Cold Water Tail - how long to heal? What will help?

So, with all the lovely this week we took Bella, our 3yr old cross breed, down to the lake yesterday and let her have her first swim of the year. She LOVES swimming, and had a fab time.(I do think she has a bit of Lab in there somewhere!)
Trouble is she now has what I think is Cold Water Tail (after lots of googling!) Her tail is hanging down all limp - looks sooooo sad. It started yesterday evening. She seemed to be in some discomfort this morning, but she wil let you move it etc and is doing a bit of gentle low wagging this evening.She is still running etc and seems generally fine in herself now except for a droopy tail.
I am feeling very bad because I should have realised that the water was probably still too cold. I had never heard of Cold Water Tail before though
I have some anti-infam pain killers that vet prescribed not long ago when she hurt her leg so she has had some of that and fingers crossed she will be soon be back to her normal waggy self.
Does any one have any other suggestions for what may help or any ideas how long it will take to be back to normal?
(obviously I will take to vet if she doesnt seem to be gtting better)

I had never heard of that before. A quick google search talks about 2 weeks or so, but I would prob head down the vets just incase

My GSD had swim tail about 4 years ago....he had an anti flam injection & was fine the next day.
It makes the tail muscles go into spasm....resulting in clamping & droopiness.
I don't let him overdo the jumping into deep water now.

Dead tail, swimmers tail etc etc there are many terms for this very common condition.

It does not matter if the water is hot or cold and in fact it can occur even if dogs have not been swimming.

Gundog owners tend to be very familiar with it especially if they work their dogs as of course many will retrieve game from in and across the water.

I have been very lucky, none of my 6 dogs have ever suffered from this.

It is not "healing" it is just some temporary nerve numbness that will return normally in a few days.

Don't worry it is very common and some dogs have this every few weeks or so with no detrimental effects.

HTH

My Lab has had this several times. Not from cold water, but from lukewarm water that I had bathed him in. It took me a couple of times to work out the connection between the warm water and him getting 'cold tail'.

The one time I took him to the vets about it, the vet openly admitted that she had never heard of the condition.

It always went within a few days. I also bath him in cold water now!

As other says, it's not necessary the tempature of the water that causes it.

Its really a sprain, to much work and then getting cold.

If its really bad, I give Luna a painkiller a couple of days. Keep her warm and relaxed.

thanks for the replies all. It does seem slightly better today - a bit more wag returned! though still not back normal. might be a combination of lots of running round the woods this week and playing with her new doggy companion and then swimming - maybe just too much wagging for one week!
I will keep an eye on how she goes but she seems to be not too bothered by it!