My dog is eating itself.

Slider · August 2011

My dog has been gnawing on it's left foreleg for a few weeks and has successfully taken all of the hair off and made the skin red and sore. Have any of you dealt with this sort of thing?

What are my options...besides taking it to a vet?

see317 · August 2011

Obviously, my first advice is to get your dog to a vet. If that's not possible hit up a pet store and get a cone of shame for your dog so she can't continue to aggravate the area. Keep the cone on for a few days and see if the redness clears up.

Inspect the affected area, look for spider bites or other similar marks. It's possible the pet store will have some topical ointments to help with the irritant.

It might be fleas or ticks. If it is, do the regular thing for fleas/ticks.

Carnarvon · August 2011

Seems like it'd either be a rash, or some sort of insect (chiggers? depends on where you live). A hot bath and soap would solve the second, and possibly the first.

I remember someone had made a spray from granny apple juice that, for some reason, was intolerable to dogs. You could spray that on his leg to keep him from biting it, or rig up one of those cones until you can afford to take him to the vet..

Tox · August 2011

When it comes to pets, bro, just go to the vet. Yes, it's expensive. I'd rather spend money I don't have than lose a pet.

Derrick · August 2011

You'll probably need to take him to a vet.

I've seen this a bit with animals that are having allergic reactions. Did you change his food recently?

You really need to inspect the leg and try to discern what's really going on. See if there are any hives there. See if the hair is falling out, and if so, if the dog is pulling it out or if it looks like it's falling out of its own accord.

Wassermelone · August 2011

Take him to a vet. Otherwise,

It sounds like hotspot. Google and you'll find some terrible looking photos. Check for bugs, bites, etc as the two above have said. But, it is a possibility it might have just been boredom (my dog started excessively licking his legs when my wife was also working full time). Making sure to play with him more and outfitting him with a collar helped.

Personally I prefer this type of collar to the cone of shame:

Noisymunk · August 2011

Sister-in-laws dog has allergies and she'll do that when they're really bothering her. Get ye to yonder veterinarian.

L Ron Howard · August 2011

My neighbors dog did this to himself (herself? don't remember the gender atm) and was just flat out cuckoo.
You would throw the ball, the dog would start running towards it, sit and chew its leg, and then continue running, make it to the ball, start chewing again, grab the ball and run back, stopping at least once to chew on its leg. It would also start chasing its leg around and growling and barking.
The dog obviously had some kind of mental illness. Which one, I don't remember, but it didn't live too long.
Moral of the story, go see a vet, or your dog might go mental, or something.

rocketshipready · August 2011

Definitely go to a vet, but just for reference, my dog has been doing this since she was a puppy, and she's now 16. We tried everything (sprays that supposedly tasted bad, socks, cones of shame, stopping her when we noticed, getting her chew toys, etc, etc), but she still gnaws. Her paw is pretty blistery, and we stop her if we notice if she broke the skin, but we just kind of let her have at it now. It honestly just seems like a tick, of which she has plenty

Better safe than sorry, though, so go see a vet

Eggplant Wizard · September 2011

My dog does something like this. Allergies. She'll pick a part of her body and lick until it bleeds. The only thing that has worked is a is corticosteroid spray (prescription), which is honestly a bit of a pain in the ass. It must be administered exactly according to directions for several weeks because they'll actually have withdrawals if you stop. I hope your dog doesn't have this, but a vet trip may be in order. The good news is that it totally cures the problem within days whenever she has an attack.

ceres · September 2011

I had a dog that did this as a nervous habit. We tried a lot of different things to get her to stop, but all failed, and all we could really do was watch.

Shogun · September 2011

does it seem anything like this?

Your dog has lick granuloma and outside of looking gross it isn't a huge deal. It can get more easily infected requiring vet trips + bills, but that's about it. You can try cones and the like, but they probably won't work in the end. None of my vet's cones were large enough because she could still reach the paw. Apparently cones above a certain size are torture or something. Lick granuloma typically develops in crazy dogs with nervous-nelly or worrier personas. Over time the paw-licking behavior will become so psychosomatic that you will never get the dog to stop.

Slider · September 2011

Very similar.

Also, this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_spot_(veterinary_medicine)

Sheep · September 2011

We always called them hot spots growing up. It's common. Usually an ointment fixed the problem, but sometimes we would have to employ the cone of shame.

Skoal Cat · September 2011

Slider wrote:

Very similar.

Also, this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_spot_(veterinary_medicine)

Why is that blue?

lonelyahava · September 2011

my piper was doing this for a while. Vet narrowed it down to allergies and fleas. We did the flea bath stuff and then switched her food to the expensive "lamb, rice, whatever" stuff. She was much better.

But yeah, go see the vet.

ceres · September 2011

Shogun wrote:

does it seem anything like this?

Your dog has lick granuloma and outside of looking gross it isn't a huge deal. It can get more easily infected requiring vet trips + bills, but that's about it. You can try cones and the like, but they probably won't work in the end. None of my vet's cones were large enough because she could still reach the paw. Apparently cones above a certain size are torture or something. Lick granuloma typically develops in crazy dogs with nervous-nelly or worrier personas. Over time the paw-licking behavior will become so psychosomatic that you will never get the dog to stop.

This would be what my dog had. It was really terrible.

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