Excessive licking and biting is driving me insane!

[JPuckett1989]

Sadie constantly licks and bites her read legs many times a day for 5 minutes or more straight. When she licks she licks her under side around where there's no hair or on the inside of her leg until its soaking wet and sometimes til the skin turns red irritated,and the sound of her doing it and action of her doing it is driving me crazy! What could cause this? She doesn't have fleas,she does have dry skin and we only give her a bath once a month with an oatmeal shampoo. Why is she licking and biting so much?

 

[~Tucker&Me~]

I know dry skin can be itchy, so perhaps she is trying to relieve the itchiness.

It may be worth asking you vet about though, if she is licking to the point of irritating the skin there may be a problem. In the meantime, if you see her licking, redirect her attention to a toy, something along the lines of a stuffed kong.

 

[JPuckett1989]

Ok. We have to take her to the vet soon to get her fixed so i'll ask them then.

 

[Ratboy]

My friend's dog hurt his back in a fall down the stairs, and apparently his legs were tingling and he was chewing and licking them due to the odd feeling he had in them. He eventually had surgery to fix a ruptured disk, and it stopped it.

 

[Maura]

What do you feed him? A food allergy will be evident on the skin with the dog licking and teething spots. The first ingredient should be a whole meat.

 

[lizzybeth727]

You can also give fish oil suppliments which should help the dry skin.

 

[sugarskull]

If you feed a dog food with corn, wheat, and/or soy in it, these ingredients can be very drying for her skin and have little to no nutritional value for her. Especially corn. Try switching to a food with whole meats in the first several ingredients (no by-products or meals) or to one that is completely grain-free. Another advantage to going this route is she will poop less

If the itch doesn't go away after switching, I'd take her to the vet. Maybe she has some other external parasite that you can't see like mites. Your vet would know best!

 

[drdamian]

Sounds like some sort of irritation...best is to show it to a vet..

 

[kayli_lilly]

Sometimes boredom can cause dogs to bite and lick at themselves, even until they bleed.

 

[Saeleofu]

It could be inhaled allergies, too. You might try some Benadryl (dosage is 1mg/lb up to 50mg twice a day).

Try switching to a food with whole meats in the first several ingredients (no by-products or meals) or to one that is completely grain-free.

I vote grain-free. At least have the first ingredient me a meat meal or the first several whole meats, or some combination of those. Meat meal actually isn't that bad. Meat meal is a dry ingredient, so wherever it is in the list of ingredients - including the first ingredient - that's where it is. If a whole meat is the first ingredient, it's actually very likely much lower on the list once the water is removed (as it is in dry kibble) and so the meat content is actually less than that it is if it were a meat meal.

 

[lizzybeth727]

This was posted back in January..... any updates?