Dog Community

Chocolate lab

Posted : 1/17/2007 3:41:58 PM

My chocolate lab licks the inside base of her tail so much. What causes this.Do other labs do this? I thought it may be allergies to commercial dogfood so I researched and started cooking her food.It seems to help somewhat but not completely.Any ideas?

marlania

Posted : 1/17/2007 6:54:46 PM

The inside base...as in under her tail near her bum? If so, has she ever had a problem with anal glands before?

jessies_mom

Posted : 1/17/2007 9:43:56 PM

Hi and welcome to the forum; [

]

Allergies ( particularly food allergies), and full anal sacs will cause a dog to lick and chew the area under their tail. My dog has food and environmental allergies and also gets impacted anal sacs.[&o] If she has full anal sacs, she will chew the area around her rectum, often causing the skin around the rectum to become irritated. Often when allergies are causing this, they will chew the underside of the tail close to where it attaches to the body. You said the cooked food was helping somewhat; are her stools larger and firmer on the cooked diet; that would help the anal sacs empty when she passed stool.

marlania

Posted : 1/18/2007 7:34:33 PM

Canned pumpkin (not the pie mix) also helps to firm stool. I give this to my three everyday, although only one of my Labs needs it regularly. It truly cleared up his anal sac problems.