A ‘tail’ of woe
On Wednesday evening, Ronnie started squeaking loudly when he moved in any way that caused his tail to move upwards. It seemed the source of the pain was at the base of the tail where it joins his back. By Friday morning, he was obviously still in pain whenever his tail moved upwards, so I took him to the vet that afternoon.
As there were no other symptoms (he was eating, drinking, defecating and urinating normally and had no loss of energy), the vet was satisfied there were no major problems and that the tail may have been slightly injured, possibly during a play-fight with Derek, and it’d cure itself. Something similar happened to Ronnie’s tail in July (but obviously to a much lesser extent in terms of pain) and that cured itself within about 10 days.
The vet prescribed Metacam to Ronnie, an anti-inflammatory and painkiller which is primarily used for dogs. He takes a daily dose and the problem should be cured within a week. If not, he’ll need to have an x-ray, but things are looking positive as the pain’s mostly subsided since taking Metacam.
I initially gave the medicine in the morning so it’d be in his body while he was sleeping and would assist the healing, but this meant it wore off by the time he was active at night, so I started giving it to him in the evening instead to cover his active hours and ensure they’re as painless as possible while his tail’s healing.