Hi all,

We have a couple of young (pre-pandemic) Springers who are fit, healthy and very energetic. Unfortunately they are so happy and enthusiastic that they are regularly damaging the tips of their tails by wagging them against things, causing the tips of the tails to bleed. The breeder did not dock their tails as would traditionally have happened as this is now illegal in Wales (for non-working dogs).

We discussed this with our vet some time ago and he said that other than keeping the wounds clean, there wasn’t much we could do, and if it kept happening he would/could view this as a chronic tail condition & dock the tails.

After arriving home from another walk with blood-spattered dogs I’m tempted to try these:

I wondered if there was any experience of that sort of thing on here, and if there was any advice on offer. I’d prefer not to dock them if there’s an alternative.

Keeping them still isn’t an option!

My parents spaniel has had to have its tail removed after cutting it. It just would not heal. Had 2 failed surgeries to fix it. Now he has a stump smaller than the other spaniel that was docked (working parents).

As cruel as it is. Spaniels tails just cause issues.

I’ve used those with my Cocker, and they worked well. It all depends if your dogs will tolerate them. I’d imagine if the dog just chewed them off they’d be useless.

It took quite a few months. For ours her tail was infected, so needed antibiotics, then it healed, and eventually, hair grew back.

She’s been fine for over a year now, so worth a go IMO.

The guy who invented them is very helpful too, responds to emails, will advise on what to do.

One of our basset hounds damaged the end of his tail on the Christmas tree – the house was like a scene out of psycho as he wagged his tail and bashed it into everything, blood everywhere! Eventually, it did heal, but it took a while.

It took quite a few months. For ours her tail was infected, so needed antibiotics, then it healed, and eventually, hair grew back.

She’s been fine for over a year now, so worth a go IMO.

That’s very helpful, thanks. Thankfully not infected currently, but it’s only a matter of time – they’re just continually bashing them and re-opening old wounds. I don’t know that it wouldn’t still happen if the tails were fully healed, but it sounds like those devices will at least give the tails a chance to heal properly so we can find out (assuming we can get the dogs to tolerate them).

I think it would be better if they’d have been docked as pups – I imagine it is more traumatic for a mature-ish dog – but we’ve got what we’ve got.

My spaniel also went through the murder scene phase. She is a very enthusiastic tail waggerer so the blood spray was something to behold. She did kind of grow out of though, she is 5 now and it hasn’t happened for a couple of years

No worries. You soon get expert at putting them on, and it took an evening with her fave treats to tell her not to touch it.

One thing I did was put a small square of Melolin dressing under the mesh to stop it from agitating the wound and opening it up again.

Just found an email from Ivan who’s company sells them with some info…

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The Dog Ends were actually designed for working spaniels with similar problems so yes, they can certainly be used when the wound is still open. Every wound is slightly different and you do need to take some care in order to get the best response. The exact technique depends on how the wound is behaving and there’s a few points that may be helpful to you:

1. When taking the mesh off, try to leave the ‘anchor’ layer/first layer of tape alone as repeatedly applying and removing tape will cause skin soreness.

2. The mesh does allow good airflow and healing – I’ve treated cases where the granulation (healing) tissue can be irritated by the mesh – this might be what you are seeing. In these cases, it is best to apply a sterile primary dressing initially over the skin and then apply the Dog End over the top for shock absorption. This is quite simple to do, but I strongly recommend that you get one of the nurses or vets at your local practice to show you how to apply it for the first time. The dressing can be lightly wrapped and taped around the tail and it’s simple to apply the Dog End over the top. While the wound is still producing blood or discharge it is best practice to change those sterile dressings daily.

3. Once the wound itself is healed, you will need to continue to bandage the tail. Between 2 and 6 weeks is generally what owners report – this allows time for hair to regrow and scar tissue to organise. This really helps to reduce the chance of reoccurrence.

I have included an article with an image of the primary dressing bandage method. Care needs to be taken as over-tightening dressings or tape can reduce blood flow to the tail tip, potentially causing serious injury – this would be best demonstrated by someone in your local veterinary clinic.

I hope this helps; please feel free to contact me should you or your vet need any backup. If you have the time and you are happy with the product, before and after photos/videos are extremely useful – as is your experience with the length of time you needed to use the product for – we can then feed this back to other dog owners to help them.