Dr. Lera Clone (Heron Lakes Animal Hospital) presents a clinical case of Jasmine, a four-year-old intact female English bulldog, who is scooting and dragging her tail. The video explains the common bulldog problem "corkscrew tail," how it creates moisture, inflammation and pain, and contrasts conservative care (frequent cleaning) with surgical tail removal. The doctor states that Jasmine is a good candidate for tail removal — described as a straightforward procedure with rapid recovery and low complication rates — and invites viewer questions.
Questions this video answers
Jasmine
Four years old
Intact female
Chapters
Hey, guys, My name is Dr. Lara here at Heron Lakes Animal Hospital. This is Jasmine. Jasmine is a four year old intact female English bulldog. And so she's coming in today because dad says that she seems to be spinning on the ground a lot, dragging her tail. And so for English bulldogs, that's something that can actually be quite common. They can develop something called a corkscrew tail. And what will happen sometimes is instead of having a straight tail like most dogs do, what will happen is they'll have a shorter tail and then it can hook in. And as they grow, what will happen is some muscle and fat will actually come around that corkscrew tail and it can cause a lot of moisture, a lot of inflammation and a lot of pain. And so if you have an English bulldog or a dog that has this kind of issue, the most important thing to do is to clean it out multiple times a day. Now, she's very, very sensitive. And so if all I do is come back here and just barely, I barely even touched her. To me, that tells me that she unfortunately is not going to be one of those patients that you're going to be able to wipe it out. You're going to have to probably remove the tail. And this is something that is relatively straightforward procedure if the surgeon knows what they're doing. It's also something that has a very, very quick recovery. You don't have to really worry about restricting their activity either. And so of all the procedures that bulldogs would have to have done, this is one of the ones that probably has the lowest complication rates and probably has one of the quickest. You can let her down. Has one of the quickest recoveries. And so at the end of the day, she is a great candidate to have that procedure done. Once the procedure is done, that's it, there's no more maintenance. It's over. So if you guys have any questions about this particular topic, let us know in the comments. Otherwise, have a great day and thanks for watching.
