Happy Tail injury - Page 1

 My GSD banged her tail and got a little split (which of course produced a LOT of blood). Anybody know any good bandaging methods that won't involve shaving her tail, or is that an inevitability?

Wrap it and pad it up very well. Don't wrap too tight and cut off the circulation. If it's not split too badly you might not have to shave but don't count on it. Usually you have to shave them but sometimes you can get away with just trimming. The hair sticking the the wound interferes with healing. Again, pad it a lot. If you don't and it gets whacked again before it heals it will split back open. I had a chessie that was a bad repeat tail banger. It would barely heal before he split it open again. I ended up having to dock his tail to about 5 or 6 inches. Ick. More ick on a GSD.

<big sigh>
OK. Thanks, and I will do it. 

ALSO DONT KEEP THE DOG IN A METAL CRATE ONLY PLASTIC

Superglue.... forget bandaging...useless totally.  Glue the split and keep glueing it every few days til it heals.

Superglue is a good choice actually... if you're going to bandage make it as FLAT as you can, use something like Elasticon which is a special tape like an ace bandage with stickum on it... or use Equine Leg wrap.  I love the cast padding rolls that we had @ the vet's as you could put a snug but flat bandage on without the wad of annoying junk that seems to anoy the dogs.

Will share a story Dr. Kay tells... He had a friend who owned hunting pointers.  They had just finished refurbishing the Kitchen with all white floors, cabinets, countertops... and went out to dinner for the evening.  Their pointer had an old style dog door, one with the swinging doorway... and when he came into the house it caught the end of his tail.  Left a nick in the very end of it. Being a typical active and happy pointer he wagged his way around the kitchen.  When the owners returned home he was thrilled to welcome them and wagged all the harder.   The owner stood in the brand new kitchen which was now speckled with tiny lil red spots.. not one inch of floor/ ceiling walls, cabinets was left.    Though it LOOKED like a lot of blood, it really wasn't, just tiny lil specs everywhere...  (The dog was fine, and wiggling with joy to see his Daddy home... LOL)

Definitely use the glue. A split tail is  a PAIN to deal with. Years ago when I raised pit bulls I had it happen several times. (They are just too darn happy and their butts are always wiggling!) The bandaging worked okay  but the glue works the best, especially since they'd always want to chew off the bandages.
I'm not sure about the shaving, especially since if you shave it right down it could damage the hair follicles and the hair may not grow back the same color/texture.
Like Windwalker said, you might end up with the haunted house blood spatters everywhere too *sigh* And when the dog sees you it gets even happier and then the blood really starts to fly! 
Even after cleaning up, a month later I would find a tiny spot I missed lol. 

Good Luck keeping her quiet, thats always easy <heavy sarcasm there> ;-)

Stacy