And so the fun begins! Puzzle has split her tail, not surprising after how hard she wacks it against things. I know the trouble angela had with dexter and his tail. I now understand how hard it is to stop her from wagging her tail to let it heal. £ times i have had to clean blood of off the walls as she has either pulled her dressing off, run off during a dressing change or when she first done it. Any suggestions are welcome! It looks like she is trying to catch barley up with vet visits, 3 already this month and it looks like she is going to be making a 4th very soon.
Oh dear.....sorry to hear that Annabelle. Angela is definitely the one for tips on this. Hope it doesn't Take long to heal
Ah I have been messaging Annabelle so she's had some care tips already.....I was so sorry to hear from her and this be the reason..it is absolutely awful to go through. Is this the first episode Annabelle? Even if it isn't you won't necessarily be going down the route we were forced along.Dexter's grandmother suffered from it and they lived with it and eventually it stopped happening.The danger is infection and not letting scar tissue build up,The vet said the scar tissue in Dexter's case was a factor,his tail was was very thin and brittle and one wag that connected would break it open.It is impossible to stop a dog wagging its tail,limiting the items they knock against is the best you can do.We automatically used to reach down to shield Dexter's tail and I cannot tell you how often in a day you would hear us say 'Mind his tail'. I used to bathe it with a product called Betadine and the vet also gave me some of the pink antiseptic that they use that kept it clean.Lochan recommended a product called Dog Ends,I bought them on line ....they didn't work for us as they weren't protective enough but they could be worth a try.In the end I was using a large size plastic syringe casing to try and buy us a bit of time to heal up..Dexter was literally splitting it open every time we didn't catch a wag...it was no way to live .Because the syringe is open at one end the air could get to it which was helpful,It wasn't hugely successful Dexter's tail was so damaged by that point just the impact of the syringe knocking was causing bleeding...but Puzzle might benefit from it even it's only just happened,the idea is sound and it would stop her banging her tail on things....Oh just writing this brings back the noise of the syrings thwacking if the door bell went by surprise and we didn't catch him in time ......oh,disabling the door bell was another thing we did in the end ( don't know how your parent s will feel about that though ) I hope it's just an isolated event and you can get it healed up ......it's the best thing in the world to see your dog wagging their tail happily but when every wag causes a blood bath it become so stressful xxxx
Dexter - This is the first episode. She has had to have a few crate rest times when she has got too excited as she splits it open again then when she wacks, even though we try and catch it, she does not understand the concept of calm. We have some Dog Ends and hopefully they will work and protect her tail. She has already been to the vets with it as the wound got infected despite cleaning it and not letting it get dirty. It was a very painful infection which made her very uncomfortable but she is over that now thankfully.
Glad you shifted the infection Annabelle.We were lucky as Dexter has always been really calm and quiet in his crate,if she's moving around quite energetically in it I'd say don't use it for now.... The dog ends are a great product and this being the first episode makes me think they could work really well for you.Good luck catching those wags....keep on touch and I'm hoping for good news from you soon x
Dexter she settles down in her crate which is very handy, and she sleeps and eats in there as well. Naya Thank you
How horrid Annabelle, I hope you manage to get this sorted and Puzzle's tail heals properly. Out of interest, am I right in thinking Puzzle is part Vizla? I know they have quite thin tails, and they used to be routinely docked.
Karen she is 1/8th Vizla. she is being very good and leaving it alone she has the occasional lick but stops when told to
The wound is healing very slowly at the moment. There are a few factors behind that I every time we don't catch a wag or she just catches it walking round the house it splits the scab open again and It bleeds. The other factor is her getting it wet in her efforts to cool down in the shallow paddling pool which means the scab comes off.
You do 'drop' wags however hard you try Annabelle,it's so hard to protect a tail all the time.I know you are in the grips of a heatwave but I would keep her out of water for now,especially as you can see it healing ....it might mean she doesn't get as long put on the garden but it's not the end of the world for a short while.Do you think the dog ends are helping? X
The paddling pools have mainly been put out for barley to stand in to cool off as he does struggle in the heat with his coat. It has actually been cooler outside today than inside, when in the shade as there is a nice breeze as it is muggy inside. She had another bleed when I got home as she got too excited but did stay down when she got told to I was just too slow in getting the words out. So its bandaged up again now, she is so good at getting it bandaged and the dog end put on even though it does hurt her and it does annoy her.
