Bites his own feet!
My little guy, Jaxx, now almost 9 months, has a very strange behavior of biting his own feet and then yelping like someone bit his foot off. Well, he did! The only time he does this is when he is in his crate at night, sometime between 1 am and 5 am. He does not do it every night, but a few nights out of the week. And its not like he just does it once. He keeps biting at his feet and yelping until I take him out of the crate and rescue him from the big meanie that was biting his feet! When he comes out of the crate his feet and chest are sopping wet from his biting activities. I'm not sure if he is seriously drooling on himself, or licking, or just biting.
I thought maybe he was doing this in his sleep, and I still kind of think that. But, its hard for me to get a clear read on it because I'm sound asleep when it starts and not in a mood to get down on the floor and observe him in his crate.
I asked the vet about it, thinking it may be allergy related. It could be, but I think he would do it more than just in his crate at night. I haven't been able to identify any food related connection, or environmental connection that corrolates with the nights that he does it. But just in case, I wash his feet and chest down with an sensitive skin wet wipe after he goes outside now. He still tends to pee on himself - hasn't got the leg lift completely figured out yet. I thought maybe that could be causing it. Unfortunately, I'm not seeing a difference in the behavior after using the wet wipes.
I also thought maybe it was a teething thing, so would put other chew toys in his crate with him so that if he woke up in the middle of the night, he could chew on those instead of his own feet. Didn't help.
Now I may be inadvertantly rewarding him when he does it by taking him out of the crate and putting him in bed with me. I tie a bathrobe belt to his collar and then to my wrist to make sure he doesn't leave the bed to have a party. He usually just goes right to sleep.
Do any of you have any idea what this is and how to deal with it? The vet gave me something called "thieves" to mix with an aloe gel to put on his feet at night. It is suppose to taste bad, but the aloe is good for his feet. I haven't done it yet. I'd really like to find the underlying problem if possible. Any help from the community would be much appreciated!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on
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Wow! I sure do hope this works, and soon!
Would love to know the outcome over time, just in case something similar arises in these parts.
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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Fingers crossed. Do give an update when the treatment is completed.
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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My Teddy had a fungal infection...he's getting much better but it did take awhile. He rarely licks it now! Which really helps. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Linda on
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I haven't replied to this but I have been reading it. Anything I could think of someone already suggested. I so hope this is the answer and that the vet will find out what kind of possible infection he has.
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Is he on antibiotics? If so I would ask the vet if he can have Kefir too. It has good active cultures to fight off yeast I factions that can be caused by antibiotics.
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Permalink Reply by susan on
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I should clarify that the bacteria confirmation was from a scraping they took from his hot spot on his back, not his feet. Its just the vets guess that it may be bacteria or fungus on his feet. But I did give him a bath in the antibacterial/antifungal shampoo yesterday, and no feet biting during the night! I so hope this is the answer. Well, I do and I don't.... apparently both bacteria and fungus can be contageous to other dogs and to people. /sigh....
@ Jane - no prescription for antibiotics. I think the spray for the hotspot has some antibiotic properties. Is Kefir a yogurt type of thing?
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Yes Kefir is by the yogurts but comes in bottles. I just pour a bit over their food. You can get it plain but I usually give mine blueberry.
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