Severe hot spot on schanuzer tail. He won't eat - help

by Scott Marcus
(Eureka, CA)

I adopted a 5 yr old mini schnauzer who's wonderful. Yesterday, he went into a severe funk, wouldn't eat, and wouldn't even take a walk. We noticed he was biting under his tail a lot.
When we checked him out, thinking it was the anal glands, he let out a horrible yelp.

We took him to the vet today and it's a severe hot spot/inflamed area under his tail. The vet gave him a shot, put him in the "cone of shame" and said that he thinks he's not eating due to the pain, which should vanish in a few days.

However, he warned me that if he doesn't start eating, we might need to bring him back in. He'll eat if we feed him and he'll drink if we remove his cone and put the water bowl in front of him.

Anything I can do to help him out? I feel so bad for him.