Docking puppy tails

Miniature Horse Talk Forums

Help Support Miniature Horse Talk Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Boinky

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2004
Messages
1,979
Reaction score
1
Location
Kentucky
Ok this is probably a bit controversial but does anyone do tails and dewclaws themselves? If so what do you use for equipment? Where do you get it ect? All the vets around here are charging atrocious amounts to do it now. One vet i've always used is still fairly reasonable but i've never been very happy with them doing them. I truly don't believe their cutting devise is sharp enough. usually they cut the tails and then have to PULL the tail once it's cut instead of it just cutting clean and falling off. I'm NOT at all a squeemish person but have felt this is traumatizing for myself and the puppies. i feel like this intensifies the pain for the pups and this might sound horrible but I feel like i could probably do a better, faster job than this vet does! I've seen it done enough that i feel I could do it myself but they have this little tool that looks lik ea pair of pliers with a edge that has a V so that it cuts the bone shorter than two sides of the skin (so the skin can close over the bone). i was wondering if everyone else does this or if there is another method people use?
 
I've done it and would choose to leave the dogs as nature intended if I had to do it again.
 
Well for varying reasons that's not an option. Any tips or advice?
 
I did it with my JRTs. I used a cutter that sounds like the one you described. I pulled the skin back as tight as I could, felt for a good spot, and quickly cut. Let go of the skin, it closed over the end, and only a few drops of blood, and the pups usually only squealed once. Lots of cuddles and back to mom. I dipped the cutter in alcohol between puppies. I did this when they were 3-4 days old. I didn't want to risk taking them to the Vet. Did this with 5 litters, and never a infection or problem.

I didn't do the dew claws. Tried once, and they grew back, so I just left them.

I am not a Vet or play one on TV. Just sharing what I did with my puppies.

Sue
default_smile.png
 
Why must it be done at all? My advice would have been to look into this BEFORE the pups needed it done.
default_wink.png
Since watching and doing are not the same and since I've seen many dogs with botched docking jobs, my advice now would be to pay the vet to do it. I've done the procedure before on Toy and Miniature Poodles at two days with hemostats and silver nitrate cauterizing sticks.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
ohh this IS before they need to be done. pups aren't even born yet. and i'm not at all new to tail docking just haven't done it myself.

Sue where did you get your "cutter"?
 
That's good. So, why must it be done?

What I meant by watching and doing not being the same is that it's important to know where to cut. (I've seen pups with tails and dews that were botched up that never healed even into adulthood. I've also known many dogs who were docked too long or too short.) Keep in mind that it's not unheard of for a pup to need stitches afterwards. Those silver nitrate sticks work well, but are only available from vets.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
(knowing this will incur the wrath of some people
default_rolleyes.gif
)

I went to Lowes or Home Depot, not sure, its been awhile, and looked for a tool that I thought would work.

To each his or her own. Guess that's why we live where we do. Freedom of choice.
default_smile.png


I respect you Mininik, I really do,
default_yes.gif
but I am not watching your youtube videos, that's how I fell into the horrible animal abuse overseas. (skinning alive, boiling alive, hanging and beating, etc.) Images that are burned into my mind forever of something I can do nothing about.

Cutting a puppies tail properly when newborn pales in comparison.

I would not attempt to do dewclaws. For those I would go to a vet, or just leave them.

Sue
default_smile.png


Added: I also completely agree 100% that it didn't have to be done with some breeds.....and maybe some day it won't "have" to be done.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
well mostly because my litters tend to have a high percentage of naturally bobbed tails and many of the natural bobs need the ends nipped off because of the way they grow and can cause problems. I actually had them with sharp pointy ends that poked through the skin (which supposidly NBT's dont' have sharp ends..but hey..it's happend on several occations to me...they could NOT go through life with that..it would be painful). Also They are not showable with full tails and probably with crooked NBT's and although I do not breed for show quality i usually get several in each litter, lucky i guess, which would make the showable ones unshowable, and (unfortunatly) many people will not BUY them with long tails. Leaving them is just not an option. Might make me cruel ect but it's just a fact of life until they band docking unfortunatly. I honestly would not cry if i saw a ban on docking here in the states too..but until then it's a necessary evil.....and would still probably need to be preformed on some of the NBT"s like i mentioned above.

