How long do you wait on happy tail til you dock?

[Maverick]

So Maverick is almost five, and happy tail is a new occurrence. He had happy tail for a day about a month ago, and I checked it out - he was fine.
Now he has had it for over a week. I clean it up and put a bandaid on it. There is blood spatter all over my place - that doesn't concern me as much as the fact that it is still happening does. I usually take the bandaid off when I kennel him up and he gets a white towel most days so I can see if he bleeds - which he doesn't in the cage. I take him out very fast so it doesn't pop on the kennel bars, but he still bleeds. Doesn't gush, but good enough to bandaid and sometimes soaks through a bit.
It looks like a small circular scab that apparently splits a bit and bleeds every day.

I looked at a couple remedies and I will be getting some vet wrap soon to increase the pressure some, but at what point do you consider docking?
I DO NOT want to do it, but if it's necessary for his benefit I will. I can't stand the thought of not being popped in the face with his bull whip
Please let me know
Nick

[Kingsgurl]

I would try a more rigid protection for the tip until it heals fully. A large syringe cover with the end cut off for air circulation works wonderfully. I didn't dock until actual necroptic changes set in, despite wrapping etc. (necroptic meaning the bone itself was 'dead')

[Maverick]

I have a former coworker who is a vet tech - I will get vetwrap and the tube soon.
Thanks, and I am glad to hear there is a while to go, sorry you had to go through it.
Nick

[Amie]

Once a year or so Oscar has a bout - usually in the spring. It takes FOREVER to heal, because it's so easy to break it open again before it's really healed. But as long as there isn't infection or worse, I don't think I'd go with surgery.

[BabyReba]

doc had a nasty bout with this recently, and my vet took him in and gave him a really good, solid wrap with tons of gauze and cotton on the end of the tail and instructed me to leave it alone completely for two weeks--no airing, no salves or creams, just let it be--and it healed up nicely. we gave him oral antibiotics prophylactically to prevent infection, and his tail is good as new.

the hard part was getting him to wear a cone for two weeks while the tail healed!

[u-turn]

u-turn had a happy tail and i used Nu skin and placed a piece of a pool noodle on the tip of his tail for protection and in a couple of weeks he was good to go. I hope this helps

[PitBull-Lady]

Nu skin and placed a piece of a pool noodle on the tip of his tail for protection

That's ingenious!

I would also hasten to amputate until it is in fact dead inside too. Their tails are so important to their emotions. I'd hate for you to loose that.

MrClean Magic Eraser works well for cleaning that micro blood drop spatter off the walls. Just the regular sponge, you don't even need the super scrubby one. It works well for dried drool too.

[Beowulf]

Beo had a bad case for about 6 months and I was almost to amputation point. Finally the vet wrapped tight in a tube for a couple of weeks and it healed and we haven't had any problems since. All the hair has even grown back. Like everyone else said, I'd try that before I went with docking.

[SweetiesMom]

i dont mean to be stupid, but what do yall mean about waiting for the bone to die? I always thought that you had to have tails docked like when they are puppies, is this not true? I didnt, or havent had Sweetie's tail docked, because I just didnt think it would matter, but i know she got my youngest daughter the other day in the face, and that tail whips hard! !! I had heard about pits and there tails, but hadnt experienced it, and Sweetie is just 5 months old, so its not to bad yet...do you guys recommend the tail docking, or no?? Im just curious...

Thanks!!

[heartbullies]

I would try a more rigid protection for the tip until it heals fully. A large syringe cover with the end cut off for air circulation works wonderfully. I didn't dock until actual necroptic changes set in, despite wrapping etc. (necroptic meaning the bone itself was 'dead')

Yep, after the end died that was time to take some off. Around a thousand bucks at the emergency vet, because he had to break it completely very late on a Saturday night.

The syringe cover and foam works really well. It's what they put on him while the tip was healing post-op, too.

Typically pit bulls' tails are NOT docked-- check out the breed standards and photos of show dogs and they all have nice pump-handle, low-set tails. But some dogs, including pit bulls and some other sparse-coated, whippy/thin-tailed breeds like IGs and Greys, sometimes either break the bones in their tail or break open the skin on their tail, usually from wagging, and it is very hard to heal. My dog was fine the first 3-4 years and happened to get happy tail and not recover from it but other dogs live their whole lives with no happy tail and others get happy tail but not such bad cases of it.