Poor Merckxy Boy

I took Merckx to the vet for the second time in a week this morning, and the poor boy still isn't himself this afternoon. He chewed the base of his tail pretty badly last Thursday night/Friday morning, so I took him in because I figured he would at least need some antibiotics, as he has done this sort of thing before on different parts of his body. He seemed in much more pain this time than in times past, though, whining and howling, running sporadically throughout the house from one hiding place to another with his tail bent around in a cock-eyed fashion, etc. They gave him a shot and cut the hair around the area on Friday and sent us home with antibiotics, an antiseptic spray, and some Prednisone capsules for future use (I was told to give them to him if he started at another place on himself in the days to come). The vet told me her dogs do this same thing occasionally and that it is likely caused by an allergic reaction to irritants in the environment. She said that if it was an allergy to food that he would do it nonstop. Well, there did not seem to be any improvement over the weekend; in fact, Merckx just acted as if he were in more pain. It even got to the point that if we let him outside he would just run straight out to the shed and hide underneath it until we would go out there and coax him out. He hasn't eaten in over 48 hours, and is hardly even drinking water. He's hiding out under the coffee table as I type this. This morning, the vet (a doctor other than the one we saw on Friday) asked if they had checked his anal glands the last time he was in, and I told her I was not sure. So she checked them, and -- sure enough -- they needed to be expressed, and his right (the side he had been chewing) was worse than his left. (Sorry, I'm sure you really care to read about my dog's anal anything, but...) She also gave him another shot and told me to start giving him the Prednisone starting tomorrow for three days straight, and then every other day after that until he seems better (she wasn't sure why the other vet didn't have us giving that to him to begin with... maybe I heard her wrong the first time, but I don't think so). The good news is that the wound actually looks better, and there doesn't seem to be any sort of infection, so hopefully we're on the right track.