Limp or Swimmers tail

[DuckDog]

My two year old lab was absolutely miserable after this weekend of hunting. Her tail was so bad she could not lift it to go to the bathroom.

How many others had this from opening weekend. Do you think if I had her in the water more it would "work" the muscle and have less of an impact?

On a side note she did awesome - a nice 50 yard retrieve on a wounded drake mallard (she got him on a dive); a limp tail, cut on her paw and small cut on her muzzle - and wanted to go out this morning as I went to work!

[BeezeHound]

Happened to my dog about a month ago and lasted for about 3 days until she was back to normal. It seemed to be a pretty miserable 3 days for her though, she kept biting back at her tail.

[fishin58]

My springer had it twice this summer, poor little girl. It is sad sight to watch her and wimper when she tried to wag it. 3 days later and it is back to normanl. So dont worry about it.

[BirddogLabs]

I encountered this with my female lab in the past and this year we did some practice water work at the river and she has not had any problems with "rutter tail". We started with 1-2 long retrieves across the river with a good current and gradually worked it up to about half a dozen. This really worked well for conditioning as well as practicing marking.

[jakemcarroll]

had my lab at a buddies cabin for 3 days this summer, and he probably spent more time in the water than on the land, and he definately got "droopy butt" as we decided to call it. took 2-3 days before he was back to normal, didn't seem to bother him too much other than he couldn't really sit, had to stand or lay down, poor guy.

[Fish&Fowl]

Well after some serious hunting ever since I got laid off, I'm pretty sure my Lab has swimmer's tail. Do you guys just give them a break with no water retrieves until it gets better?

[DuckDog]

Three days and my lab was doing alot better. A little break is what they needed; oh and a couple child's asprin

[irishjigs]

With Swimmers Tail, are the hind legs also sore and the dog seems to favor them? My lab's tail was limp last night, but this morning the tail is fine, but he is still gingerly walking on the hind legs. It looks like he needs to go #2 when he walks.

[duckbuster]

Birddog, you happen to be the same person who had a litter of pups recently that had a black female with 3 toes, would you?