I have a male lab that turned a year old last Thursday, this is my first lab and my first hunting dog in general. I have been working him in the water lately getting ready for duck season and he has been doing great. Opening morning he did about 4 retrieves while hunting and ran around my lake house all day sat. Sat evening I noticed his tail was not working and a hunting buddy told me his male has the same issues and informed me it was called cold tail or limber tail. Anyone have these issues? I didn't hunt him Sunday or Monday and let him relax in the house while we hunted.

My Wirehaired Vizsla had the same thing happen; we were getting ready for duck season. The water was pretty cold, but he did fine - no apparent issues. The next morning his tail was limp and sore to touch. It stayed that way for about a week, getting better with each day. That was about 3 years ago. We've been in water much colder, but no issues, so I'm not sure what combination contributed to the issue.

I have never personally had this issue, however I googled it and found this website. I hope it is of some use to you.http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/coldtail.html

My dog has had it a few times. My vet said it can come from a number of things, but typically it comes from one of the following:

Extreme cold water
Extreme fatigue
Poor conditioning

I gave him some Derrmax and let him rest for a week or so. He was fine after that.

Good luck to you.

mine had the same problem last season, give it a couple of days and he'll be fine

I have all time but i blame it on age.

I would be surprised that the water is cold enough this time of year for that. Anal glands could cause the same problem.


Robby

My lab had this... Took almost a week to get better

My MIL has a choc lab and she gets is every time she goes swimming. She can swim for >10 mins and she still gets it. Not sure what causes it but my 2 labs (8yrs and 1yr old) have never got it and they swim quite a bit.

So the comment above about the poor conditioning may have some truth to it.

Mine had it last year. First hunt after the split. She hasn't had it since, just the one time. My city vet was stumped on it, now I go to a country vet who hunts and knows of such things. It wasn't any big deal but took a good week to get fully healed.