Hans won't wag his tail

[Heather]

Hi,

For the past 48 hours, my 5 yr old, Hans, has not wagged his tail. Not even for dinner or a walk. He seems fine otherwise, he runs, does the one stair we have into the house, and is eating just fine. I touched his tail, and he does not flinch, but I can tell he is cautious about it.

Here is a picture of Hans Bean and Gretel taking a nap. Note that the angle makes hans look portly, but he isn't, it is just the picture.

This has happened once before, and after a few days, it was fine. Today, his tail is about 1/2 mast, and he did wag it a little this morning when I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk.

I have made a vet appointment, I have to take my cat, so I figured I would take him along.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what the problem might be?

Here is a picture of Hans, Bean and Gretel taking a nap. The angle makes Hans look portly, but he is not overweight.

<IMG SRC="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1027765&a=7586129&p=52082452&Sequence=0&res=high" border=0>

<FONT COLOR="#00FFFF" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by Heather on July 24, 2001 at 08:21 AM</font>

[dutchman]

Hi Heather,

I would keep a very close eye on Hans. Not wanting to move a trail can be an early sign of possible back problems. I suspect you were already guessing that since you are posting in the back forum. A vet visit is a very good idea and a set of back x-rays would be worth the cost. When he is like this I would suggest crate rest just in case. I know when Aggie's back blew out she had been holding her tail out much more (she had always been a passive tail tucker but had ben gaining confidence and keeping her tail out more). She would hold her tail out straight behind her slightly lower angle than most dachshunds would hold their tails. This tail behavior went on for 2-4 days before the major rupture occurred. I am now almost sure this tail behavior was the first indicator that her disk were developing problems.

Have you tried doing a toe drag test or observed any toe dragging? IF so then I would request an immediate visit with my vet. I'm not very good at describing the toe drag but here goes. Try placing hands in a standing position then turn a paw backward so that the top (toes) of the paw are resting on the ground. A healthy dog will almost always immediately return the paw to an upright position.

Good luck,

Tom and the boys (Frank and Tanner)

[Heather]

An update on Hans' tail.

He is wagging it now, and it seemed to go away totally in about two days. The vet felt that it was a tail sprain at the base, and not his back. He did quite a bit of prodding and poking, and Hans did not even flinch.

Hans is quite active, so I suppose it is likely that he backed into something, or wacked it on the door. But, I just have this nagging feeling. The vet did not suggest x-rays, but if it happens again, I will have them done.

He is totally back to normal, but I just have a bad feeling...

[dutchman]

I'm glad to hear you got a clean bill of hearth as far as the tail problem went. Jut keep an eye open if it happens again and you vet won't do an x-ray consider a second vet. As far as the heart murmur try going to a search engine like www.google.com (http://www.google.com) and putting in the term you should get more hits than you know what to do with if you use google you might want to enter "+Heart +Murmur +dog" without the quotes to narrow the results.

Since all my adult life dogs have been rescues I've learned to take what comes. Aggie the mill mother who's back blew out big time at age 4, Frank adopted at age 6 months from the local humane society appears to have come from a good quality breeder. Tanner from CDR (Colorado) and before that a night Deposit at the Denver Dumb Friends League may have been a BYB or pet store puppy. We take the quality days and hope for the best.

Good luck,

Tom and the boys (Frank and Tanner)