Our house looks like a mini crime scene after our 'little' guy came in the house yesterday afternoon. Blood spatter everywhere that we eventually traced to the tip of his rather large, and powerful tail.

We got thru round one yesterday afternoon, but it recurred last night as we celebrated Christmas with family that is out of town on Thursday.

I'm open to any suggestions. So far this morning he's good but he's always calm in the morning.

I've read stuff on the Internet that states there may be the need for amputation. The whole tail or just the tip? We tried the Elizabethan collar last night with minimal success.

Thanks in advance

Terribly named and a pain in the ass. They can be bandaged by your vet, and would need to where a ginormous cone. They're often recurrent and when the owners get tired of the murder scene we end up amputating (usually a partial).

You can try taping a short piece of pipe insulation or a piece of pool noodle (or whatever else you can think of that will be light and protect the end of the tail). Lighter and smaller the better as will, hopefully, attract less attention from the dog.

Taping it so it stays is no simple task. Good Luck

We had our rescue have something similar but, what actually happened was that they were playing and tipped over a coffee table and we think it fell on the tip of her tail, degloving it. We tried for weeks to bandage it. It never healed up right. So, we had the vet lop it off. They just lopped it down to about a 6" tail, stitched it up, and it healed beautifully in no time at all. For our vet, it was an easy decision and not as big a deal as we perceived it to be.

https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/behavioral/happy-tail-syndrome-dogs

Quote:

---

They're often recurrent

---

That's my concern. He's OK at the moment, but only time will tell. Thank you for your thoughts.

And by the way, I'd never heard of it either until my daughter texted me on what it could be. I was like 'What?' And then I Googled it and it does exist. And this guy has a huge tail, he's a big time tail wagger, and he's got 4 1/2 acres of property to roam. It all aligns.

This happened to one of our labs when she was about 9 months old. Our vet explained that there is just a very thin layer of skin over the last bone at the very tip of the tail. He bandaged it up but we could never get it to heal up. Had to have a couple of inches of her tail amputated. She's got a club for a tail now but still wags that thing like crazy.

ugh, you see it when they cut their ear and it won't clot

My mom had a dobie/lab mix that this would happen with. The crime scene reference is the truth. My mom would cover it with a sock. Not a real clinical solution but it kept the blood off the walls.


It never got better - my mom called her tail the "lethal tail" anything on a coffee table wasn't safe around that dog. Sweetest dog ever just a little excited about any and everything

We had a dog that would somehow clip the end of his tail on things once in a while. Same result, just immediate rather than repeated banging. Anyhow, I would use a styptic heavily on it and then wrap in gauze and self adhesive wrap. It was good enough to let it heal.

He also had a cat nip the very tip of his ear (and the vein that ends right there) and that was the most gruesome scene we ever woke up to. It obviously bothered him so he spent the whole night flapping his ears, slinging blood everywhere. That is a very hard one to get to heal.

Btw, Eco88 is a great product for cleaning blood out of carpets and other stuff. Just make sure to do a test to make sure it won't discolor whatever you're cleaning.

When our lab busted it's tail open I tried for days to find a way to keep bandages on there. She kept wagging it off, busting the wound back open and spraying blood everywhere.

Eventually resorted to duct taping a sock around the tail over gauze and more padding around the wound. Took a couple of weeks to heal fully but she never busted her tail open again. If it hasn't happened before I'd try something similar before resorting to amputation.

We have a 10yo lab with a lethal tail. Fortunately it is not a medical issue, but it feels like a whip if he catches you on the thigh. As he has aged he has become more irritable and restless What is particularly annoying is when he comes in the bedroom at 5:00 AM needing to pee, and that tail slaps the slats on the closet door.

Redbone coonhound had this.

Tried everything to treat/protect it, but eventually amputation was the only way - the tip - if you saw her and didn't know you would never be able to tell she doesn't have the tip of her tail.

After surgery had to be professionally bandaged every other day. Now when she enters the vet office she is greeted like Norm on Cheers. It was awful and exhausting - took several months of treatment between attempts to prevent surgery, the surgery and the recovery.

We tried everything with our wolfhound.
Multiple rounds....wrapping all the time...keeping him from ripping bandages off...finally just amputated more than half.

Worth it.