Rosie my 10 yr old westie has nearly always licked her feet. Recently she has started licking the carpet and the car seats when she is in the car. On Friday night she did a lot of coughing I gave her some Benylin just to ease her throat but when i looked in the water dish there was a tiny hair ball. Any tips on this please

Jean

My older dog always licks the carpet if he is feeling sick.

Daisy

Daisy there was no sickness just the wee hair ball in the water she must have collected it either on her tongue or in her throat with the licking.

Jean

My dogs do this too Jean and it drives me nuts! When they have fresh blankets on their beds they lick them to the point of saturation sometimes. Think it's because they like to put their own smell on them and don't like it when it's too clean. LOL I would love some tips to stop them doing this too.

Maybe allergies?  My pointer used to lick/chew at her feet all the time.  My husband had read in a gun dog magazine that this can be a sign of allergies.  When we went to the vet for another injury, the vet gave us medicine for the injury.  He said if the foot licking/chewing was allergies, this medicine would probably work on it also.  From the first dose of medicine, she has stopped the behavior.  Interestingly, the vet told us that this behavior is from inhaled allergies versus a contact irritation to the feet.  Weird.  I just thought it was nervous energy because she is such a high energy breed.

 

Hi Jean

Sorry I can't be of any help but my 10 month old cocker has started to lick the paint on the doors (only gloss paint on doors) and he loves to lick windows in the car and patio doors :rolleyes:

I would ask your vet.