Surgery tail docking of some breeds of dog is mostly an aesthetic purpose, to preserve the dog’s appearance which are typical of a certain breed. But if we talk about hunting or service dogs which relief is required, in relation to dwarf breeds of dogs is just silly.
Why do the relief of purebred dogs? What is this procedure?
Briefly about the operation
According to the archives, the tail docking in dogs – an old practice. Ancient farmers always cut will pastushin dogs of the tail. They believed that such manipulation will protect the animal from disease, particularly rabies.
Hunting dogs tails cut off so they couldn’t get hurt during a conflict with a predatory beast. This measure allowed not to get injured by the bushes while stalking the victim on the hunt. Dogs who are burrowing, the amputation was done in order to not disturb the animal to move through a narrow hole. Here the meaning of the intervention is clear and justified. But whether this consideration is a key motive of the operation?
In fact, the sense of relief was not only the security of the animal, but also financial issues. In ancient England there was enacted a special tax on all dogs except service. Because service dogs tail docked mandatory, are exempt from tax it can be seen immediately. In order to save operations are carried out and other dogs.
In those ancient times it was believed that an undocked tail can only belong to a hunting dog, so the poachers in order to avoid responsibility, have also cut off the tails of their Pets and thereby “hackneyed eyes.”
The owners of the sheep flocks always docked the tails of dogs-shepherds to protect the animal from injury in case of a fight with a wolf, and this helps to avoid long-combing wool from grass and debris. Are the owners of the dogs also did not pay tax. In the 18th century the law on dog tax abolished, but the tradition has remained and exterior some dog breeds stuck in this form with a docked tail.
Today in Europe is forbidden to carry out this operation only for cosmetic purposes.
Cropped only dogs that are serving in:
- police;
- the Federal drug control service;
- army;
- rescue services;
- services of deratization.
In 2006, a law was passed that to stop a dog should be exclusively qualified not later than five days from the birth of the puppy.
Age for tail docking in dogs
The ideal puppy age for the operation is considered to be from three to 10 days old. It is the recommendation of all veterinarians of the country. Since these few days have not, there is a complete ossification of the tail and the pain during surgery is much less than if this conduct with an adult dog.
Little newborn puppies relief is produced without the use of anesthesia and not sutured. But after the operation the puppy owner must be very careful to ensure that the mother of the kid is not licking the wound, as this will prolong the healing period. If this does happen, the baby must be isolated from the mother and to bring it only at the time of feeding.
If the operation is carried out after 10 days of life for a puppy, it will be done under General anesthesia. The animal is placed on his stomach, his limbs tied, and in this position the physician is very convenient to manipulate with the tail of the beast. The torso is also fixed with special belts, is required to wear a muzzle.
If the puppy is already more than four weeks, during surgery on the tail of superimposed rubber band that prevents excessive bleeding.
Description of how cupping puppies
- If surgery takes place under General anesthesia, use of inhalation ether narcosis, which is composed vagolytic. It prevents salivation and normalizes the heart. Also dogs that have short structure of the muzzle, doing procedures to prevent ceasing language. How many millimeters of the tail is clipped depends on what breed the dog is. Previously with the tail shaved hair, skin is stretched to the maximum in the direction of the body and is the immediate amputation of a small part of the tail using surgical scalpel or special scissors. An incision is made in between the vertebrae. The skin comes back into place and sutured. The wound definitely handle assigned to the antibiotic and on the skin around the wound antiseptics is carried out. Further it is mandatory on the wound should be imposed a sterile bandage.
- This method of cupping is that the tail is clamped using the gum for a while. It usually takes from two days to a week. The point is that with this method, the tip of the tail of the dog does not enter the blood and, after some time, he just dies and falls off. This method is considered one of the humane, but it is difficult to agree with this, because no one can know exactly what the animal feels all these seven days.
There is the claim that the puppies feel no pain because of its imperfect nervous system, but various studies refute this fact. After surgery the puppy is whining for a long time and cannot calm down. And the older the individual, the harder it is to carry out this operation. Breeders need to make responsible decisions and to understand whether it is worth bring your beloved pet suffering.
Healing postoperative wound long enough. And the entire period from day of surgery till complete healing of the wound to handle daily, to avoid getting infection. When performing cupping in specialized veterinary clinics rarely there are cases of complications. Usually everything goes pretty smoothly.
The effect of the operation for relief of a dog
Opponents of amputation of tails cite many arguments against the process of cupping, but for many breeders the exterior of pedigree dogs is very important and they still take them to this procedure.
Varies whether the intensity of pain of a dog in the future, science is not defined and not proven.
But there are a few “buts”:
- Numerous experiments on laboratory rats showed that injury of the nerve during operative intervention in the neonatal period has a bad effect on the sensitivity of the rest of the tail.
- According to some studies, it is believed that ridding dogs from a few vertebrae of the tail significantly reduces the motility of the animal.
- Anatomically, the dog’s body is designed so that the tail is a counterbalance. When you remove parts of the dog not only receives a malfunction of the skeleton, but with this pathology of the urinary function.
- Due to the removal of the tail the dog may appear pathologically incorrect distribution of the load on the spine, and this in turn will lead to atrophy of certain muscles and as a consequence the formation of hernias.
- The lack of a tail gives the beast some problems in the communication with other dogs. Studies have shown that short-tailed dogs normal is regarded as abnormal. Relate to such relatives is very aggressive, so it is believed that the tail is a kind of interaction and communication between dogs.
- Found that cropped dogs are more likely to suffer from aggression and inappropriate behavior.
Scientifically proven facts these problems do not exist, but, whatever it was, amputation can not go unnoticed for dogs. Before you do pet this operation, the owner need to think carefully why this is necessary. If only for aesthetic reasons, it is probably not worth it to stop your favorite dog.
