I hate my tail,.....PART II

JAYGOW1 · Post by **JAYGOW1** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:38 am

Well,.....it took Noah 2 days to figure out how to escape from his 'cone'.

Unfortunately, me and the Mrs were both working, and the 16 year old daughter heard a ruckus on the back patio and found Noah in the fight of his life with his tail.

He wouldn't let her get near him, for some reason, and me and my wife had to rush home to save Noah's tail from murder.

He had the whole end chewed up, and some gashes to the tailbone. He was a bloody mess from his face to his tail. The original hospital that he went to wasn't open yet, so we had to take him to a different one. Once again, he had to be sedated, and they had to do a lot of cleanup on his wounds.

With the new 'cast-like' protection, he seems to be doing better. They hinted that if he couldn't leave his tail alone, partial amputation might have to be done. THIS DOESN'T SOUND NORMAL TO ME !!!

He goes back in a couple of days to change the dressing, and seems to be dealing with it better this go round, .but,...who knows.

Has anyone else had to deal with a situation like this one ?? Oh, by the way,..............this new deal was another $285. This poor tail has cost me over $800 so far. I sure hope he likes it now !!

Chow Chow Mama · Post by **Chow Chow Mama** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:07 am

Partial amputation sounds a bit drastic to me. Maybe they thought you weren't doing a good job of keeping him from his tail and were trying to scare you.

JAYGOW1 · Post by **JAYGOW1** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:20 am

Is Noah that smart, or did the first hospital do a poor job of putting on the 'cone' ??

chow fancier · Post by **chow fancier** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:21 am

I would try to address possible reasons for his tail obsession: start with feeding high quality food in case it itches, maybe even give benedryl to see if taking care of the itching takes care of his hatred.

If that doesn't work and neither the vet or this forum come up with any other medical reason for him to hate his tail, I would try an animal behaviorist before partial amputation.

Chows sometimes seem to suffer from OCD - Obessive Compulsive Disorder, maybe there are meds for that too.

janet · Post by **janet** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:51 am

amputate part of his tail???? that does seem a little drastic.
although i just watched something on animal precinct about an abused pit, where the owner cut off the tip of his tail,(bastard) it got infected and the vets had to amputate a bit more of it to get rid of the bad infection. this was an extreme case.
i think with the new "cement" cast it will not allow him any chewing access. i would spray the cast with the bitter apple spray to further deter him.

aww poor noah. amd poor you, such an unexpected expense.
if you can jay, get another opinion.
a chows tail defines them.
good luck, and keep us posted.

Mia · Post by **Mia** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:09 am

Oh, I agree with everyone, try everything before you lop off the tail. Poor thing, I cannot imagine why Noah is biting at his tail. I wonder if there is some rash or something that either itches him or hurts him?

Either way, I would keep him in a cast until I could figure it out.

Good Luck!

PS. Kiwani might know.

Layla · Post by **Layla** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:14 am

JAYGOW1 wrote:Is Noah that smart, or did the first hospital do a poor job of putting on the 'cone' ??

It could be a family thing

When Millie was in a cone for her eyes, she learnt how to break them & get out of it....3 times!!!! We ended up having to reinforce it with electrical tape to strengthen it

We also attached it to her collar to make it more stable

TJordan · Post by **TJordan** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:26 am

Oh this poor little guy, I do hope you can find out what is happening with him, I would hate to see is tail cut off, YIKES.

fillyok · Post by **fillyok** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:31 am

I would try some Benadryl. I used it when Bear had entropion surgery and his eyes itched as they healed.

Poor baby...give him a hug from me and my pack.

Desi · Post by **Desi** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 2:04 pm

Layla wrote:
JAYGOW1 wrote:Is Noah that smart, or did the first hospital do a poor job of putting on the 'cone' ??
It could be a family thing When Millie was in a cone for her eyes, she learnt how to break them & get out of it....3 times!!!! We ended up having to reinforce it with electrical tape to strengthen it

We also attached it to her collar to make it more stable

I put Cheyenne's on a collar after she backed out of the cone yesterday.With all the extra skin she has on her neck it's impossible to get a collar tight enough anyway,but sofar the cone stayed on.What's left of it anyway! She was clam last night,so I crated her as usual.this morning big chunck of the cone were all over the floor,lol.She must push up against the cage or something to get to it.She didn't eat any,I puzzled the pieces back in,but the thing looks pretty rough now.
Curious to see what's left of it tomorrow morning,lol

JAYGOW1 · Post by **JAYGOW1** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:31 pm

chow fancier wrote:I would try to address possible reasons for his tail obsession: start with feeding high quality food in case it itches, maybe even give benedryl to see if taking care of the itching takes care of his hatred.
.

All my Chows have only eaten Nutro , lamb meal and rice formula. I think he began chasing his tail out of curiosity, then bit it, like he does his toys he plays with.

When the bites started to heal, (itching) I think, is what drove hime insane.

He only occasionally barks at it and tries to catch it now. He goes back to the vet tomorrow !!

sit_by_the_beach · Post by **sit_by_the_beach** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:13 pm

Anti itch cream? There is cream for humans which works pretty good. I had shingles, the itch nearly drove me up the wall, the cream helped. I don't know the name of it. Burn victims have an anti itch cream prescribed.

kiwani · Post by **kiwani** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:46 am

Re: "Has anyone else had to deal with a situation like this one ??"

There was a member from Scotland by the name of Troy if you care to search the archives. There weren't too many posts, since much of my conversation with him was by pm, and his Chow died soon after because of seizures. Keep in mind that infections can travel to the brain, and that there is a large bundle of nerves at the base of the spine and the hind end, which can be affected by deep wounds. As Chow Fancier mentioned, obsessive mutilation of the tail can also be part of certain brain chemistry which also can be more prone to seizure activity. That's why the amputation was mentioned.

AngelsMom · Post by **AngelsMom** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 12:28 am

I missed Part 1 of this but have some advice! Some dogs have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder caused by stress. Similarly to how some people wash their hands constantly, some dogs cannot stop chasing their tails. It is their instinct to "chase" and it is something close by to chase. Because they can never catch it totally (as it is attached to their bodies) stress develops and they become obsessed with chasing it. Behavior specialists can help with this by teaching you how to distract him/her from the behavior. It is important to not reward/punish the behavior - which can be hard. Get a specialist!

I think you should find a new vet... if some doctor ever told me to chop of part of my own body because it wasn't working properly I would say "see ya!" I find it very strange that they want to chop off his tail! Your doctor would never say "Oh you have a sniffle, let's cut off your nose and see if that helps."

As I said, I missed part 1 so I might be out of line, here, but just wanted to offer some input.