stud tail

Just putting this up as information. Harvey developed stud tail around a year ago when going through 'puberty' and his teenage stage, which has now almost fully gone

Stud tail or Tail Gland Hyperplasia

It gets the name "Stud" Tail because it's more commonly seen in un-neutered male dogs. There's a gland called a sebaceous gland at the top of the tail where it meets the body. The gland becomes over active or infected, causing it to produce an over abundance of oils, fur loss and darkening of the skin.

The are different severities depending on the cause over active gland has been linked to 'too much testosterone' in the body (another reason it's called stud tail) and is usually just hair loss in the area but the skin does not get infected, like in harvey's case

It can be due to an infection and the skin can get infected and have sores and crusty skin.

Recommended treatment is frequent bathing of the area with a prescribed shampoo which removes the oils, and a short term use of steroids which takes down the inflammation of the gland and antibiotics for infection.

I didn't take that route and treated it at home.

But this is not a very common complaint but is likened to dog acne which if the cause is merely puberty then isn't linked to any other underlying health problems is not thought to cause any lasting damage.

A photo to show you what it looks like

Thanks for the info, Ella

Thanks Ella Glad Harvey is just about all better

Wow, learn something new everyday !

Interesting read.

Hugs to Harvey x

Thanks for the heads up there Ella, always great to know about these things

Thanks for the info, never knew about this before although i have seen it and thought it was a mange type thing!