Last night we gave our 2½ year old Yellow Lab Otto a dose of Frontline. This morning we noticed he can no longer lift his tail into its normal wagging position. It seems to wag from about 3" past the base, and it never gets past 10° short of horizontal. It doesn’t seem to hurt him. I tried Googling for answers, but that produced nothing useful.
Is this a reaction to the flea treatment? Is it permanent?
IIRC, a lowered tail is an indication of fear.
Unless you used the spray version (which is for your carpets and upholstery, not the dog) I think the two are unconnected. AFAICT, my dog can’t smell or taste the one-use tube thingy.
Did you do anything else unusual yesterday? Like a bath, swimming, exercise, or something that resulted in a lot of tail wagging? Labs (and some other breeds) can sometimes strain their tail muscles resulting in what you are seeing (“cold water tail”,“broken wag”). I seem to recall my in-laws seeing this with their goldens and the vet attributing it to an insect bite of some sort at the base of the tail, but I don’t remember the particulars.
I have never seen this using Frontline, but then my rat terrier doesn’t have much to wag.
It can be a pretty boring program, but I’ve never know it to cause physical injury.
LOL I thought maybe they were doing a story in your neighborhood and the camera guy stepped on Rover’s tail.
That.
The four large german breeds that have tails that curl up (rottie, dobie, riesen and boxer) over their backs are prone to this, which is why Isuspect docking of tail started in the first place. We now know it’s easily treatable with common painkiller; I prefer something paracetamol but pick whatever is handy. It won’t hurt the dog if the cold water tail isn’t the problem, and it will fix it in a day or two at almost no cost or fuzz should it actually be cold water tail.
British > American translation: acetaminophen (ie., Tylenol)
Whoa - I’ve learned my thing for the day (I’m going home). That suprises me that drug names would alter across countries - I guess I always think of them as the latin names for plants/animals.
Not aspirin (acetylsaliciylic acid) , though. Small (child’s) doses of buffered aspirin can be used, but full-strength it can hurt their intestines.
OT fact: The chemical name is para-acetylaminophenol.
So para-acetylaminophenol and para-acetylaminophenol and para-acetylaminophenol are all just shortening of the chemical name.
Huh. I posted this 3 hours ago, but for some reason it didn’t take. Oh, well - here goes…
When I got home last night, Otto’s tail was wagging away at a little past horizontal. I should mention it never bothered him, and he’s was happily wagging it in spite of the angle. This morning, before I left for work, it was almost back to normal, with a little kink just at the same spot that it had drooped from before. So, since he hadn’t done anything unusual the day before, I’m pretty convinced it was the Frontline. I’m going to check with the vet before I give any of the animals another dose of the stuff, though.
Thanks for the info on the “cold water tail” - it’ll be good to know when it warms up a bit!
Hey, neat! I never knew that!
Oooh, I feel smarter now.
singular1, I hope your dog gets his wag back soon!
Please never give your pets Tylenol. It will kill your cat and although there is a safe dosage for dogs, it really is not recommended that you use it. If you use too much you can damage their liver. Ibuprofen isn’t any better and too much can cause GI problems and kidney or liver damage. Ask your vet.
I doubt the Frontline directly affected the tail. If you applied it near the tail it could cause some skin irritation or the fleas in their death throes made the dog go a little crazy and it did some intense butt scratching or dragging, wiggling or some such and ended up with a sore tail. There is also a tail pain/paresis syndrome that I forget the name of that could be the cause. We’ve only seen it a couple times.
If he seems to be getting better it’s probably just a little too much butt scratching. Again, don’t give any OTC pain meds without consulting with your vet. You don’t have to rush him in just call and ask.
My Lab had cold tail two years ago. The dog that shows no pain was cowering in pain on the floor. I took her outside for her 6am consitiutional and she dropped to the ground 200’ from the house, I had to carry her back inside. She shook the whole time like she was having a seizure. My wife and I rushed her to the 24 hour vet ER down the street (they had opened up about two months earlier - boy am I happy they’re there) after a “we’re coming to see you” phone call. The vet met us in the lobby as Hallie painfully staggered in. The vet took one look at her and said “I know what the problem is, but we’re going to do a full evaluation anyways, just in case.” Twenty minutes and $200 later, cold tail was the diagnosis.
She prescribed Tramadol for the pain, and told us (get this) “don’t let her wag her tail for a week or so.” Great vet, but come on, she’s a labrador - don’t let her wag her tail?
I had never heard of cold tail before, but the presentation Hallie showed was exactly what was shown on every web site and the pamphlet the vet had given us. Her tail went out about 3 inches, then dropped off slack like there were no bones in it. She couldn’t lift her tail out of the way to do her business, and moving it for her was quite painful for her. It was a tough week.
I can only trace the cold tail to a bath I gave her the day before. I didn’t think the water was too hot or too cold, but her back end apparently thinks differently. After what I saw my baby go through, I wouldn’t wish cold tail on any dog.
I occasionally have to give Frontline when I travel and one of my dogs, a year old border collie, is absolutely a different dog for the first 12 hours after I apply it (doesn’t matter if it is Frontline or Revolution). Normally this is a very confident, happy dog but after application, she becomes extremely agitated or curls up in a corner and won’t come out. I think it has something to do with the smell. She really HATES it. But got to keep the flea/ticks away!