Swimmers Tail

[Johnny_Namakan]

This past weekend four of us and our three labs went up into Ontario for our annual fishing trip. I had to work on Thursday but my brother and his buddy were heading up to my brother's cabin on Crane that morning. Since my brother and his buddy both had their labs with them I suggested he take my dog with him so she can get some exercise in at the lake with the other dogs. I arrived at the cabin around six and noticed my dogs tail was tucked down between her legs and she was walking funny. I start to investigate and tried to take a look at her tail and she didn't want me anywhere near it. It turns out she was swimming all day long and got a case of swimmers tail. She had gotten it last year once so I knew what it was. My dog enjoys the water so much that she will not stop swimming. My brother said she was swimming everywhere. Once they looked out the cabin window and she was 100 yards out just swimming around. They tried to get her in but she wouldn't come in for them. She will actually swim for hours on end if I let her. Last year while camping one time I decided to time her and see how long she swam before coming back to land. She swam for 40 minutes without touching shore. I would call her into shore and as soon as her feet touched bottom she would spin a u-turn and head back out. I get worried that she's going to go under sometimes because she's out there for so long without taking a break, but she's just a fanatic about the water and could swim for hours on end if I let her. For three days she was not herself. She couldn't sit down very well, she couldn't lift her tail to squat and use the bathroom, and if anybody bumped her tail she would spin around and look at her tail to see what was wrong with it. She's normally a very gently dog and gets along with everybody and every dog she meets. But with her tail the way it was she was not very friendly with the one of the dogs. My borthers 6 yr old was no problem because she's gotten pretty mellow the last year or so. But the 8 month old lab that was with us wanted to play with my dog and my dog was not in the mood. If the pup even got close to my dogs tail she would growl and snap at the pup. We all knew why so we couldn't get mad at her. We just had to keep them away from each other. Then on the last day of camping it was finally managable for her. She went swimming again, for just a couple minutes though, and she was playing with the pup like they were best friends. So to all you lab owners, keep an eye on your pups this summer and don't let them swim all day long like my brother did with mine, or you'll have a pretty grumpy pup for a couple days.

[LABS4ME]

The colder the water the more it exasorbates the problem... Most people notice it in the spring, with many cases noted around the opener every year.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Johnny_Namakan]

I didn't know temperature was a variable in the equation. That's good to know. Thanks, Labs. The past two days she's been doing nothing but sleep. She doesn't even want to good outside to use the bathroom. She just looks at me and then puts her head back down. It's great!!! She's a great dog, but high strung, so I'm loving the peace and quite around the house!

[LundExplorer]

My lab had it too on the opener. He did not sleep much at all Friday night, neither did I. He spent a lot of time under the cabin hiding on Saturday, did not want to be bothered. It is all cleared up now.