To let my dog's tail heal on its own?

[lopsys]

We always joke that our Labrador will end up breaking her tail at some point with how hard she whips it around.

I've come home today to find blood all on my walls/door - it's from the end of her tail (only found it as I can see the crusty dry blood on the end of it). She won't let me check it thoroughly enough to actually find a cut but it's definitely from there.

She's still wagging, can't see anything visible in the multiple times I've checked and the bleeding has stopped.

Do I let it heal on its own? I hear such horror stories about tails and their healing.

Take her to the vet. She won’t let you touch it? She is in pain.

Dogs, especially Labs, are very stoic as they want to please you. It doesn’t mean they don’t need attention.

@Dearg she's letting me touch it fine, I've felt around and can't find a cut - she just doesn't like being handled in general so won't stay still (definitely should've trained that more as a puppy!).

Vet. Absolutely. They keep splitting otherwise. If you don’t give a shit about your dog, do it to prevent the fucking mess it is going to keep causing in your house

Take your dog to the vet 🙄

This. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

@StarlightLime what's with the eye rolling? Because I'm seeking advice on what would be best for my dog - a dog that is showing zero signs of active bleeding, any pain, change in temperament/movement or visible open wounds?

I am absolutely happy to take my dog to the vet if needed. I just didn't want to be overdramatic or waste a vet's time or spend a small fortune if not needed. That's why I ASKED.

My dog managed to damage her tail, and even after vets visits and dressing it never healed, and had to be amputated.

Take your dog to the vet.

DDog had the tiniest cut in his from wagging it by a wall and within a few days, despite immediate vet treatment it still went gangrenous and he sadly lost his tail. It was a beautiful tail, but he still managed to wag his stump afterwards.

please do let the vet look and maybe do some antibiotics just in case.

You should have asked in the dog section, not AIBU if you wanted advice from people who know their stuff.

i would report your own original post and ask MN to please move it.

@NearlyBritishSummertimeYay I didn't even know there was one! I will do - thank you!

Yes, definitely a trip to the vet. We came home one day and our lab had split his tail. He lost his tail in the end as it wouldn't heal properly. The kitchen looked like a murder scene 😳

I would ring first, explain what has happened and ask what the vet thinks. But I would be cautious about thinking that all will be well as it is just the tail tip. In my experience, tail injuries can be more serious that first appears and can cause dogs a lot of pain.

Sensible question in my view.

Having experienced this previously I don't think it's a vet trip but you will need to ensure your dog is on lead for at least a week, no excitement or tail wagging and watch them carefully next to table legs and door frames.

As long as you are on the ball it should heal with no issues.

@lopsys My dogs have this happen, every now and again. I would monitor it for 48 hours, sometimes doing nothing is the best option as the tail will heal by itself. If your dog will let you bathe it with warm, salt water or better still hibiscrub that will ensure it is kept clean.

If your dog shows any signs of not being well or its tail looks infected or something is not right then of course go to the vets.

My dog has a split tail tip every few months he loves to whack it against things! I personally wouldn't go to the vet I've found it best just to leave it and it heals does take a while I pop some Vaseline on ours. your house may look like an episode of Dexter for a while the spray from a tiny split cans splatter far!

Lab tails seem to heal better than some breeds but tails in general have poor blood supply.

I've known too many undocked spaniels and HPRs have tail issues up to and including amputation.

I would honestly rather take one of our dogs to the vet and be told it wasn’t necessary than not take them when I was concerned, and have things get worse, or have the dog suffer unnecessarily, @lopsys.

My dog had "happy tail" last year. It was just a small cut but wouldn't heal because he just kept whacking it off things and hurting it again. Normal bandages just came flying off everytime he shook himself, which he does about 100 times a day. I started wrapping it with a big pad of cotton wool/dressing and then wrapping the whole of his tail from base to tip with duct tape. It sounds a bit nuts and he got some strange looks but the dressing would stay on for about 3 days thus way and as soon as it fell off, I would replace it. I kept this up for about 3-4 weeks and it was finally healed. Luckily, it's not come back either although he's been left with a baldy tip of his tail!

@lopsys & now you have some sane replies. ☺️

how has the tail been today?

I did something similar after coming back to a Labrador chainsaw massacre. I used black insulating tape as he was black. He ended up with a bald spot too. It won't heal on its own.

It's been really helpful on this thread to read about the risks of poor healing in tails and the consequent need to take even what seems like a minor tail injury to the vet.
I think that without reading it, I might have had the same doubts as the OP initially had about whether a vet trip would be needed -- I don't think her question was unreasonable at all.

My previous dog (a parson russell terrier) had a docked tail (not my call - this was a while ago when more dogs were docked). He came to me at four months, with the docking apparently fully healed. But shortly afterwards there was some minor bleeding there, and he lost the hair at the tip of his remaining tail. It never grew back.

My current terrier has his full tail, and I think it is far less prone to injury than a whacking great labrador tail. I wonder whether, in parson russell terriers, the risk of injury was ever a genuine reason for docking or whether it was always cosmetic? I'm genuinely ignorant of that - its not a rhetorical question.

Terriers historically had their tails docked (sometimes leaving a stump about 2-3 inches long) as they were bred for ratting, hunting rabbits, badgers, foxes etc. The docking of most of the tail was to stop the animal they were hunting from biting the tail; the stump that was left was so that the owner could pull the terrier out of whatever hole in the ground they were in (and no doubt wouldn't come out of).

It became the standard "look" for many terrier breeds, and thus was continued for aesthetic purposes long after they were purely hunting dogs. Thankfully it's a practice that seems to have died out now, although you do sometimes see a terrier with a docked tail. I've a Jack Russell with a full tail, it's surprisingly long!

Happy tail may never heal, one of our dogs had an amputation in the end

Terriers historically had their tails docked (sometimes leaving a stump about 2-3 inches long) as they were bred for ratting, hunting rabbits, badgers, foxes etc.
That's interesting, Mondy. Thanks. I find it hard to trust in the historic belief that terriers were much more at risk of a prey-inflicted bite with a longer tail rather than a shorter one (especially since the 'breed standard' for some working-type terriers (including PRTs) is for a 'long dock' that gives their handlers enough to get hold of when yanking out of a hole).
Small prey (rats, squirrels) only really present a risk to the mouth-end. You'd think that ear cropping would make more sense than tail docking from that point of view. And if a badger or a fox were behind a terrier in a hole, I can't see that a shorter tail would help.
It did occur to me that a terrier backing out of a tight hole would be more at risk of tail breakage if the tail was full length.

I'm another dog owner with one whose tail just wouldn’t heal for ages.
(The blighter would keep wagging it)
It was very worrying and although we are quite good at doggy first aid, this injury had to go to the vet.