# Kinked tail on a Lab Puppy



## Excaliber (Apr 4, 2007)

I was hoping some of you might have some insight you could add on this subject.
We have a deposit on second pick yellow female in a litter and there is only two girls.
The problem is one has a kink in it's tail. Since we have the second pick it looks like the one with the kink in it's tail is our only option.

We did some research and could find very little information on this type of a fault in Labs.
We are waiting for pictures from the breeder to see how bad it really is but we are seriously thinking about not taking this pup.
I talked to a couple Breeders and they said tail kinks are very rare in Labs.

We had thought of breeding this female down the road but we would not even think about breeding her with this kind of a fault. I'm not sure if it's genetic or if mom accidentally stepped on it.

What would you do? Would you get your deposit back and look for another pup or is a tail fault normal?

The breeders were willing to reduce the price 100.00 but for the money we are paying for this pup I want one that has no defects at all. 

Are we blowing this out of proportion or is there indeed a reason for concern here?


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## Targander (Jul 6, 2004)

My experience:

Way back in the 70's I actually had a litter, almost all had a "kink" in their tails. Wasn't good news. Every one that had the kink (born with them) had a "major" heart defect. All had died well before 2 years of age. One of the females, particularly violent  

I also had another litter a bit later on, and sure enough (sire had the same bloodline as with the first litter), 2 had the "kinks"...born with them. Both had a congenital heart defect, Grade 4.

Now, I am NOT saying this is your pups situation, nor am I implying it, but you need to find out if it was from an accident or if she was born with it. Also, was the puppy's heartbeat listened to on or before 3 days old. Murmurs can magically disappear after a few days, only to show up again at a later time.

I wish you the best on your decision.


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## Bill Watson (Jul 13, 2005)

Well, we had a different result on our "kinky tailed" dog. I had been hunting with some good friends and their 2 dogs, an older male and a 12 week old female. % of us surrounded a foggy farm pond that was covered with Blue Bills and with "TAKE 'EM" we all stood and shot. In the fog the ducks circled, we reloaded and shot some more. All the ducks were picked up by the dogs, with the 12 week old pup female picking up 5 of them herself. I told them that when they bred these two I wanted a pup from the litter. Well, they let the two run together and when the female came in season at 9 months she got bred!

I saw the litter of 12 pups when they were 3 days old and there was one of them with a tail that looked looked like a cork screw and she was the runt of the litter. Since they were giving me the dog and it was unusual, that was the one I picked. When she was full grown, her tail came out about 3 inches from her body, turned straight down and had a double twist in it. (She never knocked anything off the coffee table as long as she lived).

When she was approaching 2 years we asked the Vets at Auburn if there was a possibility of this being genitic in nature and was assured that it was not. They said that the tail was probably crooked up in the embryonic sack as the pups were so crowded in the young dams belly and had stayed that way.

We bred her four different times and had a total of 40 pups and she was the foundation bitch of our kennel, Gator Point, and nearly every dog we have produced over the last 23 years goes directly back to William J.'s Queen of Cork. She was my personal hunting dog for years and I can only recall one Dove and one duck that I knocked down, that she didn't retrieve. She even made a 250 yard retrieve of a Speckled belly Goose down near Little Chenier, La. in the marsh.

None of her pups ever had a curly tail, but two had a little kink toward the outer end of theirs. All of them swam in straight lines. Glad we had her, Bill
________
The Sanctuary of Truth Pattaya


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## caesarlabrador (Jun 26, 2006)

We had a puppy once that was born with a kink in its tail. When it was first born I thought that it tail was docked as the rest of the tail was bent straight down so that you couldn't really see it. Vet told us that it is caused by a ligament(forgive me if it is a tendon, I can never get them straight) on one side of the tail being shorter than on the other side which causes a crook in the tail. As the puppy's tail grows it will eventually straighten and hardly be noticeable as an adult dog. The puppy was normal in every other regard. Normal heart. The dog is now a couple years old and perfectly normal in every other regard except that it was born with a tail kink, which is hardly noticeable now. Good luck!

Danielle


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## Andy Carlson (Jan 3, 2003)

Roger Perry who posts here has a bitch with a crook in her tail - in fact her name is By Hook or By Crook! Hooker will be 8 years old in July, has her MH and I believe is QAA. None of the other pups in the litter had a crook in their tails.

Andy


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## Excaliber (Apr 4, 2007)

Thanks for your replies so far. I have been trying to do as much research on tail faults and I have not yet really found much on the subject other that they happen sometimes.

I'll keep trying to find out more about this.

I really appreciate all your help and if anyone else has any info on where I could find more help on this topic please post here or PM me.
Thanks

Mike


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## jeff t. (Jul 24, 2003)

I've seen this on a couple of pups and they did not improve significantly with time.

How much it matters depends on how much it bothers you to look at it. Hopefully, any pup you purchase will live with you for many, many years and you will be looking at that tail for a long time. 

Some folks don't care about the tail as long as the dog can do the work. To me, the appearance of the tail matters, whether it is a kink, a stub, or a "gay" tail that is very curved. 

If it bothers you, perhaps it is best to let someone else buy it who doesn't care one way or the other.

Jeff


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