Tail Problem

Hi! My doggy has this problem and I'm wondering if any of ya'll have any idea of wat its from:

Wen i woke up this morning, my doggies tail (she has a long tail, shes a Lab) was all the way down, like she was scared, which is weird cause her tail is usually all the way up.

She acted happy and fine so I went out for the day, hoping to return home and for her tail to be normal.

One of my friends told me that she might have an upset stomach, so I was going to look that up.

But I was petting her and lifted her tail up to see if it could stay up, and when i lifted it up, she started whining.

Do any of u kno wat could be wrong?

It's probably not a problem with her tail, just something that's got her upset. A tail-down dog is usually a sign that you have a scared dog or an unhappy dog. Has something changed in the household? Is there some new person, thing or circumstance she could be afraid of?

Most dogs would complain if you touched their tail like that, so that probably doesn't mean anything. Does her tail come up and wag if you praise her, or offer her a treat or do something else that usually makes her wag her tail? If you think it is a physical problem, see a vet!

It's possible she has full or impacted anal glands.......sometimes that gets pretty painful. If she still whines if you hold it up and act like it hurts her, I'd have a vet check it out.

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Originally posted by wolf_Q
It's possible she has full or impacted anal glands.......sometimes that gets pretty painful.

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That's what I was thinking. Has she ever had her anal glands expressed?

P.S. WELCOME TO PT! :D

Thanks for the advice! I'll definately check it out when I get home today.

She seems happy and everything, she still runs around and plays, so she isn't sad.

Thanks for the welcome and good advice!!

Oreo is also a lab, and twice she has had a sprained tail after too much exertion swimming. Each time, I noticed that she didn't wag and looked "sad"--but then I realized it was because her tail was down and not up. She could wag the end, but she couldn't lift it or hold it up like normal; I could tell that it was sore.

She went to the vet, and he ruled out the many other things that could cause this. He said that she had sprained it about 2 inches down from the base.

Like the other people before me have said, there are many things that could cause a tail-down dog, from a minor problem to major injury to emotional stress. I would suggest taking her to the vet if it isn't better soon just to be on the safe side.

Has she done any new activities where she could have strained her tail? I hope she feels better soon.

That sounds like wats wrong with her! She wags her tail really hard and always joke that she is going to hurt it-- and now I guess she really did! She can still wag the end.

Did it heal on its own?

Thank you for replying!

Might be a sprain, but it sounds like it might be a classic case of "cold tail" to me. It's a condition (not serious) very common to Labs. Impacted anal glands is one of the causes. My Lab Star had it once. After a day or so, she was fine. Hoping your girl's feeling better!:) Here's a brief description...

Cold Tail
Also called "wash tail" and "limber tail", "cold tail" occurs when your dog's tail goes limp and he bites at it as if it were a foreign body attached to him. This condition is not serious and should go away in two or three days. It seems to be associated with swimming in cold water (hence the name). It's thought to be a reaction on the part of one of the glands at the base of the tail, or perhaps a sort of muscle spasm. M. Christine Zink covers the condition in Peak Performance; it is not typically listed in veterinary handbooks.

I once sprained Duke's tail when I washed him! Poor thing. His tail was down like that, too. And that anal gland smell is something else! I didn't even know about them until Duke had his first teeth cleaning. He had gotten so scared that he released that stuff.
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