Last week, my son was letting the dogs out and caught our pointer/mutt's tail when he shut the door. Nothing bad, just a little scrape that didn't break the skin.

A few days later, she came inside covered in blood, wagging and dripping blood all over the house. She had managed to lick all the hair off the last 4"-5" of her tail, chunks of skin, and exposed blood vessels. We wrapped it up good but she kept slinging or chewing the bandages off. We woke up the other morning to what looked like a murder scene in the bedroom. Donut collars and a cone couldn't keep her off of it.

My wife took her to the vet and they said the best route is amputation. $2000 to lop the tail off because the chances of it healing are pretty slim even if we managed to keep her from messing with it.

Yikes, sorry to hear that.

Find another Vet.

Right

I've seen that on Dr. Pol

bad news sorry

Sounds like you are going to a yuppy soccer mom city vet. Find you a country vet out there and let them do the job.

Not disagreeing with the recommendation, just the cost. $2000 is ridiculous.

I had a vet tech friend look at it. She said it probably needed to come off due to blood flow issues but referred us to a vet near us. They said the same thing.
$1500 for the procedure on top of the $500 for initial exam, antibiotics, and pain meds.

Our local old-school vet retired a couple of years ago.

Sounds like the son better get to making some money.

He is pretty torn up about all of it. He is 6 and thinks it's all his fault. He has apologized to us and the dog about 50 times and would probably offer up all his piggy bank money willfully if we even mentioned the vet bill in front of him.

I told him I was going to talk to the vet and see if they'll let us keep her tail to make a fetch toy out of it. He thought that was funny... my wife did not.

I wonder how they would have took care of that back in the old days??

You could always find you a lawyer that would be up for suing the screen door company for making a door that could do that to a dogs tail. Add in the emotional distress to your son, you, your wife, and the dog. Waking up and seeing all that Blood!! I imagine your wife and son will be needing lots of therapy to get past that. And just think of the pain and suffering the poor dog had to endure. The lawyer will hook you up with a good therapist. I'm seeing a payday out of this. Juries love dogs way more than evil screen door companies. Poor dog won't even be able to wag her tail and will just have to wag her butt the rest of her life.

Seriously though, plenty of happy dogs without tails so she'll get used to that failrly quick I think. Look at all the breeds that get their tails docked when they're super young pups. But that sure doesn't cost $2K per dog!!

Agree. It’s been a few years, but TPLO surgery for a dog’s torn ACL was ~$3,000. A tail bob shouldn’t cost $2,000, should it?

Sorry about your pup and the hassle. Glad you at least got a laugh out of your hoy, Dillon. Hope he doesn’t take it too hard for too long. The dog won’t miss it when it’s gone.

Yeah. It does seem high from the sound of that. I'll tell the wife to shop it around. but I doubt she will.
He'll be fine. He is the soft-hearted son. My 1-year-old has been trying to stomp on her tail since it's been bandaged up and pulls her around by the cone.

https://surgicalmart.com/shop/veter...1sK35gwMVgjHUAR1uFg-_EAQYBiABEgJPv_D_BwE

Might try this first.