I have made an appoiontment to take Barney to the vet tomorrow, but wondered if anyone on this board can shed some light on this. A while ago I noticed that he has a white patch appearing on the base of his tail. All of a sudden it has grown and is quite obvious. He is a black briard, so this looks quite odd. On closer inspection today I could see that all the skin under the white patch has some sort of yellow scabs/dermatitis on it. Where the white patch stops, so do the scabs. I groom him every day, but for some reason have missed it :-o . I haven't a clue what it is, or why it would have turned his hair grey? Poor boy is only 7 months old; I am so frustrated! Does anyone know what this might be?

Is he a boy?  My young lad when he was about a year got something similiar and I tried loads to get rid of it.  Then a judge told me it was a sudden surge of hormones and it would go in a couple of months.  Might be barking up the wrong tree but I hope it will be of some help. If it is the same it went on its own.

Yes he is male. I wonder if that could be it? Did your dog's hair go completely white in that patch? Was it scaly underneath?

Well he is a dalmatian so he is normally white the hair thinned and it went off colour and scaley and horrible looking.  My friend is a vet and she said it also happens to retrievers.  I hope for your sake it is nothing more serious.

This is really funny my friends dog has done the same although not scaly, the vet also said the same to her as he's a stud dog.  She called it stud dog tail and I'd never heard of it before.  Other skin problems don't usually start on the tail I believe so fingers crossed for your boy.

If it's on the upper side of the tail, it sound like the caudal gland.  Quite normal for the hair roots to turn white and the scaley skin is caused by sebaceous gland secretion.  I suppose it could get worse/better with changing hormone levels but I haven't noticed this in my dogs.   My 10 yr old male still has his :-)