Possible broken tail but not limp tail

[Jolene, Sassparilla & Josie]

Not a doodle but looking for feedback regarding my sister golden.  She's thinking he may have been hit by a car since he was found alongside the road.  He showed no pain to his hips and seems to be passing bowels movements fine but his tail is very painful and limp right at the base of the body. Anyone experience this before, the symptoms don't match limp tail so the vet ruled that out but was unable to take xrays due to severe discomfort the dog was in.  He has now stopped eating and my sister is beside herself. She lives on a very remote island so a second opinion would be a long hard and very painful boat ride across the Puget Sound in Washington state. Has anyone experienced something like this, if so what did you/they do and how long was recovery? She was given pain meds but to me it sounds like it's not working very well? TIA

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The dog desperately needs to be seen by a vet. I understand that your sister has limited access, but he very well could have internal injuries in addition to broken bones. I can promise you this involves more than his tail.
Dogs are often sedated to take Xrays, so the fact that he is in severe comfort doesn't prevent doing X-rays. Your siste is just going to have to be a little bit assertive here, and tell the vet that this dog needs help and he/she needs to provide it. 

NOBODY online has experienced "something like this", because even if they have had a dog hit by a car or otherwise injured, the injuries are going to be different in every case. Please tell your sister not to waste time asking for opinions on social media and get her dog back to the vet NOW. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

And the symptoms you are describing involving the tail could also indicate a spinal injury.

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

Yup- what Karen said. I'm wondering what kind of Vet it was as he didn't take X-rays due to severe pain... doesn't make sense to me. That is all that much more reason to sedate and get the X-ray! 

I wish your sis and this poor pup well...

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Jolene, do you have an update on your sister's golden?

[Jolene, Sassparilla & Josie]

So my sister made it back to the same vet (I think) and they finally took the xrays (6 from what I understand) the vet insists there is nothing broken and this is purely arthritis related? The vet said they have never seen arthritis this bad in this young of a dog ( he's 7) and they have no idea how he's even upright and moving about yet this dog lives on an island and runs, walks and swims day in / day out? As a follow up she had the xrays sent to another vet on the mainland who basically told her the same thing? In the meantime they changed pain pills and it has made a world of difference.

My sister sent me an email the other night asking the following:

Jolene,
has your group discussed the safety of NSAIDS for dogs? I've been reading so much on the internet--and talking with the mainland vet--someone expressed concern about dogs on NSAIDS.

I see the Orcas vet has prescribed Carprofen for Foster when he finishes the previcox prescription. I just read some horror stories online about it.

Any feedback/suggestions? Can arthritis onset that abruptly and what options does she have. He's a huge golden with a long massive tail.

Sassy just had her PT evaluation and the vet had nothing but positive things to say on PRP and shockwave for calcium deposits and arthritis?

Sassy is doing really well after the PRP but we have been on leash restriction, there is signs of muscle deterioration and stiffness in addition to the obvious tendon tear. Also her entire shoulder area is showing signs of "global" arthritis. Not sure what the global means but they keep using that damn word! The PT vet thought she saw another injury area and had a message out to the surgeon, she said it could be the actual initial injury and the tendon tear was a result of oh whats the word I'm looking for oh heck, well basically favoring this initial injury? She may want another MRI to see but again is waiting on the surgeons response. She also reached out to a colleague in Switzerland to discuss Sassy's case! She officially starts PT tomorrow beginning with stretching and balance then working to water treatment. There are a lot of acronyms under the list of treatments so not sure what else they have planned it was a long grueling evaluation (over 2 hrs and she did great and surprisingly showed no signs of pain afterwards which is a really big deal. PT vet said based on that we'll be able to determine her pain level and know how aggressively we can work her.