Rorschach Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Recently adopted a four year old boxer, and she keeps wagging her tail with such... vigor...she keeps hitting it against things much to hard, bursting it open and happily wagging blood all over the house. I'm not sure what to do :/ If the vet stitches her up again shes just gonna burst her wounds open again and the cycle continues >_< If I continue to wash her tail with salt water it should stave off any infection, right? Any other tips appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog_Horse_Girl Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Have you tried confining her to a small space while she heals? Perhaps a wire crate or just one relatively safe room? Plastic hair curlers can work to protect the wound too. Just put one or however many you need to cover the wound and bandage on - so if the tail is hitting things the wound shouldn't re-open. That's a tip I heard on a greyhound forum many years ago...greyhound tails are much more delicate than boxer tails though so are far more prone to injury. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsfevr Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Chances are long term you will need the tip taken off . Select a vet who is willing to do more than just the basics. In the mean time vet wrap the tail using either a hair roller,toilet roll inner so hopefully it can have a chance to heal. You can dunk the tail end in hydrogen peroxide 3% it will help dry. She will bang it more & it will drive you crazy but you may be lucky & get it to heal . It truly is no fun ,we have had 2 one needed the tip removed the other the tip end was so dead & not affecting the dog the vet decided it was better for him to just damage what was dead & only remove if needed & it worked very well . Others using the hair rollers we have managed to heal & maintain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Someone on my Dalmatian list mentioned a spray on type elastoplast they bought from the chemist that was wonderful for split ears and tails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorschach Posted April 23, 2012 Author Share Posted April 23, 2012 Thanks for the hair roller tip guys, will put it on her asap. Hopefully her tail will heal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerRottweiler Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 If she keeps doing it and your dog runs the chance of getting infected, the vet should consider removal all together. Try all other avenues first obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klink Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Recently adopted a four year old boxer, and she keeps wagging her tail with such... vigor...she keeps hitting it against things much to hard, bursting it open and happily wagging blood all over the house. I'm not sure what to do :/ If the vet stitches her up again shes just gonna burst her wounds open again and the cycle continues >_< If I continue to wash her tail with salt water it should stave off any infection, right? Any other tips appreciated! May I suggest, being a long time supporter of tail BANDING that you compile a record of treatments,vet visits PHOTOGRAPHS of the continual injury and find a Vet who will for the well being of the dog remove its' tail as would normally have been done at birth be it not for the bleeding hearts and gutless politicans who with no scientific evidence to support the claims of cruelty with the banding of dogs' tails at birth decided in their infinite wisdom to ban it and subject many breeds of dogs to the pain and suffering that your dog is suffering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizT Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Recently adopted a four year old boxer, and she keeps wagging her tail with such... vigor...she keeps hitting it against things much to hard, bursting it open and happily wagging blood all over the house. I'm not sure what to do :/ If the vet stitches her up again shes just gonna burst her wounds open again and the cycle continues >_< If I continue to wash her tail with salt water it should stave off any infection, right? Any other tips appreciated! You have plenty of great adice.....just wanted to add that clearly she is very happy in her new home, with wanting to wag her tail so vigourously all the time now. :) Do you know if she had had any indication of similar previous injuries? If it heals nicely she may settle in and not repeat the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorschach Posted April 23, 2012 Author Share Posted April 23, 2012 Yes, yes! Thank you for all the great advice on what to do next :) On any previous evidence of splitting her tail no, the previous owners never told us of any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crisovar Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 You have my sympathy it is a very hard situation to treat effectively, the hair roller and lots and lots of vet wrap as already suggested. I puff pink eye powder on the injured area before wrapping. Depending on the tail carriage of your girl you can sometimes strap the tail down a hind leg to limit the movement while it heals. Stitching will not help in my experience. If you end up having to have her tail docked, it is a slow healing process and will be quite uncomfortable for the dog, but will certainly prevent it recurring. It is a horrid injury and the blood splattered walls and door ways are impressive. Often when watching those CSI type tv shows I wonder what they would make of the blood splatters up our walls and furniture from our last tail injury. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melzawelza Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Yep this happened to me when I got my girl from the pound - her tail is long and thin on the end and she'd been wagging it non stop for three weeks in the pound - it was a bloody pulp by the time I got her. Yep, I had the blood splattered walls, doors etc.. I think I started a thread here as well! I tried wrapping it up but she just ripped it off. I have no idea how I got it to heal in the end, I think I just kept her far away from any walls or doorways as much as possible when I knew she'd be excited (i.e me coming home). I put betadine on it whenever I could. When I examined it closely I'm pretty sure what I was seeing was actually bone. It did eventually heal and is perfectly fine now, never opens up. If you part the hair the part that was affected grows no hair now, and is just a big, thick, hardened piece of scar tissue. Not sure if that's much help, my girls only got bad in the first place due to being confined in the pound so once we removed her from that situation we got there eventually. Not sure if you'll be able to have the same result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erny Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 (edited) Similar problem here. I take some elastoplast - fairly wide stuff. I cut one side of the sticky part off - discard that bit. I stick the other around the end of his tail so that the part that is padded with the yellow cotton strip is at the very tip end. This way, it is an open bandage which allows the air to it. It tends to last quite a good while (several days, generally) with my boy as the sticky bit is VERY sticky. I find this very effective and not overly cumbersome for him. But I'm fortunate in that my boy ignores it and doesn't try to chew it off. Edited April 24, 2012 by Erny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everythings Shiny Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 We have to amputate lots of racing greyhound tails. We try healing them up first, but they get so excitable it just doesn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirislin Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 a while ago a friends exhuberant whippet injured her tail and kept breaking it open, spraying blood all over her walls. I told her to just loosely wrap adhesive tape on it and let it fall off naturally, the tape, not the tail. It healed perfectly. If you look closely you'll see it here a typical Lily moment by kirislin, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monique.c Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 The same thing was happening with my friends lab, he was forever at the vet and trying everything like bandaging it, splinting it, different creams etc, eventually the vet made the decision that it would be best to cut off half of the dogs tail. It has all healed up fine and now he just wags his stump and butt as vigorously as ever.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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