Hello all, I haven't posted for a while here, but I'd be so grateful for some advice or reassurance from anyone who has experienced a droopy tail with their dog. Wilson is 16 months old (today actually!) and on Boxing Day and yesterday we took him to the seaside. With hindsight it was silly to let him chase his ball into the sea and yesterday for some reason even though we had his ball he leapt into the water and started swimming directly out to sea. Despite our calling him he didn't turn around for some time - I was starting to panic - and then he had quite a long swim back to shore. He seemed none the worse for wear, but last night his tail suddenly dropped. I've looked it up online and it appears to be limber tail syndrome and most sites say it should recover with rest. I was just hoping for some advice on anything we can do to help - and does rest mean total rest or can he have an on-lead walk down the road? He doesn't seem to be in pain although he nibbles at his tail and seems aware that it's not hanging right. I feel so guilty about letting him in the water, against my better judgement, and desperately need to know his tail will recover. Thanks.
Hi there, I don't think you should feel badly about letting a healthy adult Lab swim in the sea. Most working Labs have to swim throughout the winter and don't come to any harm. Limber tail is not just associated with cold - some dogs get it in the summer and it seems that some are just more prone to it than others. For peace of mind, I'd probably drop into your vet just to check that's what the problem is. And if they advise it, I'd give the dog any painkillers they recommend. It is very difficult to tell whether a dog is in pain as they will attempt to conceal it. I've had a couple of Labs with this condition over the years and they do recover pretty quickly so try not to worry
Hi @Jenem If you have ever watched your Lab swimming, then you will have seen that he uses his tail as a rudder, also whipping it side to side.. The long swim you describe might well have overused the tail muscles. But I agree with Pippa. Take him to your vet. Dogs for evolutionary reasons are stoics. I don't know what to make of him failing to come when called. I don't know whether it means more work has to be done on that exercise. Or that he could not hear your recall. Possibly the latter. For the future I would teach him to "check in", and a hand signal for recall. I wish your dog a speedy recovery.
Thanks Pippa, that's so reassuring. I've just rung the vet's and a vet is going to ring me back. I didn't realise dogs will try to conceal pain so that's useful to know too. He is pestering to go for his morning walk so husband is just going to take him down the road on his lead and then we're going out for an hour so he can sleep next to the radiator in the kitchen and get more rest. I look forward to his tail getting back into its usual waggy position! Thank you.
Thanks very much Michael. Just rung the vet's and they're going to ring me back. We definitely need more work on recall and in fact are part way through Pippa's book at the moment. I don't think he could hear us because it was only when a couple of other people joined in shouting his name that he suddenly whipped round and looked a bit sort of 'where am I?' I felt he had got into some sort of zone and was just mindlessly swimming out. Teaching a 'check in' is a great idea so we'll work on that. Thanks for your reply, much appreciated.
Just thought I'd update this thread and say Wilson is fully recovered, yay! We took him to the vet's who gave him some Metacam and three days later his tail was nearly back to normal and it seems to be 100% there now. What a relief!
We don't find that limber tail, aka cold tail needs to be treated in our labs. I htink all of them have had it one or two times after a lot of swimming, and it just goes away in a day or two. None of our dogs have acted like it really bothered them, so we don't treat it, but if one of them acted like they were in pain, we would consult with our vet.
my boy Lucius had sprained his tail once by playing too rough with another dog who was huge compared to him (the dog was an english pointer and he had knocked lucius over , causing him to land on his tail) the vet thought he might have broken it but after a thorough examination concluded he had a sprained tail which was very painful for him, he couldnt wag his tail for a week, but never showed any other symptoms of pain, even letting the vet get a good feel around.
