Laurie's Blogs.

 

25
May 2014

More about Swimmers Tail…

I received one e-mail with feedback about the Swimmers Tail.  So I wanted to provide that commentary and figured to find some additional background for everyone… Here we go:

 

According to Wikipedia:

Limber tail syndrome, or acute caudal myopathy, is a disorder of the muscles in the tail, usually affecting working dogs.

An injury occurring mostly in sporting or working dogs such as English Pointers, English Setters, Foxhounds, Beagles, and Labrador Retrievers. Limber Tail Syndrome is also known as Cold Water Tail, Broken Tail, Dead Tail or Broken Wag.

Signs & Symptoms 

The injury affects the tail of the dog, causing it to be painful at or near its base. Limber Tail can be recognized by a very flaccid tail, or a tail that is held horizontally for 3 to 4 inches, and then drops vertically.

Cause

Limber tail may be caused by lots of swimming in water that is too cold or too warm, or engaging in heavy exercise of some sort (i.e. hunting). Dogs that are under-conditioned to the activity may be more susceptible.

Treatment

Recommended treatment is rest and sometimes anti-inflammatory drugs. Recovery can take a day to a couple weeks. The symptoms may recur later on.

The Whole Dog Journal did a nice article on the subject:

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/8_1/features/15685-1.html

 

And here's the comment on last week's blog post on the topic:

Hey Laurie,

I read the piece about the dock diving dogs and here's my two cents. I've seen plenty of "regular" swimmers tail in labs from swimming in cold water, where the tails are just limp, but don't usually seem painful or swollen. I wonder if this is essentially the same condition taken further (the slamming of the tail base on the water combined with the cold water) or if it is something different. I would bet the former. Anyway as to how to warm up to prevent it, well "they" say dogs can't be taught to wag their tails on command because it is an unconscious behavior. However, I know people who have taught their dogs to wag on command. So that would be the thing to teach these labs and then have them wag wag wag (after all labs love to wag that is why we have the disease Happy Tail) before jumping. Because I don't think a warm up of walking and trotting is going to necessarily get all that much blood to the tail base. Jumping might be a helpful warmup because we know dogs use their tails for steering when jumping. 

 

Pam Mueller



Top