cold water tail

[stingray]

yesterday I was working on long water retreives with my lab and noticed later on that eveining his tail was limp and he was trying to wag it but it hurt. Im almost positive this is cold water tail but I have never delt with it any reconmendations other than rest

[slistoe]

pain reliever and rest.

[snips]

I think some Rimadyl and time. That is an anti-inflammatory.

[stingray]

the tail is as good as new I gave him some non coated asprin the first couple days it seemed to help. thanks for the help Im just glad it wasnt broken especialy with season starting this weekend

[WiskeyJaR]

Im almost positive this is cold water tail but I have never delt with it any reconmendations other than rest

Ummm silly question...what actually is cold water tail?

[lvrgsp]

I take it you called the lab pup in your avatar, either Busch, or Auggie?

Chip

[Ayres]

"Cold-Water Tail" is a description for what's known as "limber tail syndrome". My vizsla had a few bouts with that during the first couple years, but really hasn't exhibited any symptoms of it in about a year and a half now. (He's 3.5 years old).

Here's the old topic for review: http://www.gundogforum.com/forum/viewto ... imber+tail

The best thing you can do is to hit it with NSAIDs as quickly as possible: baby aspirin or, preferably, Rimadyl. The sooner the anti-inflammatory drugs are used, the quicker the recovery period will be.

This is something that can linger on for a week and a half if not treated right away, or can be cut down to about 2 or 3 days of discomfort if the drug is given as soon as the early symptoms creep up.

[birdshot]

stringray, i could not tell where you were from since you never completed your profile, though your moniker made me think of gulf coast. Now, i used to go down to the aransas pass area in texas to hunt redheads, and ducks:), in the back bays. The brackish water, which was far from cold often caused my dogs to present a limber tail the following day. I have always thought the bacteria in the mud and the dogs drinking of the bay water caused some kind of discomfort which caused the limber tail. always had a good duck hunt down there in texas. friendly people.

[1vizsla]

Many of us in Dock Dogs have also had good luck in supplementing their diet with salmon oil. I don't think there is any scientific proof it works but it does seem to cut down on the incidents of dead tail. We also keep Rimadyl or aspirin handy at the competition site. Basically it is treated like a sprain.

Carla