He's eating himself.

November 16, 2010 10:58 AM

How do I stop my dog from chewing a way at his paws???

My year old yorkie Flapjack has been gnawing at his front and hind paws constantly for about 2 months. His crazy nibbling has completely stripped away the fur to reveal raw skin underneath. I've consulted with 3 different veterinarians, each confirming no infections or irritants to cause his incessant chewing. The vets suggests it could be from habit and boredom. He doesn't seem to be in pain or affect his walking comfort, but it has to stop because he's getting open sores from all the friction. I've tried chew toys as deterrents and covering each leg with socks and booties, which only draws more of his attention to the area. Is there some remedy or issue I'm overlooking or will he just have to look like a plucked chicken?

posted by xbeautychicx to Pets & Animals (25 answers total)

We have a dog that used to do this a lot - in his case it was believed to be allergies, i.e. itching. When it got really bad, we gave him benadryl - talk to your vet about whether this is a good idea and how much to give him. It seemed to give him temporary relief. We never did find out what the cause was - after moving it seems better, but not totally fixed. He still licks his feet a lot and chews a little, but there aren't open sores like before (and when we found him he had really terrible scarring from it all over his legs)
posted by RustyBrooks at 11:00 AM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

Put him in the cone of shame for a bit? (Not a joke. Talk to the vet about this.)
posted by Gator at 11:03 AM on November 16, 2010

Seconding allergies, most often food allergies. I don't know what kind of allergies yorkies have commonly, but I know with retrievers they are often allergic to corn products. You could check out the ingredients in the food and then try weaning him on to other food and see if that helps. I'm kind of surprised the vets you talked to didn't bring this up as a possibility.

There are different levels of food, from pretty cheap to really expensive. The closer you get to the pretty cheap spectrum, the more likely it is that they change their formula based on what is cheaper (corn, wheat etc.) to keep prices low. It's possible that this happened with the brand of food you're feeding your pup if it has happened suddenly or that he has always been allergic to something in the food if this has been going on for a while.
posted by Kimberly at 11:07 AM on November 16, 2010

My little sister had a rabbit with OCD that obsessively licked its paws until they bled. The vet prescribed a rabbit-strength anti-depressant, which largely cured it.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 11:10 AM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

You really should look into food allergies, but in the meantime you can try Bitter Apple Spray. Keep it away from open sores (it contains cayenne) but spraying it on the fur around any owies should work.
posted by mudpuppie at 11:10 AM on November 16, 2010

Definitely ask your vet to give you allergy medicine dosages for your dog - ours gave us a list and dosage for every OTC allergy medicine so we could try them all. Give each one at least a two week trial - we have one dog with really bad allergies (including foot-chewing, though it's the face-scratching that really tears her up) and if we don't catch her as soon as she starts itching it can take about a week before she's getting consistent relief and two weeks before she's really seeing the full benefit.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:10 AM on November 16, 2010

While I wouldn't spray it on raw skin, bitter apple spray is a decent deterrent (it doesn't taste good to most animals). First, I'd get the skin to heal using a cone to keep him away from the paws.
posted by cecic at 11:11 AM on November 16, 2010

Nthing allergies. Our local vet suggested this and we put out dog on a restricted ingredient diet. It actually hasn't helped 100% but it has improved the situation and reduced the licking a fair amount.
posted by GuyZero at 11:12 AM on November 16, 2010

Our dog used to do this because of food allergies. The problem was solved by putting her on lamb & rice food.
posted by Fleebnork at 11:16 AM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

Seconding the cone of shame recommendation. I had a cat that was barbering her belly until she made a raw patch. The vet suggested allergies. We had the cone + drugs + new diet. That calmed things down enough so that she stopped. The vet told us that whatever the cause it was important to let the wounds heal because it was like scratching an itch and breaking the pattern coudl help things.
posted by oneear at 11:20 AM on November 16, 2010

Best answer: Our dogs do this too, and we also suspect food allergies as the main culprit; changing their diet (away from any corn and chicken products, mainly) has helped a lot, though not 100% -- the foods that seem to be best for them, skin-wise, tend to upset their stomachs; the foods that seem to be best for them, stomach-wise, tend to aggravate their skin. So we're somewhere in the middle.

