[bchaney]

My dog was injuring his tail while in his crate. He would uncontrollably wag his tail when we came home and it would slam into his wireframe crate and start to bleed. I did some research online and the only solution to the "happy tail" problem that I found was to somehow wrap the dog's tail for protection. People seem to have trouble keeping anything on the tail w/o cutting off circulation, plus I didn't want to have to go thru the wrapping process every time I put my dog in his crate (or make him walk around 24/7 with a TP roll on his tail).

My solution is to weave towels thru the wireframe walls of the crate and tie them up at the ends with pieces of rope. I used a knife to cut holes in the towels for the rope. His crate is 42x28" and I used 4 bathroom towels (50x30") to cover it. The towels are doubled up (folded lengthwise once) on the long sides and quadrupled up on the short ones since he hits hit tail on the ends more often. I hung them on the 2 middle/upper rows of the crate walls because that is tail level when he is standing.

I just wanted to share an alternate solution to this problem - I was surprised to find that no one has tried something like this. So far (2days) his tail has been fine and he hasn't pulled the towels down or chewed them up.

 

[silara]

If he doesn't tear them up - that seems like the perfect, easy solution! Congrats.

 

[Amaryllis]

Not a bad idea at all!

It always used to amaze me that if I stepped a little too near Muggsy's tail, he'd jump and squeal- but he'd slam his own tail into the wall repeatedly with no problem at all.

 

[sassafras]

This is a cool solution, but just for general FYI purposes (not just you, anyone reading this)... foam pipe insulation works great as a base for bandages for tails, because you can get it in a size appropriate for the tail, it will only "tighten" so much unless you're using a ridiculous amount of force on whatever layer you put over it, and it easily extends a few inches beyond the tip of the tail (which is usually what gets the most abuse from happy tail). You can also score the inside of it to give it a little "grab" so it doesn't slip off as easily as other materials.

 

[bchaney]

Update - unfortunately this did not work for long. After 2 weeks he tore down the towel on the door. I replaced it and everything was fine for another week or so and then he tore everything down. We have now switched to a plastic crate - the walls are flexible enough that his tail no longer bleeds when it hits it. I think the large flat walls are less likely to cause damage than the thin wires as well... the force is dirtributed over a larger area when his tail bangs against the sides.

 

[spotted nikes]

Or put a toddler gate up in a bathroom/laundryrm when you are gone. A little more rm, and less likely to damage tail.