Pulling fur out of tail

[Holly Doodle]

Holly has recently starting pulling huge chunks of fur out of her tail. It's been going on for about 2 weeks now. She gets a big mouthful and tears it out! I tried spraying her tail with bitter apple to discourage it but I think that made it worse! I'm trying to figure out if she's just bored or if it itches and she's trying to get at it. She has plenty of chew toys to keep her occupied. We haven't given her a bath in over a month and I haven't noticed any dry skin. Does anyone else have this problem or know what may be causing it? Thank you!

[Camilla and Darwin]

is she biting at the base of her tail, or at the tip? If it is at the base of the tail, that can be a sign of fleas... I believe. It's possible that she got a bug bite there... or perhaps she is bored? Darwin used to itch and bite himself a lot, but it wasn't in one localized spot. We bought him Evening Primrose Oil, at the suggestion of people on the board, and it has worked wonderfully. He rarely bites or scratches at himself anymore. I am sure someone else will know more than I do and comment, but I would say if she keeps doing it, take her to the vet to check for fleas.

[Holly Doodle]

Thanks for the reply. It's the tip and in the middle mostly, we treat her with K9 advantix monthly so I don't think it could be fleas. She had dry skin pretty bad around Jan & Feb which we noticed because she had white flakes all over her body. We added oil to her diet which helped, but we stopped in March when it warmed up and the flakes haven't came back. I was thinking it wasn't dry skin because we could see it last time, but maybe it is....we may have to try the oil again. Thank you!

[laurie lehr]

Yes Jasper does this . It started when his puppy coat was shedding . His tail got really thin and shaggy looking . The groomer had to cut it down . He would pull out huge hunks of fur , I didn't think it would ever grow back . We tried to redirect his attention with a bone stuffed with peanut butter or a toy . The hair did grow back and he doesn't do this as much anyway.

[Holly Doodle]

She has been shedding a ton lately...we may have to trim to short too. We never have them cut it when we get her groomed so it's pretty long. You made me feel better, hopefully she'll outgrow it!

[Melissa & Porter]

Porter did it quite a bit at the 9-11 month range. Now he does it occasionally. We do the evening primrose oil too, because he itches other spots too. You can look at the pics on my page to see the Portuguese Water Dog tail we had the groomer give him to try to even out all he'd yanked out. He favored the middle to the base...with a few chunks up high.