Hi there,

We have a two year old bitch who over the last couple of months has taken to chewing the pads on her front paws. At first we assumed that it was grass seeds, but we can't find anything. We took her to the vets and they couldn't find anything wrong and suggested that maybe she had a scratch or puncture, but it doesn't seem to get much better.

At one point it was so bad that she could barely walk, and would just lie down on the floor and start chewing as soon as we stepped onto concrete in the street. The vet gave her painkillers and we kept her paws bandaged for about a week so she couldn't get at them, and that did help, but a week or two later she was chewing again, though not as badly. She is fed on Nutro with a spoonful of James Wellbeloved wet food, which she eats but isn't keen on. A few days ago I started changing her food slowly to Arden Grange, but I've just noticed that her paws are soaked where she has been gnawing them. Should I put her back on the Nutro for a few days to see if it gets better?

Has anybody had any experience of this? I'm not sure if it is diet related, but we would try anything. She is a long haired breed but both the vet and our groomer are happy that the hair around her feet shouldn't be causing any problem.

My sister boxer started chewing her feet, she didn't chew them enough to make them sore but she was getting rather obsesive about it. The vet said it's a classic sign of anal glands needing emptying, they emptied her glands and she stopped chewing her feet :)

Ah, now that is a top tip and could be the problem. Thanks a lot. :-)

Don't you love dogs? Not only do we get to walk them and share our lives with them, but we also get to squeeze their glands, cut poo out of the hair around their bottom, drive home from walks with them stinking of fox poop and looking dead proud, and wake up on a morning clinging onto the edge of the duvet to find they've managed to take over three quarters of the bed!

Wouldn't be without them for the world. :-D

LOL, yes there are some really gross things we have to endure, but you're right, it's worth it :)

ETA. I'm not sure, but I think diet can have an effect on the anal glands, hopefully somebody will be able to give some advise on that.

She might still be allergic to something though if she is chewing her feet.  Does she also roll on the carpet and snuffle into it? 

We don't have carpets - wooden floors everywhere. Why, are you thinking she might be itching elsewhere too?

Well just wondered if maybe she had a dust allergy?  Carpets can trap dust and dustmites obviously.  Do you use any substances to clean the solid floor or do you just give it a sweep/dust every now and again?  I would have said that any problems with anal glands would have resulted in a lot of attention to the back end (scooting, chewing tail and bum etc) I just don't see the connection between front paws and anal glands.  I've always associated licking and chewing the front feet as a reaction to something whether allergy, reaction to a substance such as a cleaning solution or stress.

Blocked anal glands do make their feet itch. It's also the last thing a lot of people think of so have her glands checked.

I had a shetland sheepdog (sadly passed away in march), he had the same problem with his feet and also his ears, took him to vet paid £300 to have an allergy test done and was told yes he is allergic to something but not sure what! Felt as though id just thrown £300 in the bin as i was none the wiser. Tried changing his food, was told not to put bleach or anything down when mopping floors, to use a certain soap powder, i even removed all my carpets and tiled my living room floor but nothing worked. In the end he had to go on antibiotics and steriods for the rest of his life, this did seem to cure the problem but im sure it cut his life span short, hope to god you do not have this problem and good luck with trying to get it sorted. Its so frustrating watching them itch and theres nothing you can do to help.

She did scoot on the floor yesterday, so it could be glands. I'd assumed they needed looking at, but hadn't made the connection to her paws.

If it is her glands, I will be really pleased we've found the problem, but frustrated as we've been to the vet twice in the last six months with this and had her on antihistemines and painkillers. They've never even mentioned glands, and have focussed on allergies or injuries (thorns etc) with absolutely no success.

Really hope we do find a fix, as tablets for life would be awful. So sorry about your boy, barneyfoz.

i would also try bathing her feet everyday in warm water with perhpas a small amount of lavender oil (good for the skin esp burns so i've been told), keeping them clean and cool might help. Its a bit like when you have an itchy head and you jsut keep scratching, then you wash your hair and it feels much better and you stop scratching - well thats me anyway!

obviously you want too much oil for her to ingest but it might calm her skin for a while and break the habbit.

Rinse feet with diluted hibiscrub normally works a treat (you can get hibiscrub from boots).
If it is mites then you put a tsp of earclear (canker powder) into a bag put dogs foot in give a little massage. http://www.homoeopet.co.uk/earclear.htm

Licking paws until paws are very wet is a typical signs of food intolerance. If it only happens in summer months then it's due to pollens, if all year round it could be dust mites
You could also try a home made exclusion diet or your vet can prescribe one eg:  caplin and tapioca to see if it helps.

