Comments on: Limber Tail, Cold Water And Your Labrador

By: Gina

Gina — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 20:02:55 +0000

In reply to Gina. We had a bath! Forgot that part!

By: Gina

Gina — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 20:02:06 +0000

Hot day yesterday in CA. Spent rest of the day indoors in AC. Woke up with cold tail. I’ve seen this before in my other lab.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 14:42:26 +0000

My 2 yr male black lab had a bath outside with the hose it was warm and sunny outside but the water was too cold. He woke up with "limp tail" a shot of metcam and rest is in order so I cancelled my day to lay with him. He never left my side when I had surgery so I'm doing the same for him. He's had this before from swimming in a cold lake. But how do you tell your Lab no swimming??? Life is better with a Lab Rest and he'll be fine.

By: Marlys

Marlys — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 03:36:32 +0000

Took my Lab to Lake Tahoe on Friday. She played fetch in the water for nearly 2 hours which is not unheard of, but it had been a couple of months since she last went. Seemed to be perfectly normal and on Monday we went for an easy 3 mile hike along a creek which we allowed her to jump in and out of along the way. Around 2am the next morning she woke up and for the next 5 hours she was restless up and down and seemed like she could not get comfortable whimpering and moaning occasionally. Also was boot scooting a little in the beginning so we thought maybe it was her glands. Took her to urgent care and turns out it Swimmers Tail!

By: Lab queen

Lab queen — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 11:32:29 +0000

In reply to Barbara Jones.

My lab had a fabulous day. A light walk off leash without vigorous exercise 20minutes. She then had a swim in a dam weather was the start of winter temperature about 7 degree Celsius. She ran to a dam jumped in only for a moment then left to have a ball chase at the dog park for 30 minutes . The weather had turned windy and she was still wet from the swim. Took her to have a warm hydrobath. Next morning tail was dropping with about 10cm at the stump sitting straight.
She was annoyed by her tail and seemed to want to bite it.
Vet trip and lit on anti-inflammatory. That night her pain worsened and she found it difficult to sit or lay comfortably. Next day much better tail sitting up 75percent of what it usually is. She seems in much less pain today only 24 hours after her treatment with the anti-inflammatory medication.

By: Supernatural

Supernatural — Thu, 28 May 2020 18:35:57 +0000

Wonder, 5 year old black lab, swam in the Kenai River quite a bit during the last 2 hours of our 3 day raft trip. My husband was swimming ouf there too in his drysuit. Super cold water, especially skilak lake. He was sfiff and miserable for about 24 hours.
This was the first time we’ve seen his tail like that and he swims a lot in glacial rivers. But then he was energetic and happily ran around on our steep hike the next day. He healed quickly.

By: Sarah Spence

Sarah Spence — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 02:49:40 +0000

My 17 month old male black lab is very energetic and do NOT take “no play” seriously. We went to the river last weekend in our southern Oregon home town and he caught a glimpse of the river and off he went. He leaps in and chases anything he sees and a pair of geese where in reach. He did NOT want to get out of the water. He found a stick and with his big brown puppy dog eyes coaxed ya into letting his play fetch for about 20 minutes. It was about 60 degrees outside and sunny but the water was COLD! We finally got him out and a good nights sleep in a pile of comforters was in order. The next day he woke up “ swimmers tail” “limp tail” or what ever you call it. We call it “ swimmers tail”. Our older lab has gotten this when the hose water was too cold for him during his outside baths in the summer. But our younger lab doesn’t seem to show pain when he gets it. You can tell it’s dropping and he isn’t wagging as aggressive as usual. We have messed with it to see if there is pain that he appears to show, but doesn’t. He also seems to not really show pain that we have seen. But we know it must be uncomfortable. We did get meds for muscle relaxing from the vet and will give him a dose tonight and will have some on hand when he decides to be a lab and get in the cold river again. 🙂 #LabMom

By: liz

liz — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 19:32:53 +0000

In reply to Patty Brydges. Hi, What was the out come of your lab?

By: Darwin

Darwin — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 03:11:56 +0000

We were out walking on the lake ice the other day. The ice was still thick and safe enough, but there was an area near the shore where melt water was spilling into the lake and the ice was thinner there. My big sweet four year old male lab Bernie had to go investigate, and he broke through the ice and fell into the cold water. He struggled hard to get out, but couldn’t. He had his front paws on the ice, but couldn’t get enough grip to get his hind legs up and lift himself up. My brave wife cautiously approached the edge of the ice, grabbed his collar and gave him just enough of a boost to pull him out. He seemed just fine, but right after that I noticed him favoring his tail. He wouldn’t wag it and was very careful sitting down. In fact, be just preferred to lay down, which is unusual for him. The symptoms he was showing were identical to what is described in this article. I felt his tail with my hand and he yelped, so it was obviously hurting him. It must be limber tail, and it must have been brought on by his struggle in the cold water.

By: Patty Brydges

Patty Brydges — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 01:29:52 +0000

Has anyone had an issue with a lab not urinating at all due to tail pain? My lab rolled in something nasty on a Saturday, we washed the dirty area on his front shoulder outside with cold hose water (not even a full bath). By midnight Monday, he was pacing, panting, uncomfortable. Long story short, the vet catheterized him, withdrew 40 ml liters of urine, he had two ultrasounds and spent the night at the emergency vet. The vet ruled out kidney stones, UTI, blockages, etc and found nothing wrong. It wasn’t until he came home (tired but ok, thankfully) that I thought of ‘broken’ tail. Just wondered if anyone had seen limber tail cause a dog to be unable to pee for more than a day?