Limber Tail Syndrome

 So this past month we went up to Logan for supporting Cathi at the Logan Marathon. We took Jack with us and he enjoyed the Logan river.  There are occasionally birds along the waters edge and he'll love chasing them trying to catch them.  He'll wade in the water and he seemed to enjoy it thoroughly.  

Jack giving Sam some love

The day after coming back I noticed his tail tucked under his legs almost all the time, even when we would play fetch, etc.  It was as if he had damaged his tail somehow, like it was seriously limp and wasn't wagging at all, even when it should be going nuts normally for something fun we would do.

I was getting worried.  I texted Makenzie about it and she had no idea.  I was on the verge of calling the vet for an appointment.  But I thought I'd do some google searching.  Sure enough I got the right keywords and found this:

Limber Tail Syndrome

Just look at that tail. He's on high alert
trying to catch those birds.

J

Oh my gosh! This makes so much sense! It's caused by cold water.  Cold water that damages the muscle/nerves in the tail which is temporary.  We just got back from Logan, and he got his tail under the water a few times. And that was some cold water.  I know cause I was gonna go for a swim actually.  I'm pretty
cold water tolerant, but when I got up to my waist I realized it wasn't gonna be a long swim, maybe a couple minutes.  It was in the high 40's I'm guessing.  

Sure enough about 4 days later his tail was back to normal. But it was quite troubling seeing him in that state.  A dog without a tail (to me), just isn't a dog.  I've had a Bulldog and a Cocker Spaniel before with little knobs for tails.  They just aren't the same.

Jack has a Fitbark device on
his collar that tracks how 
many steps he takes.
This little guy got in over nearly
15 miles of running on Satuday
when we were in Logan.