If it is a food intolerance, what is the most likely cause. She has been on Nutro Lamb & Rice and over the last few days we have been moving her onto Arden Grange Lamb & Rice. She is currently on 50/50 of each. Is it likely to be grain she is intolerant to? In which case we could try a grainfree food like Orijen. Otherwise, could it be the lamb?

I really don't want to chop and change her food, and so would like to change just once. I think if we took her off Arden Grange now it should be fine, as she has only been having small amounts for about four days. I guess we could then wait a while and try something different.

i had similar problem with my TT when  I changed her food.  Changed it again to the pro variety Purina fish and within a month the problem was gone.  Would also suggest you treat for mites also.  Stronghold or Advocate I find are best as vets often overlook this possibility and mites are a lot more common than you may imagine.

Chewing paws doesn't always mean that the paws are hurting or itching it can mean some other part of their body is itching or hurting, weird I know.

It seems that it's an easy place to reach. I think sometimes it's to do with their diet.  My bichons which are a breed which are notorious for itching used to do it and scratch themselves like mad until I changed from a processed dried diet. Even the expensive organic product had the same effect.

So save yourself a lot of money in vets fees and why not consider changing to the Barf diet, I can't recommend it enough.

No more itchy dogs.

Liz

> If it is a food intolerance, what is the most likely cause. She has been on Nutro Lamb & Rice and over the last few days we have been moving her onto Arden Grange Lamb & Rice. She is currently on 50/50 of each. Is it likely to be grain she is intolerant to? In which case we could try a grainfree food like Orijen. Otherwise, could it be the lamb?
>
> I really don't want to chop and change her food, and so would like to change just once. I think if we took her off Arden Grange now it should be fine, as she has only been having small amounts for about four days. I guess we could then wait a while and try something different.

It may not be the lamb or Rice it could be other ingredients in food.
One way of finding out is to use proteins your dog has never had before.  If you find a food that has the most basic ingredients in that are not in the food you have used previously it can be much easier to find what causes the problem.

I'm not sure if your dogs on adult food but if it is the Ingredients bellow are in the food that your using just now.

Nutro Choice Adult Dog Food Lamb & Rice the Ingredients are: - Dried Lamb Meat (min 26%) - Ground Rice (min 26%) - Rice Bran - Rice Flour - Sunflower Oil (min 6.5%) - Rice Gluten - Dried Egg Product - Monosodium Phosphate - Dried Kelp.

Arden Grange Adult Lamm & Ricethe Ingredients are: - Lamb Meal* (min 30%) - Whole Grain Rice (min 26%) - Whole Grain Maize -  Chicken Fat* - Beet Pulp - Dried Brewers Yeast - Egg Powder - Fish Meal* - Linseed - Fish Oil* - Minerals - Vitamins - Nucleotides - Prebiotic FOS - Prebiotic MOS - Cranberry Extract - Chondroitin Sulphate - Glucosamine Sulphate - MSM - Yucca Extract - * Preserved with mixed tocopherols and rosemary extract.

> If it is a food intolerance, what is the most likely cause

How long is a piece of string? Can be additives in food - and any individual could be intolerant to any food - so could be the lamb, or the rice, or.... Most common intolerances are wheat, beef and dairy products.

There are foods available that are salmon and potato, pork and potato, fish and corn, which would be completely different carbohydrate and meat sources but it wouldn't guarantee that if she is food intolerant she wouldn't be intolerant to them as well... if you see what I mean.

I would start with the anal glands and carpet cleaners\ floor cleaners\ type of washing powder myself - simpler approach to start with. :-)

> three quarters of the bed!
>

My your dogs are thoughfull, I got pushed out of bed again last night . I keep telling them they are allowed up stairs let alone in the bed but they wont listen to me LOL

have you checked for red mites.   They cause intense itching of the feet and can be very difficult to spot

have you checked for red mites.   They cause intense itching of the feet and can be very difficult to spot


echo and Uisneach win the cigar. Just got back from the vet and he found a single red mite on one of her back paws. It's her front paws that bother her, but in the vets view mites is the first thing to manage. Apparently Frontline Spot On (which we use religiously) isn't very good around the paws. He gave her a squirt of Frontline spray and fingers crossed this will do the trick.

:-)

Re anal glands may need emptying.

That's really useful to know, my patterdale needs to have her glands emptied regulary and we only recognise this when she starts biting her tail so badly that it gets bald patches even though its been docked.  But I have noticed without giving it much thought that at the last time she needed them emptying as well as biting her tail she did lick her paws a lot, I never put the two together.  So thanks for the tip it's something for me to look out for next time rather than waiting until it's so bad that she is biting her tail.