Bad Parenting 101

This saga begins on Sunday afternoon when the weather was nice and we figured that our 4-legged girls would enjoy some time at the park! It hadn't been too rainy, but they both closed right in on the one tiny area where the mud pit always exists. It must be the coolness they feel on their legs wading in the gross, swampy area, but it never fails that they leave the park a dirty mess. Once we got home, we bathed them out back with baby shampoo so that they would smell fresh and look sparkling to see both "grandmas" the next day on Mothers Day!

The weekend continued on, but when my parents came over on Sunday, we all started noticing that Bailey's tail wasn't wagging. (Anyone who's met this dog before knows what I mean when I say that tail is never down!). She is the happiest dog in the world and is constantly wagging her tail at everything! We decided to keep an eye on her as sometimes her tummy gets upset from eating too much grass, eating mulch, etc. It wasn't until 10pm Sunday night that we would realize what happened and what we did to our child.

As Derek was googling "limp tail", he came across several websites that suggested several terms like "dead tail" and "limber tail". We had no idea how that could have happened until we saw the site for "cold water tail". Basically, the water that we bathed her with outside on Saturday was too cold (even though it was 75 degrees out!) and caused the muscles to temporarily paralyze around the base of her tail. Hunting dogs sometimes have this often when they are constantly retrieving from cold water. Cold Water Tail can last just a few days to 2 weeks and can "be somewhat painful for the animal".


Our hearts sank when reading this (among some guilty laughing for realizing what we did to her) and I thought to myself that it's probably a good thing I don't have a real baby right now!
Bailey did slightly wag her tail this morning and we're making sure she's not too stimulated to let that tail rest. Equipped with Tylenol and lots of snuggling, this little girls tail should be back in no time!