Monday, April 04, 2005

The sad sad tale of Cheyenne's tail

The girl pretty much has it made. Translate that into I spoil her rotten, and she goes just about everywhere with me. And this weekend she went to my parents' with me, she spent the night out with me and she spent the day at a friend's house with me. But that could be any given weekend, really.

What marks this weekend as a bit different is that this one was her first real sampling of the upcoming Summer. What do you do in the summer? You swim. And did she ever get to swim. On Saturday at my parents' house, and on Sunday at friends. Big weekend for her. Now, bless her, she's suffering from her tail. It's limp, and that's an odd sight. It's not jutting outward or wagging back and forth or thumping against the walls, table, floor. It's not happy to greet me. Instead, her tail is hanging down, straight down, and very still. She will not sit down. And she was in obvious pain when I ran my hands down her tail this morning.

A couple years ago, I flipped out when this happened and I had her at the emergency vet before you could say this will cost you $400.00 and they won't have a clue what's wrong with her. But today, due to my friends at the AKC, I have gained valuable knowledge. 1) it has a name: Cold Water Tail; 2) it's a fairly common occurrence in sporting dogs; and 3) it's described to me as a painful but benign affliction following swimming in cold water. Not much is known about it other than x-rays tend to confirm swollen muscles at the base of the tail, and that the recovery time is 2-3 days before the tail is in full wagging, swinging, thumping force again.

I feel so bad for her that I want to buy her stuffed animals and ice cream on the way home. I won't, but I want to. She'll get Greenies though, you can count on that.

1 comment:

Adrienne said...

Huh! I never knew anything about such a thing. But then, my dog is AFRAID of water so that is a problem I'll never have to encounter.