[Brookediamond]

Hi my 2 year old English Springer spaniel has not been able to wag his tail now for nearly 4 weeks?.
This is what has happened.
We frontlined him and he had a huge chemical burn appear on his neck from a reaction to the frontline!
We took him swimming to get the chemical of him and then took him to the vets.
Vets treated chemical burn with painkiller ( meta calm) and antibiotics for the burn as it was a horrendous mess.

The next day charlie ( our dog) was chasing a few chickens around the yard , my wife grabbed his bum to stop him chasing( not too hard but firmly).
She then put him in the car and came home.

As she returned home, Charlie yelped as he got out of the car and has not moved his tail properly since.

Our first thoughts were cold tail syndrome but he isn't in any pain as far as we can see and it's been a month now!

We have had blood work and X-rays done on his tail and all looks good.

My wife horse vet said it could be the neuro toxin in the frontline?, his personality did change after the burn and he was a different dog for 10 days or so but now he is back to normal except for his tail!

The dogs vet is pushing us to MRI scan him? I'm unsure about this as he has to have another anaesthetic for the scan and he takes 3 days to come around after

HELP PLEASE

 

[Amaryllis]

It could be limp tail syndrome. Swimming and then sitting in a car are both typical of limp tail syndrome. However, LTS should fix itself within 2 weeks. You're now at twice that. Dogs don't always display pain, so him not appearing to be in pain doesn't mean he isn't in pain.

I would consult with a different vet. If they both recommend MRIs, you may want to consider that, though I understand not wanting to anesthetize the dog.

 

[sassafras]

When you say your wife grabbed his bum, do you mean she grabbed him by the tail?

 

[Brookediamond]

It could be limp tail syndrome. Swimming and then sitting in a car are both typical of limp tail syndrome. However, LTS should fix itself within 2 weeks. You're now at twice that. Dogs don't always display pain, so him not appearing to be in pain doesn't mean he isn't in pain.

I would consult with a different vet. If they both recommend MRIs, you may want to consider that, though I understand not wanting to anesthetize the dog.

Many thanks.
Yes I thought limp tail/ cold tail/ rudder tail but we have had dogs with this before and this time itis different. He can move it to the side and hold it there but it won't wag .

Sometimes you can see he is trying to get it to wag , one move to left, one move to right but it does not wag.
And he can hold his tail up, unlike rudder tail which hugs the body.

We think it's neurological brought on by the side effects from Frontline, and are unsure if an MRI scan will actually help?

 

[Brookediamond]

When you say your wife grabbed his bum, do you mean she grabbed him by the tail?

She grabbed him on the top of his bum, but, not with enough force to cause damage. It is very coincidental with the frontline which is why we think they are linked. The frontline small print says that in rare occasions the side effects are nueroligical and the signs he showed were linked but we did not expect the tail to still not wag after four weeks. The horse vet says that the chemical used to kill fleas from frontline paralyses them and we think that because the burn on his neck was so severe that the frontline has entered his blood system and caused neurological damage.

 

[sassafras]

The top of his bum, like.. his body? Or the base of his tail?

Honestly I'd be more suspicious that there was some kind of nerve damage from getting his "bum" grabbed than from the Frontline. It doesn't quite make sense to me that a neurotoxin would affect a dog wagging its tail but nothing else, especially the particular active ingredient in Frontline, and especially not permanently (or as long term as it's been anyway). Grabbing onto the tail base of a dog to get it to stop chasing chickens, on the other hand, could easily stretch or damage nerves that only affect the tail.

Not saying anyone is terrible person, I've used tails as "handles" before, but it doesn't take that much force back there where the spinal cord doesn't have that much surrounding support and with that kind of grab all the force is directed in a pulling motion in one direction.