Chewing On Tail

[Guest dougbb]

Doug started chewing and licking a focused area of his mid-tail two days ago, and it quickly started looking red, raw, and sore. I tried wrapping it in a strip of fabric yesterday, but he consistently managed to push the fabric off and get back to nibbling on the area. Today, when taking a closer look, he yelped when I pressed gently on it. (Poor dude!) I cleaned the spot with non-sting alcohol wipes, smeared it with antibacterial gel, and wrapped it in gauze and tape. I'm also trying my best to catch him when he starts investigating the area. Anything else I should do? Is there a point when I should take the matter to the vet?

[tbhounds]

Could be his anal glands that are bothering him. Also, did you check for fleas?

[KF_in_Georgia]

My personal rule is that if the dog is harming himself and I can't stop him, I need help from the vet.

[Guest dougbb]

Thanks for the responses. I recently gave him a dose of Advantage II and don't see any flea evidence on him, and he isn't itching much elsewhere. I'm thinking it's a hot spot or something like it, most likely induced by anxiety -- he's now focused on that area (rather far down along his tail) only when left home alone. What a bummer -- we've done so much to ease his separation anxiety, thought we'd successfully got him comfortable alone for longer periods of time, and now this. I'm setting up a vet appointment this week. Any suggestions on how to treat the spot and prevent chewing in the meantime? The spot is raw and crusty looking at the moment, with almost all the hair missing. :-(

[tbhounds]

I would clean the area with diluted chlorhexadine solution (nolvasan) and apply a cream/ointment like animax/panalog.

[KF_in_Georgia]

Put a greyhound basket/kennel muzzle on him when you can't supervise him. You may need to use a poop guard (or duct tape) to prevent licking/chewing through the holes in the muzzle. The more he chews on the spot, the more damage he'll do and the more it'll itch.

 

He may try the pity-me gambit: he'll try to scrape the muzzle off on the walls, the furniture, and you, and he'll look miserable. But he won't be as miserable with the muzzle on as he'll make himself with the muzzle off. When I first got her, my girl with a skin condition had to wear a muzzle nearly 24 hours a day for months before we got her problem cleared up.

 

By the way, she had separation anxiety as well as a legit skin problem. We were concerned that her chewing would become a behavioral anxiety reaction. We put her on clomipromine (clomicalm) for the SA and kept her on it until we got the skin problem cleared up. Once the skin problem was eliminated, we eased her off the clomipromine and stopped muzzling her. The chewing behavior did not resume and the SA is under control (as long as she's crated when I'm not home).