Licking metal

I have had lots of normal pups lick all kinds of things.  Sioux loved to pick up and mouth metal when she was a puppy.  I think that it can be due to diet, but not in her case certainly.   I have read that it can be linked, in some individual dogs, to problems that are neurologically based, or to Cushing's, liver disease, or OCD.  But, for the most part, no one really knows why, and in most dogs, it isn't a problem.

Dyan -- As Ann says it could be many things --

My first thot is that your button probably isn't "iron".  Nails?  yes -- iron hinges on a stall?  Yes.  Even iron in the soil sometimes in some places.

The only "for sure" way to tell would be to do some bloodwork and ***add*** a request to have the iron levels tested -- it's NOT something they do normally (and I had to have Billy's iron tested several times while he was treated for IMHA)

Your watch could be "white metal" or it could be gold, white gold (which is gold with a tiny bit of tin in it), aluminum (which is NOT good to consume)

It could also be because body salts will condense onto things like jewelry, etc.

I know Luna will obsessively lick her toes and bite her nails.  Tink will try to obsess over licking her feet or the futon.  Sometimes that's because licking will stimulate saliva which when they swallow will put something in their stomach.  Other times it might just be a nervous habit -- For Tink I have great luck handing her a Nylabone when she gets obsessive about stuff.  Luna tends to respond better if I just give her a bit of attention and neck scratches and remind her not to do it.

I don't *let* my dogs obsess like that -- as soon as I become aware that they are licking I ask them to stop, hand them a toy or bone or SOMETHING to break the cycle ... because such habits can be not only difficult to break but hard on them physically.

calliecritturs

Your watch could be "white metal" or it could be gold, white gold (which is gold with a tiny bit of tin in it), aluminum (which is NOT good to consume)

It could also be because body salts will condense onto things like jewelry, etc.

Cheap watch... white metal. But my buttons are probably brass.  I was also thinking body salts on my watch until he was licking my buttons yesterday when I started this conversation.

When Gibby was doing his swallowing thing that I was investigating, found a lot of dogs doing a lot of licking...in fact several people that had dogs that lick the carpet, wall sometimes just plain air.... thought Gibby was doing the same as their dog.  One dog breed seems to do a lot of it and they call it the "lickies."   But he was really not licking...he was gulping actually.  This is not at all the same. He is really not obsessing over it, but when it is available he does lick it.     I brought it up here to see if any others ended up saying that their dog does the same thing with metal.  He does not do it with anything else....oh...except an occasional licking himself.

Thanks for answering though...I think its fun to get opinions, and you never know what information you might get that might be really important for your dog.

dyan

When Gibby was doing his swallowing thing that I was investigating, found a lot of dogs doing a lot of licking...in fact several people that had dogs that lick the carpet, wall sometimes just plain air.... thought Gibby was doing the same as their dog.  One dog breed seems to do a lot of it and they call it the "lickies."  

Dyan, obsessive licking, particularly 'air' licking, that is **seizure activity**.  Particularly when you almost can't get them to disengage from doing it.  Or if you stop distracting them they go RIGHT back to doing it.

 That's what Kee Shu did (constantly when we first rescued her) -- and typically even tho people don't look for it, often there is a pattern to it -- sometimes right/left, sometimes for a certain length of time, switch position then over here for a while.  Kee had a really complex pattern -- lick lick lick [in the air] over her shoulder to the right ... then a quick head swivel and lick lick to the left, then bob her head and eventuallyr epeat.  It was freaky once you saw that it was a pattern -- and very worsened by stress & nerves.

That's why i said above I don't LET them repeatedly do something that borders on the obsesive.

 Emma also air licked, and sometimes "chewed" air. She couldn't stop, but was lucid, while she was doing it. I was told the same as Callie. It's a kind of seizure.