhound arrived with half a tail - it kept splitting in kennels so when he was being neutered they took half of it off. He had no problem and it was still used as a rudder as he thundered around!!

My friend's sprocker puppy had this problem and the vet said it would probably have to be partially amputated. She thinks the dog heard, because it healed up after that!

He used to rip it going into cover and we think that as he grew, it was above the danger zone. He's never had a problem since and he's 8 or so now.

Fuck no. Don't do it. Ever.

Spoken by someone who has never seen how sore and painful this can become for the dog, and how it can be literally impossible to ever get it to heal.

Anyway, back in the real world ... yes, if your vet is at the stage of suggesting amputation, it probably will need to come off. There are various methods of protection that you could perhaps try if you haven't already - loo roll padded and taped on, foam rollers etc., but it is very difficult with an enthusiastic dog to keep anything on it at all.

When the tail is amputated, that bit will actually be a bit easier to heal than the current very thin and whippy end (although unfortunately the vet will probably leave it longer than ideal for this).

My greyhound has half a tail. We had the exact same issue as you and the end got infected, died and fell off. After his op to remove it the vet taped a section of cardboard tube from the middle of a cling film roll over the end. It protects the tail if it gets knocked (or wagged ) but still allows air to the wound as the end is open. He's happy as larry with his half-tail, much happier than he was when it was so sore

Your vet will advise a tail amputation if it doesn't heal. Tails are notorious for not healing as you can imagine.