Tail Injury

[Fanuilos]

We have a dog which was rehomed through White Shepherd Rescue and she is having a bit of an issue with her tail.

She injured it a few months ago and it was split open. The vet cleaned it up and bandaged it.

The owners have been to the vet several times, where they get antibiotics an steroids - the dog has been through 2 courses and she's still managed to open it up and get it infected.

The owners have noticed that it is from her biting it and opening it up from spinning around in excitement.

I don't know if they have had an Elizabethan collar on her while she is healing but I've told them to give one of the Novaguards a try but how do they stop her banging it against things in her excitement?

[Jumabaar]

One method is getting a toilet roll or making a roll of appropriate diameter with cardboard then popping it over the tail with some padding. Its then secured in place with a bandage, making sure the whole set up isn't too tight. This stops the tail hitting anything hard and reopening the wound.

I will try and find a picture

ETA- not a picture but a better explanation http://www.gpa-nova.org/resources/sickdog.php

Edited January 29, 2012 by Jumabaar

[Fanuilos]

Thanks Jumabaar!

[becks]

plastic hair roller is good to and allows the air to get to the wound as it heals

[Jumabaar]

plastic hair roller is good to and allows the air to get to the wound as it heals

Thats a good idea!

They would need to give the wound air time. But also they need to realise that they need to keep on the little tube long past the tail healing otherwise the skin won't strengthen enough to stop it breaking open a week after its healed.

[sas]

Our Vet pads our Dane injury tails wonderfuly, perhaps check with your Vet, they've probably done it many times before.

[pepe001]

I third or forth (how ever many posters have said it so far) bandage the tail. A kelpie of mine cut off most of his tail when he interacted with the chain of a motorbike. The vet cleaned up the bones etc and said to stop him chewing it using a plastic collar. Didn't work so we put a small plastic tub (one that cheesecake came in) around his tail. Cut a hole in the lid, stickytaped that on, attached the container - tail cleared up quickly. That was the tip but should be easy enough to modify it to suit the injury. Good luck to the shepherd.

[sparkycat]

Try hemorrhoid cream - Anasol or Rectonol - it is thick, tastes horrible, is an antiseptic and anaesthetic.

Our deerhound split the end of his tail and Anasol was the only thing that stopped him licking it. We now use it for all dog wounds.

[Fanuilos]

Thanks guys, I will pass all this one to the owners. I am going to see them tomorrow. Unfortunately, the vet has been bandaging the tail up but she is still whacking the crap out of it but I think the toilet roll or hair curls might help.

[Erny]

I have a long-shot reason for asking this, but is the problem at the end of the tail? And does the dog have any problems at other body part extremities, such as edges of ear/ear flaps, point of hock ... ?

[Fanuilos]

I have a long-shot reason for asking this, but is the problem at the end of the tail? And does the dog have any problems at other body part extremities, such as edges of ear/ear flaps, point of hock ... ?

Just the end of the tail. No other issues that I am aware of. We saw her in November and didn't notice any other issues. I will check when I go to visit though, why?

[Erny]

As I said - it's a long-shot, and I actually hope that I am wrong ..... but if the end of the tail opens up easily (ie the skin is thin) then thyroid and/or something called "ear margin vesculosis" could be a cause that might do with some investigation.

And yes - I did say "ear margin vesculosis" even though this thread only mentions the tail tip.

My own boy started opening his tail tip by it bashing on walls and I thought it was simply for that reason - that he bashed them in excitement on walls. And yes - he was pretty vigorous about it too, so I didn't think that it related to anything else.

After a little while, I noticed bare patches of roughish/dry skin also appearing on the point of his hocks. And he did have a bit of a sore at his ear tip that I couldn't get better either - and I thought he kept opening that up by shaking his head and flapping his ears in the process. The hair on the end of his tail had become sparse and thin, and the skin that was not broken at the site was also rough/dry (but I thought that was through all the bashing on the walls.

I do confess that his tail tip improved after he was diagnosed (Dr Jean Dodds USA) with a thyroid condition and I started him on thyroid medication. But I think the vesculosis condition comes in waves (at least, it appears to) and whether thyroid issues are connected or not, I couldn't tell you. When it improved, he still did bash his tail on the walls but it just didn't open up and bleed any more. Anyway, the problem with his ear still remains (although that too did at least improve to a degree with the administration of thyroid meds and whilst is still apparent, is no longer an open weeping wound) and the issue with his tail tip being seemingly thinner than it has been for the last little while, is causing him a problem again.

I could go on but I've tried to keep the detail down to something a bit simplistic so it can be understood, but this is why it sprang to mind as a possibility that, whilst not something to panic about right now and may indeed be irrelevant for the dog in question, could be something that you keep in the back of your mind.

Oh - and it is an auto-immune issue.

As I said, I'm probably going over the top with even thinking this for your situation.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Erny

[sas]

Erny, Happy Tail Syndrome is just from Tail trauma. For example some Danes have these whip like Tails and add happy tail to that and they do themselves some pretty serious damage by whacking them on walls and furniture. And if you don't pad them and keep them padded for a long time then the tail just gets more trauma and no hope of healing.

The Danes I know who have had it have been thyroid tested as part of breed testing as well.

Edited January 30, 2012 by MEH

[Erny]

Erny, Happy Tail Syndrome is just from Tail trauma. For example some Danes have these whip like Tails and add happy tail to that and they do themselves some pretty serious damage by whacking them on walls and furniture. And if you don't pad them and keep them padded for a long time then the tail just gets more trauma and no hope of healing.

Yeah - I know and realise that, thanks MEH :). And if you saw my boy (who also has a whip like tail - ouch! when it whacks you with the pleasure it is showing, lol) without knowing his history, you'd think it reasonable for his tail to open up to bleeding as well. I'm surprised he hasn't broken his tail at times, when he wags it so hard and it catches the corner of the wall. That's why I didn't think any more of the damage he was causing to his tail, other than to try to work a management strategy to avoid it as much as possible.

But I was surprised at how much pounding it can actually take without opening up to a wound, when his system is running well. As I said, there has been improvement since thyroid medication, but it still remains as a symptom of Ear Margin Vasculosis, although just not as bad as it was pre-thyroid medication.

It is just a point of interest and something to bear in the back of one's mind - for the OP and/or for any others 'out there' who might be experiencing similar.

Edited January 31, 2012 by Erny

[SwaY]

http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/mending_a_tail.htm

[Leema]

The owners have noticed that it is from her biting it and opening it up from spinning around in excitement.

Tails are tricky things to bandage, and I support the idea of hair curls and rolls on the tail.

However, I can't help but think there may be behavioural issues associated and aggravating the tail injury.

Is this dog naturally a tail biter? Naturally a spinner? Perhaps the dog needs to undergo some behavioural training to reduce these behaviours, and this mail help the tail heal and stay healed.