Yes – you guessed correctly. Our girl could not contain her happiness every time we came home and after further discussion with the vet we booked her in for surgery – not to have the end of the tail removed but the whole thing!!!
It was not an easy decision but at least the vet was honest and said that just removing the end of the tail would not stop her from wagging it and splitting the new healed up end.
She went for surgery in the morning and by 4p.m. my daughter had picked her up, a little groggy still but otherwise okay. Her tail, once very long was now little more than two inches long. She had tablets for the pain and to fight any infection and, to be fair, considering she’s a bit of a cry baby, she hardly moaned at all!
The dressing fell off that night and whilst the stump looked horrific it did heal remarkably quickly…. and today – we have a tail free greyhound who just wags her whole rear end in greeting.
Before After
One of ours got ‘happy tail’ while she was in kennels, delightedly barking her silly head off at all the other dogs!
Following advice from the Greytalk message board, we used foam pipe insulation to protect it while it healed properly – the vet reckoned three weeks, but it didn’t take quite that long. I guess we’re lucky in that normally she doesn’t wag that ferociously, and it has only happened once since then. The same treatment healed it up again beautifully.
She only does it in kennels!
Hippie will be fine with her short tail – I’ve seen quite a few like that!