Dog foot problems; does your pet chew his paws?
My dog started chewing his foot about a week ago. He just started licking and licking until his paws are red and swollen and always damp. What should I do and why is he doing it?
Stephanie in Santa Barbara
Foot infections - is he constantly licking or biting his paws? Are the pads of his feet red and raw from constant licking a
nd chewing?
ALLERGIES? PROBABLY NOT.
If all four feet are red then I would suspect a fungus. Fungus and yeast infections can be cured with medications.
If you look between the paws of the feet, you can see if they are clean and a regular skin color or if they are swollen, inflamed and pink looking. If you see your dog licking them constantly you can try this. Put Fido in the bathtub and wash his feet with an antibacterial shampoo for dogs, you can even use human dandruff shampoo.
Then drench the feet in 1 part apple cider vinegar to 1 part water and soak the feet in this solution. Do not dry the feet with a towel but let them air dry.
The Vinegar kills the yeast bacteria. Do this 2 to 4 times a day for the first week. See if there is improvement. You have to be diligent. If your dog just will not leave his feet alone while the vinegar is drying, hold him in your arms until the feet are dry.
STRESS
Dogs like routine, just like men. They get upset if things change too much. Has something changed at home? Is there a new addition to the family or are you away a lot? Do you have guests over or parties? Anything new going on in your home?
During the war in Bosnia there was a lion at the Zoo. The bombings stressed him out so much he practically chewed his feet off. They were bloody stubs. It was awful. I think eventually, because of the war, the lions and other animals at the zoo died from starvation. The people didn't have any food, let alone enough for a big cat. A very sad story but it does illustrate the stress and what an animal will do if he gets too much and can't deal with it.
So that's where you come in. You're smarter than your dog so you have to think this through and figure it out and with the help of a vet, if it comes to that, cure your dog from chewing on his feet.
More detail on why a dog chews his feet.
If your pet has pink pads on his feet it might be a fungal infection and itches like crazy.
Is your pets paws red or pink with a brown stain on them?
If all four of your pets feet are red or inflamed then you can be pretty sure that he has an allergy or a fungal infection.
If only one foot is red then he has something wrong with that foot. Most often it’s a tiny sliver or burr or even a yeast infection. If you can’t find it or your dog is stressed with you touching his paws go see your vet and they will find it and give your pet a screening for other problems such as fleas, mites, chiggers and ticks.
If you’ve ruled out anything that could cause these skin problems, then it’s time to visit the vet. Every pet should go for his annual exam. It’s well worth it and at this time the vet can check for worms, yeast infections, flea infestation and hot spots. He will prescribe or recommend a treatment which will get your dog back on the road to health.
I want to stress a new treatment that vets seem to be using without informing the owner that this drug can damage a dogs kidneys and shorten his life.
Prednisone is a good drug to use when in a life threatening situation but is not good as a long term fix for fungal infections. Just as using antihistamines is not a cure but a way to depress symptoms.
If your pet has pink feet then he has something wrong with him, i.e. a fungal infection or separation anxiety. Please address the real issue and don’t settle for the quick fix.
Splinters and burrs
The other day I was walking my pet on a bike trail here in California. At this time of year it is very dry and all the weeds and grass has dried up.
After we got home I washed my pets feet (because of insecticide) as I always do. Later I noticed that my pet was worrying one foot. I tried to look at it but he had all this hair around his foot and between the pads of his feet. I couldn’t see anything so I waited a day to see if he would stop. He didn’t stop so I looked in my dog book and read that I should examine the area with a magnifying glass.
I still couldn’t see anything with all that hair in the way so I carefully clipped the hair from his paw and between his pads with a rounded nose scissors. I noted that while I was cutting the hair out I found some tar that hat made the hair mat together and was very hard. That alone was enough to bother him and make it hard to walk for any long distances. It was fine in the house where he could walk on nice soft carpet but when he walked on hard pavement it would surely make his paw tender.
After I had cut out all the mats and grass I finally found it! It was a tiny splinter that had gotten under the skin and like any splinter was bothering him. I took a tweezers and took it out. He was so grateful and I gave him a pet cookie for being so patient with me while I poked around his feet, which he hates as most pet do.
Long Toe Nails
If you do not trim your dogs nails they will eventually become so long that when the pet puts his foot down the first thing that hits the floor is his nail. This in turn pushes back into his foot and you can imagine that after days or weeks of this, his foot will become extremely sore. So trim your pets nail or take them to a groomer to have them trimmed. I tried to take him to the vet for a trimming but the vet wanted to charge too much. I found a local groomer who took walk in nail trimming.
