# Tail injury



## DanieDM (4 d ago)

Need experienced opinions. I have an almost 2 year old Viszla. He has injured his tail 2 times in under 2 years. The veternarians in our country (Serbia) are suggesting tail docking. I would like to know if anyone else had this problem and what they did about it. Thanks!


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## esslevy (Mar 23, 2013)

I have a vizsla with a docked tail and no issues. I also have a GSP with a natural tail who frequently injures her tail. Usually she just mangles the tip, typically due to wagging and catching the tip on the edge of a wall or cabinet or chair. It takes FOREVER to heal as you can't bandage, and cones will not prevent her from licking since her tail is so long. We have learned to greet her and pet her in the middle of the room and not in the hall, though she still manages at least yearly to injure it so that she's repeatedly painting walls red. These issues don't bother her (we can keep it clean, it's never been infected), as much as I'm tired of cleaning the walls. A few years ago she did actually break her tail once about 1/3 of the way up, and in that instance we had to give her pain meds and sedate her until the initial pain eased. We have contemplated docking her, but as an adult dog (she came to us as an adult and is now ~9 years old) I havea hard time doing this if it's more a nuisance to us than a medical necessity. I might reconsider if she actually broke it again, or if I thought that was likely to occur more frequently.


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

The debate to dock, or not to dock, will always be ongoing. Some countries don’t dock at all.
In the US, a Vizsla’s tail is docked 1/3 of its length. In other words the tail that remains is 2/3 the length. This is longer than other sporting breed dogs.
My personal take is that if the dog is damaging its tail on a continuous basis, I would dock the tail.
It may put a dog out of competition, as it may not conform to a breed standard for each country.
All of my dog’s tails have been docked to US, AKC, conformation standards. None of them have suffered from the docking, and I’ve never had a tail injury.
At the end of the day, it is your dog, and you have to decide what it right for it.


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## tiki and stormy (Aug 18, 2012)

Agree. I understand the humane aspects of not docking. But even docked, one of my Vizslas injured his tail. He was in severe incapacitating pain for a few days. I believe it would have happened more frequently had it not been docked.


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