Dealing With Happy Tail

(Gross stuff ahead...You've been warned!)





We have been dealing with Ginny's tail injury's on and off for a few years now.  She has this super long tail and she bangs it into everything and anything resulting in bleeding from the tip of her tail.  We pay extra attention to her for a few days and it eventually heals up and we move on until the next episode.

A few days ago, Ginny took matters into her own hands.  She had a minor cut on the tip of her tail that she decided needed to be licked, chewed and assaulted into a major wound site. 

SM is pretty much a weenie when come to dealing with stuff like this so I sent him to clean things up while I did the doctoring. 

I thought I'd managed to bandage it successfully but we came home from Thanksgiving dinner to discover a major crime scene in our house.

Clearly Ginny has my number now.  No sooner do I get her wrapped up than she manages to slide the sucker off again and chew another 1/2" off of her tail. 

She was due for her annual shots this month so I loaded her up on Friday and took her to the Vet for a look see.  I'd already determined that amputation was the likely solution and (since we've been dealing with it for so long and infection is always a constant) he agreed. 

Surgery is set for Wednesday.

What I didn't plan on was the endless tug of war with Ginny since the Vet appointment. 

She'll sit there all sweet and bandaged up and off to bed I go.  When I checked on her around midnight last night, she'd managed to rip off her bandages again and chewed things up nicely too.  So another night of "sleepis interruptus."

An Internet search Saturday morning introduced me to "Happy Tail Syndrome".  Obviously this a pretty common thing.  Who knew? 

After perusing some of the articles, I took a pill bottle, cut off the end, taped two emery boards to the outside of it as a splint/support system to cover the tip and strapped her in.

So far so good.  The wound is getting some air and I stuff a small piece of Kleenex in the end that I replace with fresh periodically to allow some drainage to occur.

Since night time is the right time for Ginny to destroy all my hard work, I placed a long sock over the entire tail and taped her in good.

Sunday morning and we have success!

SM is not too happy with the thought of docking her tail but I'm steadfast in the belief that this is the right thing for poor Miss Ginny.  It's pretty much become a chronic thing now and enough is enough.