Why is my dog's docked tail swollen, painful, and won't heal?

The part may be getting infected. A check up, appropriate disinfection and possibly antibiotics (oral, topical or in a shampoo formulation) are needed to solve the problem. Disinfection may be started at home with very diluted hibiscrub or betadine or salted water baths. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!

Sometimes dogs can get what we refer to as 'happy tail'. This is where they wag their tail so much that they hit it on walls and furniture and it causes an injury. This looks like what may be going on with your dog. Although Diesel's looks pretty painful and like it may be infected. You could try using a topical antibiotic, like neosporin, and see if that helps. If there is no change I would recommend you take Diesel to the vet because he may need an oral antibiotic and the vet may choose to wrap the tail to keep it protected.

Oh poor pup! She definitely needs to see a vet, but here's what you can do in the meantime. 1) Rinse the tail with warm water (no soap or antiseptics) for five minutes. 2) Apply some antibacterial cream (like neosporin) to the wound and try to tape a bandage over the area. If you are able to keep the bandage on, then repeat the above daily. If you cannot keep the bandage on, then rinse the area three times a day if possible. Don't be surprised if a lot of that brown scab stuff comes out with the rinsing and bandage. It's actually good to remove that stuff gently. Just avoid scrubbing or picking at the scabs. I hope that helps and Cali gets better soon.

Unfortunately not much you can do back home. This is probably due to an allergy, although it could also be infection or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment, then ask the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try to discover the cause of the allergy. Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

This looks like an infected cyst. Dogs have a scent area on their tails that can enlarge and get infected such as this. You can apply a hot compress to the area several times daily to see if it will drain. That will increase the blood supply to help it heal faster. Bringing Ben in for an exam would confirm a diagnosis and they would probably prescribe antibiotics which would lessen the healing time. This doesn't look like a mass to me, so it should resolve quickly with treatment. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Ben.

It sounds like he has a skin infection that needs to be treated again. Maybe he needed to stay on the antibiotics longer, either topical or oral. The bump could be related to the infection, a cyst, or a mass. It may respond to an antibiotic or your vet may need to biopsy or remove it to determine the exact cause. Please call your vet and schedule a recheck appointment. Hope he gets better soon!

Aww poor Beau! The good news is that this tail looks pretty good to me. I can’t say for certain without looking at it but this could be normal healthy granulation tissue filling in his wound/surgery site. It could possibly be a small suture reaction or incision infection. If you can keep Beau from licking it (E collar), you can apply a triple antibiotic cream (Neosporin, etc) once or twice daily. Do not bandage the tail. Best of luck and hope this helps!