Broken Tail?

[PerfectPit]

Beastley woke up this morning and won't move his tail. He eats/drinks normal but won't lift his tail. If you touch it he cries and tries to bite. He went to bed acting normal but this morning he won't move it. Nothing unusual happened through the night that I know of. I gave him an aspirin but I want to wait awhile before taking to the vet. You can touch his bottom and he doesn't react, but he won't sit "normal" he sits sideways. Anyone have any ideas?

[Taffys_Angel]

There are a few things I can think of.... but all require you getting him to the vet ASAP and looked at.

[Curly_07]

Yep, what she said. It could be his tail, a spinal problem, anything really, but you need to get a vet to look at it ASAP.

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[pitbullgirlbc]

Could be something serious or could be something minor. Best bet is to get him to the vet rather then wait it out, Buddy has this about once a year as he is prone to Beaver Tail but we take him to the vet to be safe as you can never tell.

[Cherry]

Cherry had a deep pyoderma on her tail and it was extremely painful for her. She's yelped once in her entire life, but this tail had her literally screaming if you touched it.

[Misskiwi67]

And don't give any more aspirin. Its not anywhere near as safe as people think it is, and it prevents your vet from giving your dog a safer medication.

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

Could be something that isn't serious such as "dock tail" or "cold tail" (hehe beavertail...never heard it called that pitbullgirlbc. beavertails are pastries here) or it could be a pelvic fracture, arthritis, disc disease, etc.

As suggested above, regardless of what it is, it's obviously painful and you should see your vet.

[pitbullgirlbc]

Lol our old vet called it beavertail and the yes I found out it is actually cold tail. It's a PITA and very painful but my guy gets it once a year usually.

[PerfectPit]

I contacted the vet and he said to come in Thurs. He said he just had a full physical and everything was good with him. He told me to give him an aspirin every 8 hrs if he appeared in pain. Currently he is moving it and lifting it as usual unlike yesterday. He is acting his usual self again. I will take him in just to be on the safe side. He said if it appears to get worse over the weekend give him a call and he will open up his office for me. But since he seems to be using it normal again and eating and eliminating normal. He felt it would be okay but to just keep an eye on it for any more signs of pain. I trust my vet and he has always been really receptive to my concerns with my animals. What is cold tail or beaver tail?

[pitbullgirlbc]

Well imber tail may be caused by lots of swimming in water that is too cold or too warm, or engaging in heavy exercise of some sort. Buddy gets it a lot as he loves to swim no matter what and can over exercise for his age. Basically it is very painful at the base of the tail and your dog won't be able to lift it and it goes "limp" but usually goes away within a day or a week. It can be very scary if your not use to it and the best thing is to keep them well rested and it goes away on it's own

[Shoshana]

What did y'all do the day before his tail got all wonky? Did he do something different? Get more exercise?

I hope it's just cold tail (DH keeps calling it tired tail). Peanut had it once and it looked really funny and we were really worried but although it was painful it went away pretty quickly. (A few days) The thing is it showed up while we were still at the pool and I don't remember her sitting funny - she usually has her tail up in the air and when she had this the first inch or so was horizontal and then it just drooped.

[Misskiwi67]

I contacted the vet and he said to come in Thurs. He said he just had a full physical and everything was good with him. He told me to give him an aspirin every 8 hrs if he appeared in pain. Currently he is moving it and lifting it as usual unlike yesterday. He is acting his usual self again. I will take him in just to be on the safe side. He said if it appears to get worse over the weekend give him a call and he will open up his office for me. But since he seems to be using it normal again and eating and eliminating normal. He felt it would be okay but to just keep an eye on it for any more signs of pain. I trust my vet and he has always been really receptive to my concerns with my animals. What is cold tail or beaver tail?

Aspirin is 4 times more likely to cause gastric ulcers than other NSAID type medications, causes gastric ulcers in a majority of patients with chronic usage, causes permanent changes to platelets, and alters the stomach lining of the gut for up to 3 weeks post administration making it unsafe to use other medications with/after it.

I have to question how much your vet is keeping up on the latest information if he's allowing a seriously painful problem to wait 7 days and is recommending a potentially dangerous medication when there are safer alternatives.

The ONLY time I recommend aspirin is at very low doses for animals with clotting problems secondary to heart disease (using those platelet side effects to our advantage).

[PerfectPit]

He was playing pretty hard running around doing the zoomies. Then he settled down for bed. He sleeps on his single "human" bed. Wondering if he may of caught it between headboard/mattress. Not really sure since he has his own bedroom. When he got up he wouldn't lift it and when husband touched it he cried out. When I got off work is when I wrote about it. He ate and eliminated normally and was his usual self other then tail.The next day he appeared to be a little better. When I called vet and received instructions and got home he was better yet. Today he is his normal self tail upright no reaction when his tail was touched. I never did have to give him any aspirin other then initial dose first nite.
As far as his current knowleadge on medication. I can only assume he keeps up to date on things. Maybe his response is from on how I described it. I have had the same vet for over 15 yrs. He knows I can overreact to my babies. I am still going to see him just to get a double check/xray in case it could be something else even though Beastley appears to be non reactive to his tail now. He prescribed at one time when my Mastiff (DA) got into it and ripped his shoulder open to heal it because he ripped out the staples/stitches to put honey or Karo syrup on the open wound because it has healing and pain relieves in it along with antibiotics and pain pills it healed it up beautifully and fast. I don't like Rymidol (sp) and he knows I won't give it to them. Because he always provided additional medication to coat his stomach.

[Misskiwi67]

I don't like Rymidol (sp) and he knows I won't give it to them. Because he always provided additional medication to coat his stomach.

I'm glad to hear your pup is doing better.

Rimadyl is still 4 times LESS likely to cause the stomach issues you are worried about. If your vet gives stomach meds with RImadyl, your vet should have told you to give the same medications with aspirin because they are the same drug class. Rimadyl was made for dogs, aspirin was not. Rimadyl is MUCH safer.

Just because a medication has been around longer does NOT make it the better choice.

Posting this not just for you, but for everyone. Over the counter aspirin use in dogs is rampant and scary (and the fact that people think Ibuprofen and tylenol are just as safe is even scarier!)... and prevents emergency vets like me from doing our job well...

[PerfectPit]

Point taken. Thanks for the info. I wll think twice before giving aspirin, I do know about tylenol.