My poor Bailey! When we got up this morning he was not his usual self, he looked really sad, he could not lift or wag his tail at all and kept on worrying his backside. His tail stuck out a few centimetres and then just hung limply. We were really concerned and thought he might have broken his tail /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif
We got him into the vets first thing, and after watching him walk into the examination room the vet asked if we had bathed him or had him swimming. Well, yes, we had been out running yesterday and I bathed him when he got home because he had dived into a very fresh cowpat and had smeared half his body with muck! After an examination the vet told us he had Limber Tail, very common in gundogs, they see many cases of it in September. Apparently the dog gets hot from lots of exercise, usually hunting, but jogging in our case, and then jumps into water to retrieve a bird (a bath for poor Bailey) the combination of the hot and the cold causes something to happen to the muscles at the base of the tail. Poor chap, he is in a lot of pain, but the good news is that it will get completely better with rest.
I had absolutely no idea this kind of thing could happen. I washed him in our bath using the shower head just as I have done before, the water was not cold by any means (my hands were in there as well!) but not hot either. The combination of lots of exercise, followed immediately by a cool wash has caused this, and I feel horrible I have caused my poor beag so much discomfort. He still looks really sad, and cant wag his tail at all, but at least he has some good painkillers and anti-inflammatories now, so he should be better soon. I think he is going to get some serious spoiling this week!
We got him into the vets first thing, and after watching him walk into the examination room the vet asked if we had bathed him or had him swimming. Well, yes, we had been out running yesterday and I bathed him when he got home because he had dived into a very fresh cowpat and had smeared half his body with muck! After an examination the vet told us he had Limber Tail, very common in gundogs, they see many cases of it in September. Apparently the dog gets hot from lots of exercise, usually hunting, but jogging in our case, and then jumps into water to retrieve a bird (a bath for poor Bailey) the combination of the hot and the cold causes something to happen to the muscles at the base of the tail. Poor chap, he is in a lot of pain, but the good news is that it will get completely better with rest.
I had absolutely no idea this kind of thing could happen. I washed him in our bath using the shower head just as I have done before, the water was not cold by any means (my hands were in there as well!) but not hot either. The combination of lots of exercise, followed immediately by a cool wash has caused this, and I feel horrible I have caused my poor beag so much discomfort. He still looks really sad, and cant wag his tail at all, but at least he has some good painkillers and anti-inflammatories now, so he should be better soon. I think he is going to get some serious spoiling this week!