Worn and bleeding tails! How do I heal them?

[Lookin' Up!]

Two of my dogs tails are worn and all of the hair gone. It would not worry me to much except that the bleeding tail waging and hitting the sides of the dog is getting her covered with blood. I know it is from a lot of hunting but thought some one might have a trick that works good for them.

[az_gogetem]

Hey Matt are you talking about Kate? I used to put a rubber band on the end of her tail to stop the bleeding, works good. How is she working out for you? I hope she is doing the job for you.

I sure miss that dog, could have used her today!

Give me a call I have a new phone and have lost my phone numbers, again.

Take care,
Mike

[tcinkgm]

one of mine does the same, bag balm once a day helps a bunch

[Big Horn Posse]

I had a dog named Red that had that problem big time. He would splatter you with blood when he wagged his tail. It was especially bad in the winter time. Nothing I tried was was a long term fix. Finally when he was 5 years old I was dating a vet and he told me he could fix it. He took 4 inches off his tail and after it healed Red never had that issue again. Lots of guys in the southwest dock some of the tail off as pups and this prevents this. I say if it is as bad as Red's was get it docked a few inches.

[TomJr]

Hunt in less bushy country?

[cory]

This usually fixes the problem

[South Texan]

Big Horn Posse, you are exactly right. Nearly all the south Texas cat hunters dock the tails on their hounds for this reason. Some people say we bob'em. We don't bob'em, we just dock'em. Thus eliminating the bloody tip of the tail. Taking about (guessing) 1/5 of their tail off (5 to 6 inches on a grown dog). I have to leave some tail to be able to read their body language. lol Robbie

[Mike Leonard]

We dock all our pups tails and i agree i like some tail to read them but I use a good clean pair of Gerber shears and at 2 days old I take about a quarter to third off and they never bleed but you have plenty to watch. I don't like stub tails real short like a german shorthair cuz it just looks funy and is hard to read but i sure don't think it hurts their ability.
south of the border where jaguars are on the menu most guys do not want you to cut any of the tail becasue they say dogs bayed up in the thick stuff need that tail to signal them from the rear and to not get crowded in too close on a big spotted cat becasue they usually die pretty quick that way. I don't know if it's true but perception is reality at times.

[Benny G]

To bob the tail of a grown, or adult dog, I have always just banded them with emasculating bands.

[Big Horn Posse]

Benny said emasculating lol

[Ticked]

Benny How long do the bands take to work any tips or tricks I need to do this to a few dogs. thanks

[hunt-em-up]

I've used athletic tape to wrap the tip and it works real well to keep it covered and keep from slitting bigger too. When i first started hunting i was having that problem and it would split up the tail quite a ways until i tried taping.

[AZDOGMAN]

Matt. Daves trix dog had the same issue as did my grizz dog. Both dogs ended up getting tails docked. It's a little trickier on a grown dog but only good long term solution.

[Benny G]

You can take as much of the tail off as you wish.
I always put two bands on the tail when I do it. It's probably not neccesary, but when the tail starts dieing, I don't want any mishaps. I use the spreader that is intended for the bands, and I just put the first band on the tail at the desired length to be removed. I then add another band RIGHT NEXT to the first band--get them as tight together as possible. The dog might show some discomfort for a little while, maybe as much as 2 or 3 hours, and maybe none at all. Don't frett! The band will make the tail go numb, and the blood supply will be cut off to the lower end. Just sit back and wait. Most of the time it takes in the neighborhood of two weeks for the dried end of the tail to fall off.

I took an older dog to the vet one time because she was weak and anemic. I had banded her tail about 5 days prior, and the assistant started to give me some crap about the bands. The vet finaly told her that it wasn't hurting the dog, and to be quiet. For me, that said plenty. A lot of folks don't or won't like some of the remedies that we can give our dogs, but sometimes we can save a lot of money without puting our dogs in danger.

Good luck, and the decision belongs to the person that buys the feed for the dog. Everyone else can stow it!

[Lookin' Up!]

Thanks for the advice Benny, I used those bands on sheep and goats before and they worked great, I think that is what I will do just as soon as lion season starts to slow down. If you ever get back to AZ look me up and lets do some hunting.