[Dailydrool] Surgery on tail

[Sherry Moore]

I am not a vet either, but I do have experience with bumps on tails. I have emailed Carol privately, to show her a picture of our GiGi, who had her tail amputated almost two years ago. While I agree with Dale that tail cysts are a pain to live with, I cautioned Carol not to rush to judge that it is indeed a cyst.

My GiGi had a bothersome bump on her tail that she would not leave alone, so we finally had to have her tail amputated. As I said, this was almost two years ago, and she’s doing great. Honestly, it was harder on me than it was on her. She couldn’t care less. Her show days were over. She wags her little "field dock” all the time. She’s a happy girl of 10.

The caution is I was absolutely certain (as were also my primary care vet and the surgeon) that it was just a cyst, as she has/d others. The surgeon said he wouldn’t even send it out for cytology unless I just especially wanted him to (I did). To everyone’s surprise, it was an extremely rare hair follicle cancer! So, my advice, FWIW, is go ahead and amputate, tell surgeon to get good margins, and get a biopsy.

I can only share my own experience.

Sherry in AZ
with GiGi and Edric
sherrymoore at me.com