I do also know exactly where to cut. The vet and I have discussed it as well as showed me where to feel ect I do feel I can do this and do it right. As for stitches.. those have been completely USELESS every time the vet has done them the bitches lick them out before we even make it home from the vet. I've always ended up having to superglue the ends closed (which has been extremely effective) on almost all of them and that's been every time the vets have done them!

actually her video's are not too bad at all. My puppies cry a whole lot more (or at least as much) than those one's did having them done by the vets! these ones only cried while they were doing it then seemed to quiet right down. I noticed the clamp method really seems to be more effective and the pups are quieter once the initial shock of the clamp being put on is over.

I'm not sure in the end if i'll do it myself or not, but I'm seriously thinking it would be SAFER for the pups not to have to go to a germ/disease infested vets office.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I have a neighbor down the road a ways, who put dental bands (the small rubber bands for braces) on her litter of pups. Broke my heart for those puppies when she told me how she "docked" their tails. They were put on at just one day old, and over the course of the next 2-3 WEEKS
default_new_shocked.gif
they slowly just "died off". She said some only took a little over 2 weeks and some took a whole other week longer. I cringed at hearing of the PROLONGED AGONY those poor babies must have endured. She swears up and down "her vet" told her that it was "ok" and "they don't feel a thing".
default_no.gif
I asked what vet told her that, and she gave no answer.
default_sad.png
 
SWA - banding is another way of docking.
Maybe so...but to me, it seems it would be a "prolonged" painful option.
default_sad.png
They "have" to "feel something" though, right? I know it goes "numb" and "dies off"...in it's given time
default_wacko.png
, but still, they HAVE to feel though, right?
default_unsure.png
 
I'm sure as the flesh dies off around the band there is pain. If you think about it, if you put a rubberband around your finger and wait there is pain. A common argument is that pups haven't fully developed their senses or nerve endings at such a young age, but the intense crying heard during these procedures (however brief) would suggest otherwise. I only posted previously to clarify because your post seemed to imply that you weren't sure if banding was a method used by breeders, recommended by vets.
 
banding only hurts very temporarily. They band testicles on sheep, goats, ect and it seems far less painful than other options. I thought about banding the tails BUT i never knew where to find small enough bands.
 
Hi Nicole & Boinky, yes, I wasn't sure if it was a "real" method by vets. I've never heard of tail docking being done that way before. I know that various livestock are castrated by banding, but just never heard of tail docking on puppies being done that way. Just seems it would be much easier on the poor pups to just have them snipped by cutters, if needed to be done at all. It's quick and it's over, as opposed to weeks on end, seemingly, but that's just MHO, though.
default_wink.png


Boinky, I think my neigbor got hers from a friend of hers who works at a dentist office.
 
I"ve always heard it takes less than a week for them to actually fall off..but they usually die within hours i guess so they don't feel anything there.
 
I have a much better method for you to use for taildocking. Can you pm me and I will tell you the method that I have used very successly for the last 15 years on over hundreds of puppies. I don't want to open myself up to getting flamed on here.

Peg Balthazor
 
Last edited by a moderator:
banding only hurts very temporarily. They band testicles on sheep, goats, ect and it seems far less painful than other options. I thought about banding the tails BUT i never knew where to find small enough bands.
They also band tails on lambs. Sheep have naturally long tails, so they are banded/docked at birth and I believe it is a cleanliness issue, so they don't get manure in the wool of their tails. [i'm not positive on the reason, but do know they are docked or banded.]
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Latest posts

Back
Top