We had to stay away from sour apple spray because their skin was so open/tender that it hurt them, so have started using a less ouch-y lidocaine "hot spot" spray that we got at the pet store to help numb up any specific areas that seem to be triggering them. We also use half a benadryl at night when they're really itchy.
posted by scody at 11:23 AM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks guys.
posted by xbeautychicx at 11:27 AM on November 16, 2010

Best answer: Allergies are not the only possible culprit, though if you switched food or anything it's worth looking into. However:-

I've got an Alaskan Malamute, and they're infamously intelligent and high energy. This one started to chew at her legs when I changed jobs. It's pretty easy to see the correlation there. I transitioned from spending most of my days at home working at school to being gone 10+ hours a day, and she hated it.

Her symptoms were excessive licking/chewing that would produce a bald spot, and eventually an open sore. Once a 'hot spot' had formed chewing increased even more due to the minor discomfort.

The vets suggested she could have parasites and treated her for that, nothing. We tried wrapping the areas she nagged at, we tried putting distasteful things there, and everything else.

The real solution should have been obvious: More walks. More attention for the dog. More love in general. A tired dog is a happy dog.
posted by Stagger Lee at 11:30 AM on November 16, 2010 [3 favorites]

Wrap the paws in vet wrap and then spray the bitter apple on it rather than on raw skin. You can find it at large pet stores or farm supply stores. It sticks to itself (but not to skin) and it will be very difficult for him to get off. Don't wrap too tightly or you'll damage circulation. Get an EMT scissors (CVS, Walgreens etc) to safely cut off the wrap without risking cutting him if he squirms.
posted by desjardins at 11:31 AM on November 16, 2010

It's pretty easy to make your own dog food, which will cut out the food allergies almost entirely. It will take you about 15 minutes of actual work about every two weeks. I have a great recipe and instructions, memail me if you want to follow up. I can tell you that our little dog has been totally cured of any itches since we moved to home-made. Maybe make just one batch to feed for two weeks and see if it helps.
posted by raisingsand at 11:41 AM on November 16, 2010

My dog has seasonal allergies and every year we have to put her on Doxepin. Some antidepressants have antiallergy side effects. This one worked for her. We tried Tee Tree Oil foot baths--helped with the itch and preventing infection but she would still chew away. So every Aug-Oct. it's doggie downers for her.
posted by stormpooper at 11:47 AM on November 16, 2010

A lot of dogs are allergic to environmental factors or to proteins (not grains). Eliminating grains from a diet isn't the only solution.

An elimination diet, using only novel foods (ingredients the dog has never encountered before), is the only way to figure out what the dog is allergic to if it is a food allergy. (Blood tests are available but are not reliable.) You first feed the elimination diet until the dog's symptoms are entirely gone, then you add in one ingredient every week or so (it can take several days to start reacting to a food allergy) to see if the symptoms return. No symptoms, you're fine. Symptoms occur, the one new food you've recently added is the culprit. Make sure you leave enough time in between introducing new ingredients to determine which one is at fault. And don't assume there's only one allergy to find; there might be more than one.

Our dog with environmental allergies does really well on "Temeril-P," an inexpensive prescription antihistamine with a touch of prednisone. My vet tells me that prednisone typically doesn't help a food-allergic dog, but does help one with environmental allergies, so that's another route for evaluating the cause.
posted by galadriel at 11:57 AM on November 16, 2010

Yep, my dog (not a Yorkie) had the exact same problem. The vet said it's probably a food allergy and had me switch from Science Diet to VF Turkey & Rice (Veterinarian Formulated). Since the food switch, her paws are now growing in hair and they are less raw; I have not seen her chewing and licking on them recently. There are other dog foods that are probably better for your dog than Science Diet and VF, but VF seems to be helping her a lot. I believe dogs are usually allergic to the wheat used as a cheap filler in most dog food.

