has anyone else had this happen to their dog 
dog cant lift tail and didnt like me touching the top of his tail and top of his bum
apparently it happens if the tail gets wet or cold

No experience myself but i remeber reading this post a few months a go if it helps.

http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/board/topic_show.pl?pid=1096610;hl=#pid1096610

Yes, one of my Irish Setters had an episode of this when he was younger. It lasted for about 4 days then got better all by itself. They do look miserable though, don't they.

It's not something that was known much, in previously docked breeds.

Dawn R.

my staffy has had it a few times.  she looks really sad when she loses her wag.  It usually clears up in a few days

My lab had this ,vet told me it was due to swimming in cold water,was back to normal in two days.

Sheila.

thing is i,d bathed him the day before the show  and thought id dried him well and he had a good thick towel coat on , in future i will blow dry his tail

I have had experience with this, I think my vet called it wet tail. I had bathed one of my hounds a couple of days before a show, the next morning while brushing him the top of his tail seemed painful and he just wasnt wagging it or holding it up so we went to the vets and he told me that he had this 'wet tail' this apparently affects gundogs a fair bit that work and are in and out of water. He gave me some anti inflammatories and within a day or two he was back to normal. From then on though when I bathed him I always made sure that I dried the area around the base of his tail fully so it didnt occur again.

thing is never had it before BUT my spaniels always were docked before  So does it affect long tails only do you think? only he was favouring the top of his tail area on his croup and cringed down when i touched that area  Funny it didnt affect docked tails

Never seen in in docked GSP's but a few dogs who now have full tails are experiencing the problem. Owners of working labs report this frequently on shooting forums and some working spaniels with long docks (just tip removed) also seem to suffer from time to time so perhaps "lenght" of tail does have some influence of incidence? 

It is known by a number of names - cold water tail, dead tail, broken tail & limber tail depending on what circles you move in ..

K

well its a lot better today he,s wagging it well but have found hes a bit iffy about me going over his backend so im presuming it must still be tender to the touch WISH THEY COULD TALK