Beau's Tail

[playswithfire]

Sunday we were jumping at Rhonna's fantastic pool and Beau was doing really well. We think that he even hit 17" (but the jumps always look bigger than they are). The next day, he was moping around, and wouldn't sit, and I noticed that his tail was hanging down between his legs. Normally his tail has a nice curve in it, but it was completely straight. I think it's cold tail, swimmers tail, or limp tail. We gave him some aspirin and let him rest. He's getting better slowly, but was wondering if there's anything else to do. He actually ran around this morning, and can move his tail, but he cannot control it very well. He moves his tail like a 2 day old puppy would, very eratic and with little control. It still has no curve in it, but he seems to be in less pain.

[fyremanvan]

Ashley, the same thing happened to Bailey right after we got her. I just rested her for a week and she was fine after that.

[playswithfire]

Beau is able to move his tail a little more. He's about 90% back to normal.. I was just feeling horrible, because everyone that I talked to or saw him, thought I was a terrible "mom" because I wasn't doing more for him. I had read about it on the message board, and had advice from D's mom, but people who aren't part of major dog sports thought I was terrible for "pushing" him and making him jump so much. But we hadn't even practiced that much. My boyfriend and his cousin were jumping into the pool more, and taking up all the time. If I can figure out how to attatch pics I will because it was hysterical. They did Big Air, as well as Super V. Thanks for making me feel like I'm not un-caring.

[angel09]

I am glad to hear he is doing better. Poor baby. It's sounds like you are taking good care of him.

[LoveOurLabradors]

It sounds like you've done your research and are taking good care of Beau! "Dead/limp/cold/swimmers tail" happened for Hannah after our first competition where we unknowingly overdid her in colder weather -- hers was really painful and we ended up going to the vet for heavy-duty pain meds. The vet didn't know about "dead tail" but basically called it a sprain and recommended letting her rest it (no swimming) for 2 weeks -- that's basically what you'd do for any athlete's sprain to let it fully heal to avoid re-injury. We learned a lot especially from these boards and haven't yet had it again (yay!). One of the key things we learned was about prevention for the future -- especially in cold weather where we're now obsessive about getting her warm/dry with lots of towel massage and warm-ups/cool-downs. Of course there can always be a weird landing that sprains the tail again but hope the prevention tips help.

[Sassy Girl]

I heard Beau was doing much better today...I've had a few dogs that this has come up in, one, which had nothing to do with water.

Stretching, massage and proper warm ups/cool downs are very helpful in preventing dead tail. Another thing is watching your dog's water entries, too much height with a vertical water entry and you add more pressure to the tail end when landing. Keep the toy ahead of the dog and drop the height of the throw a bit to get the dog to launch at a proper angle.

[Sneaky Niki]

Glad to hear that Beau's feeling much better.