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General Board for Big Dogs with Big Paws / Re: Please explain docked tails to me
« on: July 09, 2005, 11:29:11 am »
I have been working with a vet for 16 years as a surgery tech and we dock tails and crop ears. There is a lot of difference between docking and cropping.
The tails are done when the pup is 3 days of age. My vet numbs the area with lodecaine and snips off the tiny tail and sutures it up, done. The pups wiggle a bit and cry, we want them to cry, this way we know they are ok. Once we put them back in the basked with the rest, they cuddle up and sleep. I have 3 Old English Sheepdogs and see no problem with this procedure.
OES, and I talk now for sanitary reasons, are better off with out their tails. The story goes, in the old days when the sheepdogs were used in bringing the sheep to the slaughter house, they cut their tails, to make sure that the owner did not have to pay taxes, in other words because they were working dogs. But who knows.
Now cropping ears, well that is a whole different thing and I am totally against it. I have helped many times and I think this is very cruel.
For one thing, the pup is 12 weeks old before it can be done. Lots of blood can be lost in that surgery and there is a lot of pain after the surgery. And then the taping of the ears and that can go on for months. No, this is very cruel and animal abuse and is only for cosmetic reasons.
Ingrid
The tails are done when the pup is 3 days of age. My vet numbs the area with lodecaine and snips off the tiny tail and sutures it up, done. The pups wiggle a bit and cry, we want them to cry, this way we know they are ok. Once we put them back in the basked with the rest, they cuddle up and sleep. I have 3 Old English Sheepdogs and see no problem with this procedure.
OES, and I talk now for sanitary reasons, are better off with out their tails. The story goes, in the old days when the sheepdogs were used in bringing the sheep to the slaughter house, they cut their tails, to make sure that the owner did not have to pay taxes, in other words because they were working dogs. But who knows.
Now cropping ears, well that is a whole different thing and I am totally against it. I have helped many times and I think this is very cruel.
For one thing, the pup is 12 weeks old before it can be done. Lots of blood can be lost in that surgery and there is a lot of pain after the surgery. And then the taping of the ears and that can go on for months. No, this is very cruel and animal abuse and is only for cosmetic reasons.
Ingrid