Problem with dog's tail - Of COURSE noticed on the first day of a 3 day weekend.

[Madrone]

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with something like this, or any advice (beyond see a vet - that will happen but not until Monday).

A few days ago I remember letting my dog out of his crate and as he walked by he touched me with his wet tail ... blech. I figured he'd been licking it for some reason, and didn't think about it past that. A day or so later the spot that had been wet was crusty. Again, didn't think much of it. Dried dog saliva often leaves crusty fur - as one of the cats in the household can attest to. Last night when going to bed I noticed that it's still crusty. I pushed on the tail in that area and got a noticeable reaction from the dog. Of course- he HATES having his tail messed with so ... not sure but still not overly concerned. This morning I noticed the little dog I'm caring for get interested in my dog's tail and start licking it. Okay - that's a pretty good indication that something's awry.

I laid the dog down to do some investigation, and there appeared to be some sort of sore hiding in his thick fur. I grabbed the clippers and started removing hair from his tail. He has an irritated, constantly oozing sore on the underside of the middle of his tail that extends for approximately 4-5 inches. It's inflamed looking, and oozing a somewhat significant amount of clear fluid. I couldn't get the hair off all the way down to the skin - but from what I can see the skin looks irregular and non-smooth. He's in obvious discomfort - and a lengthy internet search hasn't turned up much useful information.

What I've done: I have some antibiotics remaining from when his surgical incision (knee) was not-quite-but-headed-in-the-direction-of infected so I gave him 2 capsules with enough remaining to give him one every 12 hours until Sunday night. I tried to shave as much as the hair surrounding the wound as possible. I used warm sea-salt water to gently soak and wash the crud off and clean the wound. I patted it dry, then put betadine on it.

I also don't know if this is related or not - but in the last couple of weeks he's been extra itchy - which has never been a problem before. I initially suspected it being due the the regrowth of hair after having half his butt and one leg shaved for surgery - but he seems to be itching mostly in areas unshaven. When his back is scratched he does this shudder/shake thing and twitches his tail.

I guess I'm kind of worried that there's some festering issue related to his surgery, considering that we've never had any issues like this until now. I'm really concerned with his tail - and I have no idea what it could be (google didn't turn up anything that appeared to be relevant) or if my "common sense" approach to caring for it until we can get to the vet is any good.

[livetohike]

1. It sounds like a "hot spot" Madrone

http://www.canismajor.com/dog/hotspots.html

It sounds like you have done everything right to treat it. I would take him in though on Monday and the vet will probably prescribe some ointment for it. I've had this issue with all of my dogs from time to time. I can't remember the name of the ointment, but the hot spots get pretty gross, pretty fast.

:hug: to you and the pup

[MiniMe]

2. Sounds like "happy" tail, or crate tail

They wag their tail so hard that they can split it open. This is usually with wire crates because the wire crates don't have an even surface where the bars go across. I've had a few fosters that had that problem, still have a few blood spots around the house because if they hit their tail on anything else when they wag it spilts open again. One of our volunteers (who is a nurse) has had great success using a toilet paper cardboard roll to help this, she puts it on the tail and folds it down and then tapes it on. If works great for labs, for smaller dogs it may be a bit more difficult to use that. The main thing is to protect it, and to keep them from whacking their tail against the crate.

Let me look through my old emails and see if I can find the instructions she gave us on it.

[Madrone]

3. Thanks!

I think, however, that livetohike was probably correct in thinking that it's a hot spot. I'm pretty certain that it is not happy tail - his crate is the plastic enclosed kind, and he never furiously wags his tail in there. :) He lays down and goes to sleep.

I'm keeping an eye on him and trying to keep it clean. We'll see how he looks by Monday.

[MiniMe]

5. The TP roll will probably work on that too if your dog bothers it

I found the link with the instructions.

[MiniMe]

4. Found it

Here is the pic with the dog with the TP cardboard on her tail.



And the instructions are http://members.cox.net/nursebobbi/happytail.htm