Paw Chewing
Our Sadie is a 6 year old rescue and apparently how she coped with her abuse and kenneling for long periods of time, was by chewing on her front paws.
Usually chew toys and bones have helped give her something else to do, but recently it's getting more pronounced and I've discovered she's doing it at night in her sleep. She wakes up and her paws are pink and wet... not fluffy and white like a corgi's should be.
It's not just cosmetic either... her excessive paw chewing seems to be making them really really tender.
We had been taking her to PetSmart groomers and on the last three visits, the groomers hadn't been able to trim her nails or the hair on her paw pads... saying they were having problems handling Sadie's feet without nips and snapping. I figured she was just inexperienced groomers (our regular girl had moved) or there was something that Sadie just didn't like about the new groomers... but now that I'm having to do it myself, I have been noticing the rawness of her paws. She's getting very snappy with me and my husband when I try to do her nails, too... and she loves us to death... so it must be that they are just tender from her chewing.
I'm not sure if it's just habit now... or if she truly has not healed from her puppy abuse and having Rolo around might be triggering the night chewing.
Any suggestions?
Usually chew toys and bones have helped give her something else to do, but recently it's getting more pronounced and I've discovered she's doing it at night in her sleep. She wakes up and her paws are pink and wet... not fluffy and white like a corgi's should be.
It's not just cosmetic either... her excessive paw chewing seems to be making them really really tender.
We had been taking her to PetSmart groomers and on the last three visits, the groomers hadn't been able to trim her nails or the hair on her paw pads... saying they were having problems handling Sadie's feet without nips and snapping. I figured she was just inexperienced groomers (our regular girl had moved) or there was something that Sadie just didn't like about the new groomers... but now that I'm having to do it myself, I have been noticing the rawness of her paws. She's getting very snappy with me and my husband when I try to do her nails, too... and she loves us to death... so it must be that they are just tender from her chewing.
I'm not sure if it's just habit now... or if she truly has not healed from her puppy abuse and having Rolo around might be triggering the night chewing.
Any suggestions?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Anita Bjerring on
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that does not sound good to me. paw chewing is a flashing red neon sign, that she has issues that goes way back, get professional help for this one, go to a dog psychologist and let him/her work with her and you. good thing she´s got a good loving home now.
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Permalink Reply by NoClaws4Alarm on
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Okay... that didn't scare me at all... (nervous now)
We'd planned on taking her for a weeklong behaviorlist evaluation and training session to help with the Rolo situation... new puppy... getting along...that sort of thing. I'll talk to her about the paw chewing as well. It might be all inclusive.
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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on
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hmmm.... a friend of mine who had a lab that did the same thing, it turned out to be allergies. On the other hand, have you checked to see if there's any foreign objects that have lodge in the paws? like some kind of prickly thorn? may be a vet could help?
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Her paw fixation has been a pretty long going thing and it's only something she does when left to her own devices. It doesn't seem to bother her when she's active... just when she's by herself or when we mess with her feet.
I'll double check her paws when I get home, though. The nails, the webbing... see if there could be anything lodged there. Not looking forward to that... it will take a lot of cheese to check her out thoroughly!
The allergy thing might have some merit. She and my husband BOTH have bad hayfever and it is that time of year. Maybe it's just the pollen count?
I'll also see if our vet has any suggestions other than "give her something else to chew on".
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Permalink Reply by Nancy, Curtis and Triley on
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Triley also licks his paws often (very cat-like!) but not to the point that they are raw and red. I would also suggest seeing what your vet thinks. Good luck!
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I´m sorry, did not mean to scare you. I heard about it being an allergies symptom too, come to thing of it. If she does when alone, she could just be in lack of something better to do.
But! she is a rescue, and I would really get professional help to make sure that she is okay. Good thing with the behaviorist.
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Permalink Reply by Charlie on
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Charlie has very mild contact allergies. He licked his paws last fall after playing in the yard. A spritz of anti-itch spray seemed to soothe him and tasted bad. I know they were contact allergies because he completely quit over the winter while the grass was dormant, and has started again now that things are growing green again. Contact allergies usually do come and go, food allergies show constant symptoms.
