Spaniel Happy Tail

[CharliePickle]

Has anyone had any experience of this?
I have a very happy cocker spaniel who has a constant wiggly butt, and as a consequence bangs and clatters his way around the house.
When I groomed him today he wouldn't let me near his tail, and now I've spotted some blood on my kitchen cupboard doors. His fur is too thick to see anything, but I've given it a good wipe and it's definitely bleeding slightly at the tip. I've swabbed it down with leucillin and consulted doctor google...turns out happy tail is a thing.
I was wondering if it could be a one off, or are we going to have a continuous problem now, and is there anything I can do?

I've known, or known of, several spaniels who have had this issue. One healed pretty quickly, one healed VERY slowly, and several have had to have amputations.

I've also known the same with undocked dogs of the hunt-point-retrieve breeds (vizslas etc). They seem to end up with amputations probably because they have very little fur on the ends of their tails.

Tails have poor blood supply (not that you'd know it as your house turns into CSI Central), so healing can be hit-and-miss.

Mine had this and it’s been an infrequent problem tbh but every now and then it’ll be like a crime scene. It does just settle down within the day usually, never needed vet treatment or anything other than just leaving alone to be calm.

@EdithStourton & @Happierthaneverr
Thanks for your replies, it's given me hope that it will heal on its own.
After googling it I was thinking the worst!
I really should know better.

Ours was 3/4 docked at birth for this very reason. They can break them very easily so the vet did it when thry went for their first check up (my understanding is this us normal for working dogs snd it doesn't hurt - but it does feel quite brutal).
I hope your darling heals very soon

We have a Dalmatian who's had it a couple of times. I used sudocrem and vet wrap. Thank god it healed my living room looked like an episode out of Dexter!

My first Labrador had this, snicked the very end of his tail and it was like a chainsaw massacre round the walls. It actually took months to heal. It had to be permanently wrapped until then.

My Cocker is docked and still gets happy tail on occasion. I clean with hibiscrub and use vetwrap. I’ve used a bit of pipe insulation, slit lengthways, under the vetwrap as extra cushioning when it’s particularly bad.