Cuts on the foot
Our pets run through all sorts of stuff from stones, to broken pieces of grass. You name it. If your pet is favoring a foot take a look at it to make sure it isn’t a deep cut. If it is a deep cut take your pet to the vet so that it can be treated. Tiny cuts can be treated with an antiseptic ointment like Panalog . Wrap some gauze around the paw and cover with a sock. This helps to prevent your pet from licking at the wound.
If you still can’t find the splinter or what ever is in the paw, soak the foot for about 20 minutes in very warm salt water. You’ll want it to be as salty as sea water. The salt draws the puss and infection out of the sore. Do this 3 times a day until you see some results. Usually this treatment will help pull the infection out and calm the area so you can find the splinter and heal it.
Separation Anxiety
Separation Anxiety will cause some pets to become so nervous that they start licking and biting their paws. The are so afraid that you will not come home that they worry constantly.
Owners who work and only see their pets in the early morning and late at night are the ones who have to deal with this frustrating problem.
A pet cannot tell time. He has no sense of time when you leave. That’s why when you leave the house to take out the trash, your pet is overjoyed to see you again. He thought you’d been gone forever because he has no way to measure time.
One way to help your pet is to train him to know that you are going to leave and it’s not his fault that you are leaving and that you love him very much. Sounds silly? No way.
Start by getting your coat, purse and keys and jingle them and be sure your pet knows you are leaving. Then wait a few minutes and come back into the house and praise your pet for behaving. Then do it again, this time staying away longer and longer until your pet is not afraid when you leave.
One of the main reasons a pet chews his feet, after you rule out foreign objects, is that he/she is anxious.
I have seen it so often that a pet will have brown feet. It’s more noticeable on a white pet but there will be a brown stain on all four feet. This could be caused by a yeast infection but many times it is caused by plain old stress. Is there a lot of stress in the household? Do you or someone in the family yell a lot and have arguments? This will certainly communicate itself to your pet. Many times they will get so anxious that they will bite their own foot and make it bleed.
This story is an example of what an animal will go through when they are in extreme stress. During the war in Bosnia, there was a lion in a Zoo. The town had very little food and the zoo caretakers did all they could for the lion. Because of the bombs bursting and the constant noise the lion was so stressed he started to bit his feet. The caretakers couldn’t stop the noise and the lions chewed his feet into bloody stumps. It brought tears to my eyes to hear about this.
Well the same kind of stress can affect your pet too. pets need a quiet, comfortable environment with a set routine. You mess up a pets routine and they will show it by excessive licking and biting. Calm your life down. It will be better for you and better for your pets.
I once went to a pet club function. I had never been there before and was looking forward to meeting all the member and their pets. All the West Highland White Terriers that were there were groomed nicely and were very happy pets. Then a family showed up. They weren’t very friendly and seemed kind of nervous. They had 5 white pets and each pet had 4 brown feet. The pets did not look happy. They didn’t play and I wondered what kind of life did they have in that home. It didn’t look pleasant.
Foot and paw information.
FOREIGN OBJECTS IN THE PAW.
If you have checked for foreign objects such as burrs, wood, glass or anything that could get under the paws and have not found anything it could be few other things.
Find a room with a bright light and put a towel down for your dog to lay on. Use a blunt nosed scissors and trim the hair between the pads. This will help you look for any foreign object and help clean the foot. Be really careful when cutting because a dogs foot is very sensitive and if you mess up he will never let you look at his feet again. Look for any splinters or stickers in between the feet.
If you can find something you can remove, do so with care. Your pet might start to stress out. You can tell if your pet is in pain or in stress if he starts to pant or tremble. If it's too deep to take out yourself take him to the vet. Then it's not you he's afraid of. Who wants our pets to be afraid of us? Not me!
If you are able to remove the object wash the paws with a very mild soap like baby shampoo and apply a soothing ointment. Oatmeal is very soothing as is Aloe Vera. Find a product with either of these ingredients. Aloe Vera is very powerful in treating cuts and infections. You can find some soothing salves at the pet store.
FLEAS
A very common reason for biting the feet are fleas. Is your pet biting other parts of his body? Look carefully at your pets belly. Do you see any tiny black specks? If you do, these are flea feces. Give him a good flea bath and treat his feet carefully. Wash his bedding and anything else he sleeps in or plays with.
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