[phoenix3404]

My sister's 10-11 year old pit bull (sweetest dog ever) has had a tail injury for a while now. It bleeds and looks like a bite/puncture wound, but we know it is not. I just took her to the vet last week and he took an x-ray and basically said it is alot more serious and alot more deeper than we thought. Something about the tissue, bone and so on. So he says that the best thing to do is to amputate an inch above the wound. Good thing the wound is right in the center of the tail. He also says that it doesn't hurt her. She just licks at it alot. My question is, what is the process like to have the surgery? Being that she is 10-11 years old, is putting her to sleep a safe thing? Also, what so the aftermath entail? Just wondering. Wanted to know all this before we do call the vet back and schedule the surgery appointment. Thanks.........

 

[spotted nikes]

If you can get presurgical bloodwork done (if she hasn't had a complete blood workup done recently), it would be safest.
Maybe also check teeth, and if she needs any dental work do it at the same time as the tail surgery to reduce the frequency of sedating.
The big thing after surgery will be making sure you have adequate pain control, and keeping the dog from licking/chewing the stump.

 

[trainingjunkie]

I might be tempted to ask why they only want to remove it half way instead of taking it down to a few inches.

If she wags her tail like mine do, I would worry about her smacking it on stuff and breaking it open again.

I had one who split her tail a lot (from excessive wagging.) My vet thought we might have to amputate. We were going to go boxer-short. Her tail ended up healing and we didn't need to amputate. But if I had, I would have made sure she couldn't continue to use it as a club.

Might be worth asking about.