How to treat my English Bulldog's irritated, itchy screw tail?

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Betty! If it is a moist dermatitis around or under her tail the best thing is to prevent licking by using an E-collar, start her on an oral antibiotic and steroid course to dry it out. Without seeing a picture or examining her it is hard to know what the inciting cause is: has she been scooting and has full anal glands? Is is allergies. It is best to make an appointment with your Vet since it hasn't improved. Otherwise give your treatment several days to see if it will help then take her in. I hope this helps and I wish Betty a speedy recovery!

Unfortunately not much you can do back home. This is probably due to an allergy, although it could also be infection or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment, then ask the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try to discover the cause of the allergy. Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

It sounds like he could have allergies. Allergies commonly cause redness of the skin and can affect pretty much any part of the body. If there is also flaking, crusting, itching or an odor, those are signs that the skin is infected. Infection can be from yeast or bacteria or sometimes a combination of the two. It could also be a parasite on the skin such as mites. I would recommend taking him to your veterinarian for a skin scraping. This is where they take a sample from the surface of the skin and look at it under the microscope. This way they can determine the cause and know how best to treat it. Until then, you can try a topical triple antibiotic ointment and some hydrocortisone to see if that will give him some relief. I hope this helps and that Bob gets feeling better soon!

She will probably need either antibiotics or anti fungal oral medications at this point, you will also need to continue with the daily cleansing simultaneously, i would recommend taking her to your vet ASAP in order to get it treated.

It could be an allergic reaction to an insect bite or a traumatic wound. Itchy bumps are almost always allergic in nature however. You can try topical soothing creams (sold at your local pet store) for allergic reactions, and cleaning it with chlorhexidine solution 3% or iodine diluted 50:50 with warm water. This will help some with the inflammation. If it still isn't better after 24-48 hrs then it is best to have your vet take a look at it and potentially give her stronger medications to treat it.

It’s hard to say if he tail is infected since it just looks crusty now with the treatment. It does look swollen. Test it for pain or being able to feel heat as this can indicate infection. If that is detected, try to get him into the veterinarian ASAP. Applying sterile petroleum jelly can also help condition the skin and promote healing. The biggest component is to prevent more trauma. He ears do not appear red or seem to have an excessive amount of debris so I would say that look normal to me. Definitely keep an eye on the ears for redness, odor or shaking the head as this indicates a problem. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. I would recommend applying a topical medication such as zymox topical ointment to the affected area twice daily until resolved. This red and inflamed area is likely due to Cooper rubbing his bottom on the floor and should resolve, as long as he is not licking at the area. This ointment can be found online quite eaily. I hope this help! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.