One fairly common problem in dogs, which is what this sounds like, is that a dog may start licking for a mild allergy but it feels good so they develop a chronic licking habit when they get bored or aren't focused on something else. Compare it to a human who has a habit of biting their nails, or hair twisting, or any other obsessive habit...nothing medically wrong but a hard habit to break. It just feels good.
I would check with your vet perhaps about antihistamines, but it does sound more like a behavioral problem. You can try an anti-itch spray, or just a bad-taste spray like Bitter Apple. I also heard last week about an alternative to the traditional hard plastic elizabethan collar, called a Bite Not collar. If looks softer, more comfortable and less restrictive than the traditional e-collar. There is also a Soft-E collar on the market made of quilting material instead of plastic, but would keep her from reaching her paws with her mouth. I would put one on her at night for several days or a week to keep her from chewing overnight and give her paws a chance to heal.
How much exercise is she getting? If she's not getting enough to tire her out and gets bored, she may be resorting to the lick habit as a passtime.
With the grooming, you certainly don't want her to develop a secondary-habit of not allowing anyone to touch her feet. For her health, she has to have her nails clipped and fur trimmed around the pads. I would wait only long enough to try to let her heal a bit with an e-collar, then get her back into the habit of having people (you or the groomer) do her feet. I accidentally nipped into Charlie's quick one weekend, and he really protested over me doing his nails for 2-3 weeks after that. I put a muzzle on him and quietly (no coddling with "Poor Baby", or "There, there"...just quietly and matter-of-fact) did his nails as quickly as possible. He did get treats after we finished. After a few weeks, he relaxed again, and I was able to groom his feet without a muzzle, and without the treats. Either way, they have to be groomed. Good luck...keep us posted!
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Just as a warning, those softer collars are no good if you have a determined corgi! After he was neutered the vet put a plastic (regular) collar on Triley and he "acted like it was the end of the world" so they gave us a soft (it was some sort of cloth or vinyl) one instead. We left him alone for about 2 hours and when we returned to the house we found that he had SHREDDED his collar. I mean, he looked like some sort of native dancer or something, with blue strips of collar coming off his neck (he was clearly very proud of his work too). He also ate the parts he shredded, so we almost had to take him back to the vet (but he pooped it all out so we didn't have to!). What drama! After that we just left him without a collar - hopefully he won't need to wear one anytime soon!
I agree about the paws. Our PetsMart puppy trainer said to touch your pup's paws, teeth and ears regularily, so that they get used to touching them. Since corgis have ear and paw problems, it is good to get them comfortable with you touching those areas at an early age.
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Oh my! I guess a stubborn Corgi can get around anything if determined enough! The visual image of that is amusing, but I am happy to hear you didn't have to have a blockage surgically removed.
Take a look at the Bite Not collar: http://www.bitenot.com/index.html
This collar does not stand out around the neck. I think with a Corgis short legs, it would keep them from getting to their paws.
I just heard about this collar last week on another forum about e-collars with spay/neuter.
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Permalink Reply by Linda Baker on
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Our Teddy Bear licks his feet alot as well. It does seem to have diminished lately, but he has a red nose. Our vet put him on an allergy food recently. He feels as if some of the rubber and plastic toys he loves to chew on or his food is a problem. Teddy was also having an issue with vomiting. That issue seems to be resolved. He still has a red nose though. The vet indicated that allergies are not uncommon. I have not removed his toys yet as we have 2 other corgis and a skye terrier who also love toys. He does seem to lick his feet more after he plays with his toys-he has loicked them raw when he was younger-not so bad now.
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Are you talking about "Snow" or "Winter" nose? What you said about the rubber and plastic toys sounds like it. If that's the case, you would also want to remove any plastic or rubber feeding bowls and use stainless or ceramic. Dogs can develop an allergy to plastic and rubber, but I haven't heard of it too often with Corgis.
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I am not sure what the snow or winter noses are. With Teddy his nose is very pale-our other corgis are black nosed. The bowls are stainless but the toys are rubber or have plastic in them. It seems most toys teddy has an interest in are rubber or have plastic-soft toys last less than 10 minutes before they are destroyed-
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