obsessive licking of a cut...
yesterday my 8 month old sheepie, Bert, got a TINY little cut while playing outside (under his left leg-what would be an armpit for a person) and when I checked on it later that evening I was HORRIFIED to discover that he had licked and bitten it to the point of turning it into a palm-sized sore! Our vet had warned us that Bert was possibly a bit obsessive about licking after having to spend a (perhaps record-breaking?) 2 weeks in a cone collar after his nutuering...but...yikes! Hes back in the cone again now, and we are using an anti-itch, anti-chew spray on the area...is there anything else we can do? Perhaps a way to prevent this in the future? Thanks! laurel |
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| Hi Laurel,
I don't have much advice for you as for some reason some animals are more obsessive about the licking than others. Other than trying to distract with a nice Kong stuffed with Peanut Butter or Cream Cheese to distract but that's a short term solution. Then again your pup may associate the stop licking with a treat and become desensitized so perhaps give it a try? My sister just took her cat to the vet the day before for the very same thing. Cut paw and cat licked it so that it became red and swollen and worse than before. Most pets do it to cleanse their wound which isn't necessarily a bad thing but the exessive licking is. Sometimes trying to place a bandaid over the wound may help but your pup may just chew it off. In my sisters case it did the trick suprisingly enough. Good luck to you and perhaps others will offer some suggestions as to what worked for them. Marianne and the boys |
| I think it depends on the dog. You might read about Acral Lick Granuloma- I'm not sure if this is what your boy has but the article deals with compulsive licking. WARNING, they are very gross pictures but it explains the problem and the difficulty in treating it. http://www.thepetcenter.com/exa/lick.html My Border Collie-mix has always been a notorious licker, especially when it's time to sleep so I try to curb the behavior by telling her to "leave it". It seems worse when she hasn't gotten enough exercise.
We had a scare with an itchy foot that Darby kept licking. What we thought was her first hot spot quickly ulcerated so we were off to the vet. Here's an icky picture- http://www.oesusa.com/DarbysFoot.jpg They had us try steroid ointment for about a week but it didn't help much so we had it surgically removed and waited to see if it was a mastcell tumor  ... fortunately, the pathology came back on Friday as a histiocytoma, a tumor that they indicated was benign. So Darby's been romancing the sock for the past month. The first 8 days after surgery we slept together in the living room so I could make sure she left it alone. Believe me... that was one long week.
I bandage the foot then put an adult man's sock on at night... I use Johnson & Johnson paper tape to tape the sock closed near the top to hold it in place making sure it's not too tight. Now that the metal sutures are out I'm using a baby sock taped the same way. Distraction and strict supervision were a must when we first started. Darby's gotten so she leaves it pretty much alone. Although last night she came into the living room with the bandage all unwrapped, soggy and dragging behind her along with a baby sock hanging out of her mouth like, "Mama, it's your fault- you didn't put my sock on." 
Good luck to you... I know how frustrating this can be. Jaci |
| We are also living in the land of the cone, our weim just got spayed. I don't know if my walls and furniture can survive all the bumping and scraping, not to mention the backs of my legs. One thing that worked pretty well when Porsche cut her armpit area was putting a kids t-shirt on her. She eventually stretched it out enough to get to the cut, but it would hold for a day or two. I just bought a pack of undershirts and changed them out once they got too stretched. |
Scruffy's Mom wrote: We are also living in the land of the cone, our weim just got spayed. I don't know if my walls and furniture can survive all the bumping and scraping, not to mention the backs of my legs. One thing that worked pretty well when Porsche cut her armpit area was putting a kids t-shirt on her. She eventually stretched it out enough to get to the cut, but it would hold for a day or two. I just bought a pack of undershirts and changed them out once they got too stretched.
maybe a long sleeve tshirt...would be harder to stretch it out |
thanks for all the input! The lick granuloma is looking like our most likely worry. He goes in to the vet today to find out. Im going to also pick up some little t-shirts...what a good idea! With all 3 of our OES (we lost our beloved boy Spencer this past august, so just 2 now) The lick, lick, lick thing has been an issue-although never like this. My vet feels that obsessive-compulsive disorder my be the cause and has brought up the suggestion of meds for it ...but I'm kind of reluctant to go that route... Any thoughts on this? All of our dogs have done this to varying degrees (Spencer and Abby just tended to lick their own paws till they turned kind of pink from the saliva) and stress/anxiety certainly seems to be a factor, since with Abby and Spencer (both rescue dogs) mostly did it when they first came to live with us and gradually stopped. Abby started doing it again for a few weeks after Spencer's death  ... |
| Hi ,
I recently read about dogs that exhibit obessive/compulsive disorders, which like humans exhibit and are more pronounced by stress. The book did suggest that excercise seems to be something that works to eliviate some of the behavior. Worth a try. 
Marianne and the boys |
| The dog chiropractor/vet I mentioned earlier did treatments for lick granuloma. I remember her saying something about the nerves tingling or burning when impinged. This causes the dog to feel a stinging and biting type of sensation. So, they chew and lick to try to get rid of it. The vet did chiropractic adjustments to get rid of the sensation. It sounds very interesting. |
| A big thank you for all the advise here, but particularly those of you who suggested exersize...We are on day 5 of OPERATION PUPPY EXAUSTION and it's worked wonders! He's compleatly quit licking not only himself, but also Abby (he had been licking and chewing on her fur to the point of matting it horribly) It's cutting down on a lot of the usual pup-mischief too... |
| After a bite wound near his hip, Chauncey was to wear one of the new hard collars. He hated it, life was miserable & I felt bad for him. So I had the bright idea to try a pair of Bob's boxers one him...too big. Well, I have a pair of pink boxer's I wear around the house in summer...and they fit just right. I thought Bob was going to stroke when he came home that night, but they worked and Chaunce was secure enough in his masculinity to wear them with pride. We did call him pretty pink pants for a week though. |
Chauncey wrote: After a bite wound near his hip, Chauncey was to wear one of the new hard collars. He hated it, life was miserable & I felt bad for him. So I had the bright idea to try a pair of Bob's boxers one him...too big. Well, I have a pair of pink boxer's I wear around the house in summer...and they fit just right. I thought Bob was going to stroke when he came home that night, but they worked and Chaunce was secure enough in his masculinity to wear them with pride. We did call him pretty pink pants for a week though.
That is hilarious...  |
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