tail

The caudal terminal appendage of the vertebral column made up of the coccygeal vertebrae and their attendant tissues. See also cauda.

• t. absence — an inherited defect in cattle, cats and pigs, sometimes associated with other deformities of the vertebral column, atresia of the anus and urogenital system defects. See also manx.
• t. amputation — may be required for removal of a diseased tail; also a common husbandry practice in pastoral dairy herds where tails full of sloppy feces are unwelcome industrial hazards to farmhands working in pit type milking parlors, especially on cold mornings. Standard practice is to amputate with a guillotine type dehorner.
• banged t. — see bangtail.
• t. biting — a vice in pigs which bite each other's tail because of boredom initially and then as a habit, causing blood loss and frequently local abscess formation or spinal cord abscess. In dogs, seen as a vice in association with tail chasing (see below). In caged mice may be attributable to crowding.
• t. bleeding — collection of blood from the ventral median coccygeal vein, e.g. in cattle; laboratory rodents are also bled from the ventral coccygeal artery or by amputation of the end of the tail.
• bob t., bobbed t. — see bobtail.
• t. boot — a leather sleeve that is wrapped around the butt of a horse's tail, laced up, and secured to a harness by a retaining strap. Designed to protect the tail from wear while traveling. Nowadays bandaging is a more common method of protection.
• t. brace — a device for supporting the tail in an elevated position for extended periods of time, usually as an adjunct to a surgical procedure on the tail or in the perineal region, e.g. dogs after surgery for perianal fistulae and horses after ventral myotomy (‘nicking’).
• t. carriage — the way in which the tail is carried relative to the body. A high carriage of the butt of the tail with the hair streaming in the wind is the objective in show horses. See also nicking (2).
• caudal t. fold — see caudal tailfold.
• t. cellulitis — at the tail tip, a common sequel to unsanitary vaccination against pleuropneumonia; at the butt incidental to injury.
• t. chasing — an obsessive-compulsive behavior seen occasionally in dogs, particularly Bull terriers. The dog periodically lapses into episodes of chasing its tail. Most deliberately do not catch it, but those that do can cause serious self-trauma.
• t. deformity — most cases are sporadic but it is inherited as part of the inherited tail-absent syndrome in cattle and pigs.
• t. docking — see dock (1).
• t. elevation — posture indicative of irritation in the vagina, e.g. after irrigation of cervix and uterus with Lugol's iodine; tail held out from the body, plus rigidity, a sure indication of the presence of tetanus.
• t. fold dermatitis — see fold dermatitis.
• frozen t., limber t., rudder t., cold water t. — a painful condition of the tailbase recognized in gundogs, mainly Labrador retrievers. Usually seen the day after hunting, and believed to be a tendonitis or myositis associated with vigorous swimming or hyperextension of the tail when leaping into water. The affected dog holds the tail horizontally, away from the rump, and is reluctant to sit.
• t. gland — an oval area of skin on the dorsal aspect of the tail in dogs centered at the level of the eighth coccygeal vertebrae which contains a large number of sebaceous and apocrine glands.

  Tail gland.

• t. gland hyperplasia — in dogs, a spongy enlargement with alopecia and scaling of the area, usually associated with hormonal disturbances, in which the apocrine gland segment is especially hyperplastic.
• ingrown t. — dogs with naturally short, kinked tails (corkscrew tails), e.g. British bulldogs and Pugs, may have deep skin folds surrounding the tail that are subject to moist dermatitis and secondary infection.
• t. jack — see tailing.
• t. louse — see haematopinus quadripertusus.
• t. and mane dystrophy — see mane and tail dystrophy.
• t. mange — see chorioptic mange.
• t. paint — special paint applied to the tailhead of cows as a heat mount detection aid. When cows stand to be mounted the paint is rubbed off.
• t. paralysis — is characterized by a flaccid, anesthetized tail. Occurs with injury, myelitis or myelomalacia of caudal segments of the spinal cord.
• t. pulse — the pulse as felt in the ventral coccygeal artery in cattle. Best felt at the level of the tip of the vulva.
• t. pyoderma — equine staphylococcal folliculitis.
• t. restraint — in cattle, holding the tail strongly over the back provides some control. See also tail-hitch, tailing.
• t. rigidity — tail is stiff instead of its usual, whip-like in cattle, flexibility. Indicative of the presence of tetanus.
• t. root — where the tail joins the body.
• t. setting — see nicking (2).
• t. skin dehiscence — skin at the tip of the gerbil's tail is easily pulled off; never catch or lift a gerbil by the tail other than at its base.
• t. sore — the early or mild lesions in a tail-biting problem of pigs.
• t. stock — first part of the tail, of a whale or dolphin, before it divides into the flukes.
• t. sucking — a vice of cats, particularly Siamese, in which the tip of the tail is usually wet and becomes discolored.
• t. switch louse — see haematopinus quadripertusus.
• t. tag — used extensively for the identification of cattle. Made of metal or plastic in sharply contrasting colors and with identifying marks or numbers and letters on them so that animals, owners and veterinarians can be easily identified. The tag is wrapped around the thinner, meaty part of the tail, just above the brush and fixed with one of several patented attachments. See also backtag.
• t. tie — see tail-hitch.
• t. tip necrosis — disease of confined cattle on slatted floors; caused by treading injury.
• t. tone — complete absence indicative of good outcome of epidural anesthesia; occurrence spontaneously indicative of lesion to cauda equine, in cattle usually due to mounting injury caused by a heavy bull or cow.
• t. worm — equine staphylococcal dermatitis.