stud tail

Just putting this up as information. Harvey developed stud tail around 2 years ago when going through 'puberty' and his teenage stage.

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.

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

Great post!

Dempsey has a similar spot on his tail, but that's mange. Lovely!

Harvey's stud tail

Anyway harvs stud tail appeared when he was majorly going through puberty and the teenage stage, and his was caused by the overload of hormones in him rather then an infection.

not brilliant photo but you get the idea


How i treated it.

Normally vets prescribe steroids, and harsh shampoo to keep bathing it in as the skin can get really greasy and dry with the lack of fur etc etc

I didn't take that route and treated it at home myself - possibly a longer recovery time for the fur but i will not use steroids.

Anyway when i first noticed it the fur fell out quite quickly, so i bathed the skin in colloidal silver to keep the skin clean and keep any greasyness to a minimum. I then (one it's dried) rubbed liberal amounts of coconut oil and emu oil a few times a day on alternative days. Also upped the amount of coconut oil i fed him.

Coconut oil is anti bacteria and anti inflammatory amongst other things, and emu oils is great for fur/hair regrowth with many many other health benefits. So the combination covered all problems on his tail.

Also I now feed turmeric in oil, this seems to have given the fur a growth spurt and has grown back quickly recently.

what it looks like now

ECdogs wrote:Great post!

Dempsey has a similar spot on his tail, but that's mange. Lovely!

Aww dempster it's easy to see why ST might be diagnosed as mange and visa versa

Yeah, I should imagine a lot of dogs with stud tail would be misdiagnosed with mange. The photo isn't very clear, but this is Dempsey's mangy tail:



Great information Ella!

Thanks hope it helps

I bet it will!

Great thread - thank you!

no problem