A Dog Without A Wag
When we got back from grocery shopping on Sunday morning we noticed something wasn’t right with Cookie. She couldn’t wag her tail. She was happy to see us, but her tail was just dangling there. It extended out about three inches then just hung limp. It was a sad sight since a dog is nothing without her waggly tail.
I tried to feel the area where it bent and it didn’t feel broken to me and it didn’t seem to be hurting her, but we didn’t want to take any chances so we headed to the emergency vet, again, to have it looked at. To be fair, this was only her first trip to the e-vet. Simon’s been there twice for broken toenails.
Between the time I called the vet and when we had to leave to be there for 10:00, I found some interesting pages online about a condition called Limber Tail, Cold Tail, or Cold Water Tail. “Typically the presentation is a young adult dog with an acutely flaccid tail that hangs down from the tail base or is held horizontally for 3-4 inches and then drops down.(dog on right) The tail remains in this position even when the dog moves about.” That described it exactly. We headed to the vet and she diagnosed it as “Limber Tail.” She injected Cookie with 24 hours worth of anti-inflammatory and sent us on our way with a weeks worth of the same medicine in pill form.
Today her tail is back to its waggly self. What a weird condition. “The cause of limber tail is not known although it is thought to be associated with hard workouts (especially in underconditioned dogs), heavy hunting, and swimming or bathing in water that is too cold or too warm.” We bathed the dogs outside on Saturday afternoon after they had a vigorous half-hour of playing fetch in the back yard. It was 70° outside, so we took the opportunity to wash them not in the bathtub. I guess the water was too cold for her.
She’s fine now, so here’s a picture that sums up the two of them:
Cookie: “What’s going on!?”
Simon: “Who cares? I have a pillow.”
