My dog is a victim of lockdown. Please help.

[Tree1568]

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About a year ago a small terrier pulled a chunk of hair from my deerhounds tail. He was annoyed at first but didn’t cause him any grief so left him to it. After a year I’ve finally been able to go see him since he’s staying with family and saw the state of his tail. The picture isn’t clear because he keeps wriggling but it’s a bald spot with the hair around it either matted or covered in a brown scab. He was scratching incessantly (which my family insisted was down to nervousness and frustration) but after a quick peruse he had what looked like brown dandruff on his belly which I presumed to be flea dirt and so I treated it with frontline before I had to leave. Could this be related to his tail? I’m going to bang on at my family to take him to a vet but when they said “I didn’t know what was happening because of Covid” I was so tempted to call the RSPCA on them.

 

[Tree1568]

 

[Noodles]

That looks a lot like stud tail to me, the violet gland, androgens. Happened to our lad after an attack in April, it's cleared up now. Can cause skin issues all over if not treated but apparently a lot of vets don't seem to know about stud tail even though it's common.

 

[JudyN]

Vets can see pets at the moment - generally, the owner will talk to the vet outside, then the vet takes the dog into the consulting room to examine him if necessary. They could also send the above photo to the vet in case the vet is happy to diagnose and/or recommend treatment based on that. There really is no excuse for not getting him whatever treatment he needs, so I hope you can persuade them.