http://www.wheat-free.org/wheat-allergy-dogs.html
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/5-star/
posted by mrdmsy at 12:05 PM on November 16, 2010

Be very very cautious about using tea tree oil - it's a terpenoid that is extremely toxic to dogs & cats. Smaller animals are particularly vulnerable. Doesn't have to be ingested - it can be absorbed through the skin. Leads to ataxia, hypothermia, and if severe, coma/death. Some people report that they don't have any problems with dilutions, but I'd stay far far away.
posted by muirne81 at 12:13 PM on November 16, 2010

Our vet said this has been a bad year for dog allergies (in the Bay Area anyway). We suspected our little buddy had food allergies, but the vet told us that since most of the scratching and licking was focused around his feet it was probably something in the yard. He gave us an antihistamine and the dog stopped licking within the day. Get the pills. Your poor buddy will be so thankful to not have the itches anymore. And since it's likely seasonal, once winter finally arrives the problem should go away.
posted by wherever, whatever at 12:22 PM on November 16, 2010

Benadryl helps with allergies and it sedates the critter so they have less anxiety as well as less energy to chew/lick.
posted by mmf at 12:30 PM on November 16, 2010

For immediate temporary relief you could ask the vet to prescribe a steroid and/or antihistamine course which will cut down on the itching and allow the paws to heal. We usually have to do this at the beginning of allergy season when our Corgi all of a sudden starts gnawing at her haunches. Also the "cone of shame" is not a bad idea to keep her away from them while they heal. You can get softer less-awkward cones now.

Our dog grew up with another who had food allergies and it was easiest to put them all on the same food, so she gets Nature's Recipe food which doesn't contain beef, corn or wheat. Some of the varieties upset her stomach, but the Healthy Skin recipe is great.

She has seasonal inhalational allergies (same thing that makes us sneeze) and she gets very itchy for half the year. In addition to the healthy skin food she gets a squeeze of fish oil with her breakfast, and 10mg of Claritin (both recommended by the vet).
posted by radioamy at 1:38 PM on November 16, 2010

My dog will lick a spot until it's raw. He's much better about it now. He used to lick at himself obsessively, too. I did a combination of 2 things. First, when I was around him and he started licking, I would command him, "Don't Lick." This worked to quell the obsessive bit of it. He still licks, but not nearly as much. The caveat is that I am at home with him, so can keep an eye on his behavior. When he occasionally gets a sore on his foot, I put some triple antbiotic ointment on it. It's perfectly safe for them to lick at, and contains an analgesic. If I manage to keep an eye on him for 2-3 minutes, to prevent him licking it off, it numbs the sore spot slightly, so he stops licking. This allows his foot to start healing. If I do this a couple times a day for about two days, it usually takes care of the problem.

This solution came about because I just couldn't afford to take him to the vet every time he got a sore on his foot, so I figured it out by trial and error. It sounds like your problem is much more severe, but this might help a bit.

Good luck!

Also, pics please.
posted by annsunny at 3:46 PM on November 16, 2010

My old yellow lab had both serious allergies and anxiety about being left alone that contributed to her chewing the fur off her back legs. Special dog food and medication for both the allergies and the anxiety helped somewhat, and so did getting another dog so she'd have someone to be with all day when we were away, but we never fully solved the problem.
posted by lilac girl at 10:10 PM on November 16, 2010

Non-allergy answer: My parents adopted a dog that licked, bit, and cried over its paws, which bore a constant dark red stain. They tried changing the food and allergy medication, all to no avail. The problem persisted for several years. Finally, one of their veterinarians diagnosed it as a fungus and was able to prescribe some pills that cleared it up. If all other avenues don't work out for you, feel free to Memail me and I can ask them for more details.

Good luck!
posted by funkiwan at 1:10 AM on November 17, 2010