What are Kinks in dogs tails?

[buttercup132]

Back in the day when all I wanted was to be with animals (when I was 11) and volunteered at a pet store alot of the puppies that came in had kinks in their tails.
I know this is obviously because they came from puppymills but what is a kink?

[Karen]

Often the site of an injury, or some malformation in the bone or muscle structure.

[Tollers-n-Dobes]

A lot of times puppies are just born that way for some reason. It doesn't have anything really to do with the fact that they were irresponsibly bred. My Doberman breeder friend has had quite a few pups born with kinks in their tail tips. It's pretty common. I'm not sure if its actually a break in the tail or just a birth defect of some sort though.

[Danegirl2208]

Chloe has a small kink at the end of her tail.. kinked tails are caused by a recessive gene..it does not always mean that they came from a puppymill.

[Freedom]

Cats can be born with this as well. I have friends with 2 cats with kinks in the tail. No idea what caused it. They got the cats as kittens, so they were born with it. Not an injury type thing.

[LeahMM]

My foster,.........er..........um.............foster failure has a kink in his tail. I think he was born with it.

[critter crazy]

My MIL's Dog Charlie has a kink in his tail, he was born with it.

[buttercup132]

Oh I always thought it was a break in the tail that has healed without proper care that's what I assumed they would be puppy mill ones.

[Karen]

It's always a malformation of a bone or muscle - so sometimes it's an injury, but sometimes not! Just like sometimes people have dimples, and sometimes they don't ...

[borzoimom]

Also- this is common in hounds, setters, some herding- and later turns into " happy tail" .. This literally is from the tail hitting things all the time over time, sometimes causing part of the tail to have to be amputated.
The bones in a tail are very fragile as puppies - and break easily actually. Also usually the tail, in the sac, is wrapped under the body towards the belly. Sometimes the tail in the sac in pregnancy gets wrapped to the side. This is more seen in dogs that have a tendancy to carry their tails on one side of their body or the other, and usually a kink is present.. Hottie has a kink in his tail- hard to see with the fur, but easy to see when wet. His brother bit him too hard in play at 10 weeks old. And the breeder was sitting right there when it happened.It can easily happen, but more so common in tail wagging breeds..