Category: Care and Health

Helpful advice on care and health maintenance for your Xolo.

What a clever idea…

“Jimi” injured the tip of his ear. His owners called me asking what to do. I explained to them how to stop the bleeding and put a ‘bandage’ on it and they devised this clever idea to hold the ears. Here is their message: ” Here is a picture of Jimi with the tube sock on his head to protect his ears. It has been working great! He doesn’t mind it, and it protects the ears and head when he shakes. It is just and old tube sock with toe cut out and we double it over his head. It is cold here so I think he thinks it’s one more thing to keep him warm. He LOVES to get dressed up. He thinks everything is his! We just make sure his ears are laying flat on his head when we put the sock on. He has had it on for about 6 hours and has not tried to get it off.”
This idea could be used to protect the ears on very cold days, as well.

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If your xolo is going out on very cold days it is wise to put a little vaseline on the tips of its ears to protect from the cold. Freezing cold air can cause the tiny veins in the ears to rupture and bleed.

How to…

…bandage/dress an injured hairlesss tail, a “Happy Tail.”   I have had many people ask he how to bandage a hairless tail.  It took me years to figure out how to dress a hairless tail.  Hairless Xolos injure their tails when they wag them hard and hit against their crate or anything that is hard.  We call this injury “Happy Tail.”  One of the members of the Xolo list called it this years ago and the name has been a good one, so we still call it that.
Take a large tampax tube.  Put some antibacterial ointment on the wounded area.  Wrap a piece of telfa around it and secure with sport tape.  Slip the tampax tube over the tail, covering  the injured area.  Have two long pieces of sport tape, about  1/2 inch wide, and at least ten inches long, ready.  Tape the tube in a spiral pattern from one end of it right up the tail.  Use the second piece to tape the same but in the opposite direction of the spiral pattern.  Change the dressing every few days to check on the healing.  Once a good scab is formed,
the telfa dressing is no longer necessary.    Please share this with your vet.