Experience with Limber Tail?

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Taylor_B
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Experience with Limber Tail?

Post by Taylor_B » Mon Sep 10, 2018 6:38 am

Hi All
Question about Limber Tail:
We live in Western PA for the past few days, we've been hammered with rain (3 days straight of constant rain) and cooler, fall-like temps (Which is actually a nice reprieve from the 90+ degree heat wave we were dealing with last week). Needless to say the dogs were getting cabin fever - they NEEDED some time outside to stretch their legs, so yesterday, we put on the rain gear and gave them some time outside. They were out in 45 minute spurts, about 3 times yesterday. Happy, playful pups. Came in and dried them off each time. That said, they did play and run pretty hard outside: The rain was not a deterrent for them.

Last night, our Lab/Weim mix was napping on the couch and got up to go outside to pee. I noticed she seemed to be holding her tail in a strange way. It was totally limp. When she came back in from going potty outside, she was restless - couldn't get comfortable sitting or lying down. Whimpered when she was lying down and kept nibbling and looking at the base of her tail.

All night she did this - very uncomfortable, groaning, nuzzling her tail. All the while the tail is totally limp: Doesn't perk up for treats or kibble or when she sees us. She just looks distressed and uncomfortable over it.
Finally, this morning, she passed out on the bed after being very restless all night and I left her there when we left for work.

She's eating/drinking fine; no digestive issues. She's had impacted anal glands in the past, but no evidence of that recently (not smelly/not licking her bum).
She's 4 years old and to our knowledge, has had no previous recent injury that would result in this. Very healthy.

Everything I can tell points to limber tail.
From what I read on that, we can give her some Rimadyl to help with pain (which we have in the cabinet already) and just rest her a bit.
Would it be worthy of a vet appointment? I hate to see her hurting, but if a trip to the vet will only cause more stress, i think it might be better to sit it out at home, rest up, and take a rimadyl occasionally to help with the pain.
Thoughts?

shags
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Re: Experience with Limber Tail?

Post by shags » Mon Sep 10, 2018 6:58 am

A couple of my dogs have had limber tail, and got pretty much over it in a week to 10 days, and had the usual high cracking tail in about two weeks. I gave them carprofen to help with pain amd inflammation. No vet visit.

In the case of my dogs, it happened after running hard in wet cool weather after some time off. I suspect that being put up in crates right after also helped precipitate the LT.

However, if I had any suspicion that a dog had crashed into something, been bumped hard by another dog ( yelp, cry, quit, or droopy tail right at the time), I'd be watchful for a broken tail. IME fractures produce swelling and pain rather than discomfort; and with LT there isn't swelling and the dog well tolerates being touched on the tail.

My take-away is to don't push heavy exercise on out of shape dogs, or dogs that haven't had regular hard exercise most especially when it's cool and wet, and to be sure to walk them as a cool down before kenneling or crating.

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Taylor_B
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Re: Experience with Limber Tail?

Post by Taylor_B » Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:07 am

Thank you - Exactly what you describe is what she seems to be going through.
She allows us to touch it, but indicates some discomfort when we manipulate it at all (no yelps or growls, just turns her head back and nibbles at it).
I don't seem to notice any swelling.
Gonna give it a few days and see if she starts to bounce back.
We'll be resting up a bit.
Thanks for sharing.

mgrucker
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Re: Experience with Limber Tail?

Post by mgrucker » Tue Sep 11, 2018 6:20 am

It's happened to my dog a couple of times. Once after a cold hose bath, once after swimming in cold water. I didn't notice discomfort, just a crooked tail that was stuck. It went away in its own after a few days without any intervention. I didn't notice discomfort in my dog though but it's hard to tell with him. Wouldn't think you'd need anything more than caprofen maybe.

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