There is a method to solve the delay differential equation, which is called Method of steps you can look on the book of Driver for delay differential equations. You start by a function \phai on the interval [-\tau,0] and then integrate and then consider [\tau, 2\tau] and so on (like proving continuation of solution of first order differential equations)
"Numerical Methods for Delay Differential Equations" by A.Bellen and M.Zennaro, Oxford UP, 2005 - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/numerical-methods-for-delay-differential-equations-9780199671373?cc=lt&lang=en&