Kima Update

Lots of things have happened since November 20, including:

Kima gets lit up by Shane at the dog park just after acting super-obedient near Mazzy.

Kima subsequently gets lit up by me several times when she reacts to other dogs.

Kima begins hiding behind me when other dogs get near, like a beagle sitting in front of Starbucks, which makes his owner chortle.

With Shane, Kima is within 3 feet of a roving mini French bulldog, whose owner is pretty clueless and wants to get a harlequin Great Dane, "because their markings are so pretty". Kima does not react even when said bulldog approaches. Instead, she sits, and quakes in fear.

Kima does not even notice a skinny shepherd mix tied to the lightpole outside of Eddie's grocery, so we do another pass, and then another, until she does. Shepherd mix is ultra blasé about the whole thing, and Kima is like "What, this is a cakewalk."

Kima freaks out at a spaniel mix who is Pulling His Owner down the street in order to sniff Kima.

Dude who lives behind us comes over with his adorable basset hound, George, and Kima freaks out as he asks if he can install a solar-powered security light on our garage so that it shines into his backyard.

And then yesterday, we go to the playground, and when we come back Kima's tail isn't wagging. Sunday it's still not wagging and she is more grumpy and slower than usual. I call the vet, who's closed, but since she can still run around and doesn't look otherwise in too much pain or limping, I google.

Getting a handle on Limber Tail

Chances are if you frequent the outdoors with your Labrador Retriever, you may already be familiar with a condition called "limber tail". After a vigorous day of hunting, you notice your dog's tail hanging limply as though it might be broken.

"The tail hangs down from the base of the tailor extends horizontally for three or four inches and then drops down," says Janet Steiss, DVM, Ph.D., PT., associate professor at Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. "To the owner, it may appear to occur unexplainably. Usually the dogs recover in a few days."

"The tail is real important to balance and the flow of body movement," says Robert Gillette, DVM, director of the Sports Medicine Program at Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. "The base of the tail is where the muscle mass of the tail is located and where you see limber tail."

Steiss and several colleagues at Auburn studied limber tail in English Pointers in the late 1990s. Their findings, published in the November/December 1999 issue of the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, showed that the condition is associated with damage to the tail muscles.

"It can happen after a heavy day of work involving a lot of tail action," Steiss says. "The typical case is where a young adult dog develops a tail that becomes so flaccid he is unable to raise it. The tail appears to be painful. It can be a problem for the athletic working dog and may require an owner to withdraw a dog from competition due to abnormal tail carriage."

Defining Limber Tail


Limber tail syndrome - also called cold water tail. limp tail, broken wag or broken tail - describes a relatively common condition in sporting dogs.

Ed Aycock, DVM, of Sanger, Texas, who practices at the Lewisville North Animal Clinic, has seen a number of cases of limber tail, including some in his own field trial retrievers. "We didn't have a specific name for limber tail until Dr. Stress' research. It wasn't something you learned about in veterinary school. Old timers called it cold water tail because episodes most often were associated with wet and cold weather."

"Generally, affected dogs may act as if they are in pain for the first 24 to 48 hours, and resent being touched at the base of the tail because its painful," Steiss says. "Sometimes, the owner notices that the hair around the base of the tail stands up - this is probably due to the swelling of the muscle tissue at the tail base."

The three most common causes for limber tail are climate changes, especially exposure to wet, cold weather, underconditioning or overexertion, and being confined in a crate for long periods of time," Steiss says. Veterinarians tend to see limber tail in sporting dogs during certain seasons. It commonly is seen in retrievers and pointers as they start back into heavier training in the fall or in young dogs out for the first time that come down with limber tail from overuse of the tail muscles."

Though limber tail is rare in the dog population as a whole, it is common in hard-training pointing and retrieving dogs and has been reported in Labrador, Golden and Flat-Coated Retrievers, English Setters, English Pointers, Beagles and Foxhounds.¹ Males as well as females are affected.