weird tail, is it normal

Hi,
literally overnight my dogs tail has gone from being a normal s shape tail to a constant c shape curling under him. he's not nervous doesn't seem unhappy, he didn't like it when i touched his tail to investigate. is it something i should be worried about?
Many thanks
Ian

post some photos? as anybody step on it

will do, no-one has stepped on it or has he trapped it

you may want to take him to the vets because if does not like you touching it something is broken or wrong.

Hi and welcome to the forum
Any loud noises last night that might have frightened him?
Can you smell a slight fishy smell?
Has you dog started to groom himself more?

having trouble uploading pic any ideas?

It could be as Steve is sugesting that he has hurt his tail.
Or sometimes when the anal glands are causing discomfort, the dog can cower the tail between the legs

i'll take him to the vets, anal glands isn't something i want to investigate!

How has his stool been? Is there a fishy smell? It may not be the anal glands, is was just a suggestion

you need a photobucket account, upload your photos on there when you have below each photo there should be options you need the IMG code

his poos are normal and smell normal

https://s1178.photobucket.com/albums/x374/sehno1ram/

img code

Did your dog have a swim or a bath last night?

now i know i to get photos on chers steve

no swim or bath last night but did have a wash wed after going into the canal

He may have what is known as limber tail.
Best thing to do is to get a vet to check it out.

think that will be the best option
thanks

But it looks like limber tail syndrome to me

hes a good looking boy

thanks steve unfortunately i can't take the credit for that! (or fortunately)

If it's limber (or cold tail or dead tail) then the vet won't help, and that's if he's even heard of it!
Have a read of this.........
http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/coldtail.html

If it's limber tail, then it will right itself within a couple of weeks. Although he won't be in a lot of pain, he will probably be feeling sorry for himself & you should restrict his exercise for a while. Try not to move the tail yourself a it will hurt him. You'll find he'll have limited movement of it (ie he will be ablr to move the tail out of the way when he poops) but will either let it droop or will clamp it to his body most of the time.

My late staffy Nitro used to have acrroked tail and couldn't curl it as 1 of the kids in the family we got it from(they had 7 kids apparently) stood on his tail when he was a puppy and broke it. It still worked just the same though.

Harley has what my sister calls a piggly wiggly tail as it's curled up like a pigs tail lol, sometimes i hang stuff off it until he realises it's on there.

From the pics it isn't a damaged tail. It's hanging from about 2" out from the base - classic limber tail. I know a fair old bit about that now as Dempsey had exactly the same thing happen to him.....

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t1603-paracetamol?highlight=paracetamol

It scared the living daylights out of me at the time! But if you read through the topic you'll see that it took a very short time to right itself. I'd keep him warm & restrict his exercise for a week or so & if he shows no sign of improvement then phone the vet. Although as I said before a lot of vets won't ever have dealt with it because it's something that mainly happens to working dogs (labradors/spaniels/pointers etc) and unless they have a lot to do with working dogs they won't know it.

Hey, sethno1ram, has this helped? If you're still worried about anything let me know!

the fact that you said he went in the canal on wednesday does point towards limber tail, have a look at these websites and see if these symptoms match?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limber_tail_syndrome

http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/coldtail.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_4530309_identify-limber-tail-syndrome-dog.html

Thats why I asked about the water thing.
Can't believe I didn't think of it when Caryll posted before with the same symptons......sorry Caryll and Dempsey

No problem, it was sugested by someone on the BT site & the symptoms matched exactly. It's scary, though, when you don't know what it is, because you automatically think of spine/tail damage.

Once it starts to clear, it clears really quickly. Dempsey was completely over it in about 2 weeks, but was very much improved by the end of the first week.

Kaiser has had this twice and it is usually after i have bathed him it seems to come on i panicked the first time thought my brother had stood on his tail and wouldnt admit it i wouldnt worry too much his went back to normal both times after about 4 days but they do not like you touching it and you will notice they will sit funny. Hes not had it for a while now so fingers crossed