Limber Tail

[SnowDog]

My 16 mo Lab and I hunted hard Thursday - Sunday, first for quail and then two days of ducks. On Sunday I noticed his tail was hanging limp and he had some pain in the base of his tail. Otherwise he did not seem sick and the tail was not broken. When I got home Sunday evening, I researched tail issues online and found out that this is a not so rare issue with hunting dogs called "Limber Tail" or "Cold Water Tail".

This issue was news to me, so I figured I'd share the info in case any of you see this in your dogs after a strenuous day or two of hunting. Here is a great article on the problem.

http://www.ducks.org/Hunting/OpeningDay/5122/ALessoninLimberTail.html?poe=od

Cheers!
SD

[jackelope]

My dog got it after I gave him a bath outside with the garden hose one coldish day....man I was wondering what kind of a wuss dog did I have?
 

[Happy Gilmore]

Its also called cold tail. It will go away in about a week. Don't exercise or swim your dog until it is 100% gone. They can get it just from wagging their tail alot on a hunt but, usually from doing a lot of swimming.

Here's a picture of Kaie the first time she got it. It was partially recovered at this point.

[quadrafire]

Yes, very common. Mostly a swimming related problem. No long term consequences. Kinda like an over use injury. But it is very painful at the beginning.

[luvtohnt]

My older dog get it regularly when I am working on getting her in shape for hunting season. I have found that she will recover in about 2 days if she is allowed to rest and kept calm. However my 1 year old puppy has never experienced it yet, I think she is way to high energy. I have swam her for 1.5 hours throwing the dummy and she never slows down. It is good to know what it is actually called because I always tell my wife they have broken tails!!

Brandon

[Machias]

My boys used to get it when I just mentioned work.   

[Dustin07]

my dalmatian got it one time. I heard it was called swimmers tail. I felt bad for her, thought it was broke or something at first!