Incessant Paw Licking

Before I'd start feeding my dog pills, I'd doing further investigating into the possible allergy issue.

Food allergies often show in the ears, the skin or the coat.  What are you feeding?

This could also be a contact allergy to the grass, the carpet, or any number of things.  Think back...did you change anything around the time it started?  Even your floor cleaner?

You can try elimination in both enviroment and food or you can go with allergy testing, but I sure wouldn't medicate an animal for "maybe".  And I might find a different vet who wouldn't be so willing to do so.

Start keeping a log regarding when the licking started, what he is doing when he starts licking. Write down what you feed and when, etc. This will help you find patterns especially if you switch foods.

Did the vet suggest doing an allergy test?

Of course it could be ocd and meds would help that. I would try to rule out an allergy first though.

I have a German Shepherd who did this exact thing for over 2 years.  She still does it occasionally, but her neurotic behaviors have transformed a bit and now the paw chewing has been replaced with other behaviors.  She saw the vet several times for this and it was always diagnosed as a behavioral thing.  She has no allergies, there was no injury or infection to the foot.  The foot was always very deep crimson or purplish and sometimes tender and bloody from all her chewing and sucking.  I have tried two meds with her (she has other behaviors that are more upsetting and dangerous) and so far they have not really worked but the vet says just like in humans it can take a while to get the right med and the right dose.

It's usually a combination of things -- dogs, unlike people, tend to get MORE allergies with age, where we sometimes grow "out" of them.  So the fact that this began with a stressful event (but was actually *there* before) and has increased isn't surprising.

Licking becomes a habit -- and I suspect that in this case, it's likely being fed by environmental + maybe food allergies, but it's ramped up by a bit of separation anxiety.  Typically an e-collar doesn't really stop the licking -- most of the time they figure out that juyst by pressing hard on the collar it will bend and allow them to lick (but then that also increases the stress and frustration).

food allergies are most certainly real -- but often there is atopic (inhaled hay-fever type allergy) that is underlying and which keeps everything going on and on and on.    Food allergies often become the focus (because it's easier than trying to address the fact that the dog may be allergic to the wallpaper in your home, trees in your yard/neighborhood, grasses outside, etc.).

RESIST the temptation to just fly from food to food.  A true elmination diet (something homecooked -- literally just two ingredients of a protein and a veg that the dog has never had before) can often help you get back to basics and get it healed and then you add in ingredients cautiously.

Honestly just *one* thing probably is not going to resolve this because it's likely a multi-layered thing -- it's probably allergies AND nervousness.

You could try something easy and non-habitforming like Hylands Calms Forte.  Give it about an hour before you're ready to leave (or as close as you can).   You can just put it in food.  (Health store item but usually VERY easy to find).  Give two tablets up to three times a day.  It simply promotes calmness -- and will help the dog give in to sleep while you're gone.

another thing -- and this is EASY and cheap.  Make a jug of plain black tea. (LIpton -- whatever you have) -- EVERY time the dog comes in, take an old washcloth and a small bowl of the tea.  Dip the paw in the tea and swish around (really submerge it) and then wipe with the washcloth (not with paper).  Do all 4 paws if possible.  Usually I give a small reward for this -- string cheese or something tasty and after a couple of days the dog will think this is a very nice new routine.

The tannic acid in the tea helps neutralize allergens from pollen and grasses and also helps calm the skin down. 

Thank you for the helpful responses. I will give the tea idea a shot (Perhaps it may even help me break my excessive coffee habit :)). Again, thanks, I hope Lucky sheds this habit.

I have noticed when he's out at the dog run or occupied with visitors at our home, he never chews at his paws. He's so energetic and whenever he's not busy, bam--it's straight for the front paws.

One other thing I forgot to mention. Someone suggested spraying Lucky's paws with apple cidar vinegar. Is that okay? Thanks.

Squirt

One other thing I forgot to mention. Someone suggested spraying Lucky's paws with apple cidar vinegar. Is that okay?

As a deterrent?  It might just be an irritant and cause more licking.  I agree that this is often a two pronged problem that often starts out with an allergic reaction and then moves into obsessive behavior.

