That sounds interesting...I hope you can find the picture!

When I was in high school I accidentally cut most of the way through our cat's tail with a recliner.

my mom called me up to dinner and I shut the recliner with some force and heard a yip.

I opened it back up and the cat came flying out. I didn't think anything of it until we were eating and I was sitting on the floor at the coffee table and the cat started freaking out and jumping around and flinging her tail all over the place.

We were all laughing at her antics until I felt something wet on my face, wiped it and looked down at my plate to find a streak of blood.

Then she took off running up the stairs and we had to chase and catch her then carry her down to the utility room so we could get a good look at what was going on and get the carrier.

There were blood sprays EVERYWHERE, all over me and the walls. By the time we got her in the cat carrier the utility room looked like a grisly crime had been committed.

I don't know how a cat could loose that much blood and still be alive.

She ended up being fine, but they went ahead and removed about 3 inches of tail because they said any stitching would have just come right out.

OK... here she is in all her glory...



--Kel

I board a couple greyhounds, a walker coonhound and a great dane all of whom will bang open their tails in their kennels. Nothing like coming in to blood literally on the walls! Maybe I should try wrapping their tails! Or padding their runs!

Since I've had dogs without tails until JD (Springer and Rottie before) the closest I have to compare this to is when I cut the end of Joshie's (the Springer) ear when trimming it. He stood very calmly - never yipped, yelped, nothing. I'd just given him a bath and he started shaking the water off and just like with the tails there was blood everywhere! It definitely is a frightening sight - and I learned to be much more careful trimming his ears. I felt horrible!

Sonya, I think it might be easier to pad the kennels! You'd be rewrapping the tails all the time, but you'd only have to pad the kennels once - maybe - hopefully.

I used the EMT spray and she has been leaving it alone so far.

Once my husband gets home I am going to try to bandage and wrap it with his help.

 Quote: Jennifer Lee

I used the EMT spray and she has been leaving it alone so far.

Once my husband gets home I am going to try to bandage and wrap it with his help.

I'l keep my fingers crossed!

Vetwrap -- It constricts constantly unless it is stuck to itself so don't stretch it hardly at all as you apply it. If the bandage is comfy the dog will usually leave it alone. Putting a topical anaesthetic cream (Lanocaine?) or a benadryl cream (antihistamine) or even cortisone cream might quiet it down under the bandage. Some mast cell tumors are itchy, an antihistamine orally (benadryl) can help. A good meaty bone to chew helps a dog from obsessing over a bandage.
Elevating the tail may help the bleeding . Having a dog lay with it's hips on a pillow and the chest on the floor -i.e. lowering the chest and head -sometimes works.

Speaking from actual experience, I would not over wrap the tail, or double back excessively. As Betty already pointed out, vet wrap constricts quite a lot. I would use a non-stick pad or gauze square, followed by one layer of gauze wrap or cling wrap as it's sometimes called. I would just go about an inch or 2 above and below the mass. Before you apply the vet wrap, it's best to unroll what you are going to use, then roll it back onto the spool. That way the tension that's created by separating each layer isn't transferred to the patient.
Since you aren't using it to hold anything major in place, I would just use enough to hold the gauze, and put a small strip of elastoplast type tape at either end.
Unless you are in a situation where the wound is right at the tip of the tail (I haven't seen it), or in a "happy tail" (split tail) situation like we used to get frequently with the pittys at the shelter, I wouldn't wrap the whole thing. First, it's a waste of supplies if you have to clean it regularly, and second, you don't want to cut off circulation or draw her attention to it more than necessary. JMO.

 Quote: Betty Landercasp

Vetwrap -- It constricts constantly unless it is stuck to itself so don't stretch it hardly at all as you apply it. If the bandage is comfy the dog will usually leave it alone. Putting a topical anaesthetic cream (Lanocaine?) or a benadryl cream (antihistamine) or even cortisone cream might quiet it down under the bandage. Some mast cell tumors are itchy, an antihistamine orally (benadryl) can help. A good meaty bone to chew helps a dog from obsessing over a bandage.
Elevating the tail may help the bleeding . Having a dog lay with it's hips on a pillow and the chest on the floor -i.e. lowering the chest and head -sometimes works.

There isn't a lot of bleeding with this particular tail wound, it was just enough to leave a mark on the door and for me to notice it because it should have been a fresh bright white. I do worry that if she messes with it too much or makes it any deeper we will have a bloody mess though.

She is on Hydroxyzine and megadoses of fish oil as well as Phycox for arthritis and pepcid as needed.

We had done a round of prednisone and kept her on it every other day for a while but stopped over the winter, now that spring is here with allergies I might need to go back to that.

We also have an assortment of topical sprays gels and creams..... EMT gel and spray, neosporin with pain reliever, lanacaine, cortisone, steroid/antibiotic, aloe vera, benadryl spray and more...Not to mention the Zymox we are treating her ears with, the medicated shampoos and the special sock I have for when she starts obsessively licking her front foot.

( I don't use all that at once! it is just her stash of stuff in a basket in the living room )

I ended up not being able to wrap it in a way I was happy with, but we used the EMT spray over the prescription Dexmethasone/antibiotic spray and she has been leaving it alone.

Sounds like a fix!