Swimmers Tail

[SouthernDixie]

I saw the term "swimmers tail" used to describe a dog who had issues with not being able to sit comfortably, weird attitude, and a tail stuck in the downward position.

Can anyone elaborate on this? What might cause it and how can you help "get it back to normal"? Google apparently doesn't know much on this. :)

(I do not have this issue with a dog; just curious)

[brat pack]

I am not sure if it is the same thing, but.....My 3yr old male dog ate some pecans hull and everything before we could stop him. That was okay until time to pass them out the ol rectum. It wasn't but a few, but he had a crook in his tail, downward, a hump in his back. You could tell he was very uncomfortable. I put some olive oil in a dish and he lapped that up. Did it a couple more times, spaced apart of course, and he was able to pass the pecan hulls. I was probably lucky it didn't perforate his intestines. He has since acted that way with the hump in his tail and it has always been the case that he ate something he shouldn't have. Don't know if that answered your question.

[bahamutt99]

You know, I've had some dogs do that in the past. Almost as if they've strained their tail and need to let it hang down for a few days. They always came back on their own. Kinda weird though.

[DryCreek]

I found this.......

http://bbs.sitstay.com/showflat.php?Cat=1,2,3,4,9&Board=health&Number=192658

http://www.dockdogs.com/Columns/Canine_Health/Dead_Tail_20060125204.html

[SouthernDixie]

Thank you DryCreek. The links you posted very pretty informative on the subject!

[DryCreek]

Always happy to help....

I actually use a dog based search engine to find things such as this.

http://www.dogpile.com/

[SouthernDixie]

I've never used that search engine. "Add to Favorites" :)