Gary's broken tail....

After a cool party on Saturday, where yours truly had toooo many cocktails (a great recipe for Bahama Mamas follows!) and the pool and hot tub saw the most fun since they were completed at Christmas, I was dead to the world (probably snoring) when my hubby woke me up to tell me Gary was crying. He wasn't in his normal position on the bed and had scooted underneath it where he was whining. I asked hubby if he'd accidentally kicked him off the bed, but he responded that unlike me, he wasn't still inebriated and Gary had gone under on his own...We thought that all the 'treats' Gary had had from our guests had given him an upset stomach, but it quickly became apparent that his tail was hanging and looked 'broken'. If you know Gary his little waggy tail is one of the characteristics that make him look super cute, so he was looking very sad and sorry for himself.

His tail is normally up and wagging!

Well we didn't know what was wrong with him, but we knew that he had been swimming and jumping in the pool constantly for about 6 hours... It turns out that he has something called "Cold water tail," "limber tail syndrome," "broken tail," "dead tail," or "broken wag", which are euphemisms for a relatively common occurrence in sporting dogs ( Gary has pointer terrier in him). A flaccid tail episode appears to be a painful, but relatively benign affliction that can occur after too much swimming...hmmmm so now we know what is wrong with him... poor little Gary.

Gary is a German Pointer & Jack Russell Terrier cross

After a miserable Sunday when he couldn't get comfortable at all, he seems to be getting back to normal and even managed a bit of a wag earlier when I came back from the shops... trying not to get him too excited so that it heals up though, but he's definitely not in pain like he was early Sunday

Get better soon little Gary...we love you xx