My Zipper used to be a chronic foot-licker. We never really knew why - part of it may have been diet related at one time, but we switched to an all-raw diet with controlled food items.

What can often happen with dogs who lick their paws, is that they can become yeasty or fungal and can actually be really irritating or itchy, and the fact that it's just wet and soggy can lead to more licking as well. This is what Zipper was going through. It's not that he had an ongoing allergy or stress, but that the foot was uncomfortable and he was doing the only thing he knew to fix it - lick it more. It was just a never ending cycle.  We ended up getting a human-grade shampoo called Nizoral and we washed his feet three times a week for a month.

His feet are now almost totally devoid of staining, and all of the new hair growth is back to his normal color. I haven't seen him lick his feet in several months, and he's definitely more comfortable now.

Combating foot licking is really complicated because there are numerous causes, and often there are more than one reason for it. But doing this with his feet worked excellently for us, with amazing success, so it may be worth a shot to try if you are running out of options. Zipper wasn't stressed (although having yucky feet made his stress levels higher), and he isn't facing any alleries in his diet (although it's possible there was an allergy to something in a kibble diet), he just got into a bad situation where the feet never had time to dry up and heal properly. In a few more months you won't even know that he was licking them at all. And we combatted this for a long time.

Kenya's paw licking started with a very minor injury, in fact I have it on video because I was making a cute video of her chasing her stuffy toy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfpe2wcBXg4 2:49).  When she was constantly stopping to chew at that foot, I took her to the vet and he removed some type of sliver, but other than that the foot was not infected.  What started out as her chewing at that sliver became some sort of obsession and she chewed the foot for two years.

Liesje, that was like Gaci when she was going through her OCD years (ages 1-4, when she was on clomipramine as well). After her spay surgery at about 15 months old, where the IV was in her front leg turned into a task of which she turned it into a big lump of scar tissue (acral lick) and then she actually switched over to the exact spot on her other leg. I was quite worried for some time because the scar tissue was forming between her two leg bones and I didn't want to have other issues arise because of it.

We did overcome the OCD behaviours by a big change in her/our lifestyle, which has to be kept up forever because if certain things are slackened, or during times of stress (such as when we moved to the city for a year from the country - huge change!) it may be brought about. But thankfully she is no longer on any clomipramine and is living a pretty happy life. Her biggest things of course are finding outlets for her energy (most of the time mental rather than physical), to give her appropriate outlets to relieve tension that she feels, and to keep stress low during higher-stress times. She does really well on routine, but there are some routines we can only follow loosely because of my work schedule and working different shifts each week than the week before, so that is one issue we tackle but we've come to a point now where it's pretty much all figured out and things are calm.

 spraying his feet with something that tastes bad might help, but it may not. Bitter yuck does say you can use it for that purpose. I'd kinda think you'd also have to get at the cause of the issue as well in order to completely resolve it.

My dog and my sisters dog do the same thing.  We have been told it is because of allergies. My dog has other allergies and has to have allergy shots 2 to 3 times a summer.  Cortizone shots is what he gets and that seems to stop the paw licking.  Also I remind him to not do that.  I think in just my own mine it is a habit once it starts.  I just tell Booger to stop doing that and he does. 

Hi, my dog Lucky is very hyper. He's a Lab mix and anyone who has been around Labs know that they go non-stop all day. When I take him to the park, he's fine. It's just in the home that he licks.

One of the vets said it could be allergies and suggested Benadryl but I refuse to medicate Lucky. My gut instinct tells me it's a behavior problem from being bored. I feed him dry food (the Pedigree brand) . We do have another small dog that always gets excited and is hyper too-- like another wind-up toy. I noticed that whenever Lucky runs the little dog chases him and snaps at Lucky's paws. Sometimes I wonder whether the small dog may have bit Lucky and caused an infection. But I'm guessing at this.

We have a cone and put it on Lucky when we both go to work so he won't hurt his own paws. When he licks too much, he starts to limp. Someone suggested organic food. Do you know any brands? I just want to get him back to normal. I hate that damn cone. But it protects him from making matters worse.

He's seven. And we found him when he was about 11/2 years old. He was probably a yard dog because he doesn't walk well on a leash, always tugging ahead. Your help is appreciated.

Thanks.