Tail Bleeding?

This morning, I took Nahla out like usual, came home, and everything was fine. I had a guest over, however, and after initial greetings at the door we noticed blood on the wall, and it took a few minutes before we realized Nahla's rapidly wagging tail was splattering blood everywhere. I used a paper towel to mop up the mess her tail was leaving until it stopped bleeding, and started checking around. It was hard for me to see through the fur on her tail but since the bleeding stopped, I just assumed perhaps she'd scraped it somehow and it would be fine.

I just took her out again for her night-time potty break, however, and upon coming back upstairs (she had been fine we left) I realized she had splattered the wall again with blood. It was not as much as this morning (this morning was awful, you'd have thought I had killed something in here) and it too stopped bleeding, but the source seems to be the same scrape earlier.

I did a quick search online and keep running into "Happy Tail Syndrome" and that it's possible she just cracked it on the wall too hard. However, would smacking her tail on the wall have caused skin to break? She's been in the house and hit her tail pretty hard on the wall before and there's been no blood... I've been able to hold her tail without any yelping so I don't think it's broken, but I don't know how to check.

I've poked around as much as I can around the area the blood is coming from but it's very hard for me to see what the problem could be. However, is there anything I can do in the meantime to perhaps try to keep it from bleeding again? Should I just wrap her tail up and wait a few days to see what happens, or should I call my vet in the morning to be safe and get an opinion? Has anyone had this issue before?

Yup, they can absolutely wag their tail hard to break skin - thus, "happy tail." And as you've learned, they just keep reinjuring it over and over.

The tail is rage-inducingly frustrating to keep a bandage on, but there is a good tutorial for making a nice padded bandage using pipe insulation here: http://leerburg.com/tail.htm

Be generous with the tape!! I have used duct tape for stuff like this when necessary.

I have nothing to add other than the method provided in the above link pretty much saved Jack's tail. We had tried everything to get his happy tail to heal and that was about the only thing that really worked. We used medical tails though I think-lots of it.

Happy tail, is inappropriately named, it is anything but happy, ugh.

We went through this with our Lab last year. He started off as a "tailanator".


Then one day we come home to find blood, everywhere. It look like there was a murder, the floor, the couch, the walls, doorways, outside on the cement pad even the ceiling and windows. I feared it was happy tail, voiced it to my husband who didn't want to hear of it, especially when I mention amputation might be needed. He can't have a Lab have no tail! The world will end! So we wrapped it with pipe insulation and lots of scotch tape. It didn't do a great job, he constantly picked at it and wagged his tail against things.


I brought him to work as I rented the basement of a vet clinic, vet agreed, happy tail. Said we can try to save it but it won't be quick or easy or we could amputate. We would have to keep it wrapped for at least 7 days and prevent any and all wagging. My husband refused to even entertain the thought of amputation so we played the wrapping game, at the time the vet didn't think we'd need antibiotics.


We pretty much had to do daily to every other day bandage changes because they would get loose or bloody or ball up and bother his groin. He is a "scab picker" and can't leave well enough alone. He had the bandages on for about a week when one morning we woke up to blood everywhere again and his bandages gone. So in we went again, wrapped him up, got a cone and tried again.


He kept getting at the bandages despite the cone and making it bleed. So a second cone was had and he went around with two cones on plus bandages. He was a super duper happy trooper, during all of this he wasn't allowed to accompany my husband to work, go swimming or any off leash romping. He was pissed and pathetic.


Anyways, 10 days after it all started we noticed a smell. I looked at my husband and said, we don't have a choice, we should have done it earlier. Vet confirmed, there wasn't any other option but to amputate. Typically if it hasn't healed within a week it's not going to and the risk of gangrene is high as is the risk of injuring it again. So the "tailanator" turned into "mcnubbinz".


That started the antibiotics, pain meds and a whole new game of "how to rip my stitches and staples out". Ugh. He beat the snot out of his cones, the brute. And several times had to go back in and get it re stapled despite the cones, usually at night when he wasn't being hoovered over. But finally, it's done. I would have had it done the very first day, none of this bandaging crud, but my husband was abhorred to the idea until there was no other choice. I think he looks cute, husband still can't believe he has a Lab with a stub.

So I called my vet this morning and was a bit disappointed by the reply. I explained the issue and that I suspected it was a case of Happy Tail, and was promptly told that the vet had never heard of that before, but that there was "not much" she could do for a tail. She said that if I brought Nahla in the best they could do is disinfect it since "tail wraps don't stick".

Today there was a little bit of blood but I've been making an effort to keep her away from the walls, doorways, and getting excited in general. I'm hoping that it will heal on its own if I can keep her from using it frequently, and tomorrow I'm going to pick up some pipe insulation and play the wrapping game. If, after a few days, it's still bleeding, I'm going to take her to the other vet clinic in the area and get a second opinion.

Hoping we don't have to amputate, but if it's coming down to that then I'd rather have a "McNubbinz" than a poor gangrenous dog. D:

Depending on where you're from, they may not recognize 'Happy Tail' as a diagnostic term. But your vet is right, there really isn't much they can do when the tail is afflicted.