Dog's Tail

[Berta]

Does anybody know how sensitive a dogs tail is? Last night my kitten was playing with my 4 year old dog and bit his tail. Well Kodiak yelped and ran into my bedroom. About a hour later I went into my room and Kodiak was licking everything in site. I than noticed his tail he had eaten half the hair off the tip of his tail and he was trying to get the hair off his tongue. The only thing I can think of is that it really hurt him and he was trying to bite the spot himself to stop the pain. Anybody have any ideas?

[blinc]

I honestly don't know how much more sensitive a dog's tail is then any other part of them. I do know we have a dog, "Pook" who is freaky about anything touching his tail. I mean he just freaks out whenever he even thinks his tail is in danger! {toothy} I'm thinking it would make sense that there tail is sensitive... maybe he didn't realize what happend to his tail and over-reacted to the kitten bite? Is he ok now? Is he still licking at his tail? Some dogs will get obsessive about an area and keep licking at it... we have one of those (Dallas) who used to just lick the top of his paw obsessivley. We've pretty much got him trained to stop licking when we catch him at it. It's like we give him a nudge verbally and I swear it's like he understands "ooops, ya know, you're right... I shouldn't be licking constantly like that" and just stops. If yours is still going at it, there's stuff called "Bitter Apple" that works good at getting a dog to stop chewing on themselves. Also, if the bite broke the skin - it won't hurt a dog if you put Neosporin/store brand of neosporin on the wound. If they lick it off, it won't hurt them in small quanities.

[KatCo]

Hey guys...just a few thoughts

First make sure there isn't an abcess starting, cat/kitten bites are nortorious for getting abcessed.....and if it's not hot/inflamed than Blinc's suggestion of Neo-sporin is I think a pretty good bet...

Blinc, we had a dog that would also lick his paws constantly and you are not going to believe this but we finally traced it to of all things an allergy! Once we found out what was causing the allergy and eliminated it as much as possible from his diet the "licking" diminished greatly. There are a lot of dogs out there though that seem to establish a habit out of their licking, and then as you stated - it's a matter of breaking it.

Meg, our puppy that was recently hit, had to wear an elizabethian collar for quite awhile as she was determined to "remove" her stitches by herself...everytime she thought we weren't looking, the little ninny would be a lickin' or worse chewin' away!

Hope all turns out well with your dogs tail! Keep us updated.

[blinc]

Katco, you're so right about the allergies. For some reason a dog just starts chewing on his paws when they're having allergy attacks. I'm guessing it has something to do with the sweat glands in the paws... you think Katco?

We took Dallas to the vet because of that licking problem he had. He'd get "lick (something) granuloma's" (sp). Actual sores that he would cause by all the licking. It was extremely hard to break him of it, but with the help of the bitter apple, we finally got him trained to stop licking on voice command. The vet said it was a compulsive disorder in Dallas's case. That some dogs do it out of boredom, some because they're easily agitated and it's their way of dealing with stress... and some, like you said KatCo, get started with the habit, because of an allergy problem!

Elizabethian collars! Ugh! Those things will drive you INSANE! Aaack! I detest it when one of our dogs has to have one on! They constantly misjudge the width of things and it makes you cringe when you hear that scraping/clunking/stuck noise! That and they seem to hate the blasted things so much! I can't say I blame them for that at all - it would drive me nuts having a plastic satellite dish around my neck too! {toothy}

[KatCo]

Your remark about the satellite dish gave ma a chuckle! I couldn't agree more, they are a real pain in the neck. A necessary evil unfortunately. My husband would tell her that he was going to paint petals on the inside of the collar, as her little head inside the cone reminded him of a sunflower. Yes, we are a weird bunch around here;)

I would have to agree with you, I would think that the sweat glands would be a pretty good guess as to why it presents itself at that site.

What kind of dog is Dallas? I have heard of a lot of "show" dogs displaying compulsive disorders as a way of dealing with stress also. You are lucky Dallas didn't acquire a taste for bitter apple...I actually had a dog that totally ignored the stuff, would lick it off like it was nothing! We then made a paste out of chyenne(sp?) pepper and plastered that onto a bandage over the lick leasion. What a mess....

What we do for our animals huh? Ah, they're worth it. I always remember the saying there's a reason Dog is God spelled backward, because dogs truly love you unconditionally, like God.

[blinc]

Yes, they are worth it... the constant trucking 'em back and forth to the vets, the cleaning up the messes of shredded "whatever" they got ahold of, the sitting up and worrying over them when they're sick or hurt and the having to safety proof your house like you have a pack of two yr. olds on the loose. It's all worth it for the love and friendship they give you in return. That was a really sweet saying you have about the unconditional love! :) Awww, love our little buddies to pieces!

{toothy} Painting petals on the inside of the collar! That's too funny! hee hee! Poor doggies, they do have to put up with some of our crazy ideas... and sometimes I get the feeling they KNOW what we're thinking! {toothy}

Dallas is a uh, hmmm... well, his mother (who belonged to our next door neighbors) was a red-wolf/samoyed mix. (She was beautiful too)! Unfortunately, they let her run loose, so there is no telling what the father was. We're thinking some kind of a large breed hunting dog... Miami and Butter are Dallas's brother and sister. Dallas and Butter have the reddish blonde fur (Red-wolf trait) and curled up tails (from the Samoya side). Dallas has sky blue eyes (Samoya), while Butter has light yellow/gold eyes (red-wolf). Miami on the other hand has tan colored legs, a medium grey "saddle" (from his rear end to his neck) with big black spots, a huge head and longish ears and the light blue eyes. (I don't know where he got those markings!) Dallas and Miami both weigh over 120 lbs., while Butter weighs just a tad over 60. *throws up hands* I have NO idea just what else they are! {toothy}

[KatCo]

They all sound gorgeous! Sometimes the mixes really do end up with the best of both worlds. Sounds like they all ended up getting themselves one heck of a good home!

You know there's a reason that they don't allow mixed-breeds into an obedience match....(except for fun matches), and that's because usually the mixed breeds out perform the purebreds when it comes to the "brains" department. (And this is coming from a person that showed pure-bred collies for a long time!)I've had my share of pure-breds and mixed-breeds over the years.

Usually with the mixed breeds you don't get the health problems that show up in so many of the pure-breds also.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against pure-breds in the least, there is a definite spot for them on this earth and I have loved many different types of them over the years.

[Berta]

Wow it's funny reading this now, I had my puppy and 3 year old altered Tuesday and the three year old has to wear one of those collars. He looks like he partied to hard the night before and is wearing a lampshade. He loves walking in to the doors and furniture he thinks it can get it off that way. He looks so cute though. As far as the other dogs tail the vet said it could have something to do with the cat's saliva, she said he might have actually broke through the skin and my dog might be sensitive to the cat's saliva.