[HellHoundsKeeper]

My 6 month old GSD is chewing. No, not the furniture or shoes but his FUR. It started almost a month ago as a single spot on his hind legs. He chewed down to the skin and made think ticks or mites or something. Checked him head to toe, nothing. Brought him to the vet, they did a skin scrape and found nothing. Also gave us antihistamine (regular benadryl) and a special shampoo.

This didnt help, than the vet said we needed to change his food to a grain free - ironically enough we were already doing this. He was on Canidae all life stages and is now on Horizon Legacy. They told me that should solve it. Didnt - though he is not as hungry and has a very good looking coat, good enough to eat too apparently!

The vet now says its environmental, and I just need to wait it out (five visits later). I can understand that, but I have removed all access to plants trees bushes and grass and the matter is getting worse and has consumed his entire hind quarters and is now causing him to chew his front legs now!


Any ideas? suggestions? solutions? similar occurrences?

I will post a photo as well. :help:

Thanks!!!

 

[Momto2GSDs]

My 6 month old GSD is chewing. No, not the furniture or shoes but his FUR. It started almost a month ago as a single spot on his hind legs. He chewed down to the skin and made think ticks or mites or something. Checked him head to toe, nothing. Brought him to the vet, they did a skin scrape and found nothing. Also gave us antihistamine (regular benadryl) and a special shampoo.

This didnt help, than the vet said we needed to change his food to a grain free - ironically enough we were already doing this. He was on Canidae all life stages and is now on Horizon Legacy. They told me that should solve it. Didnt - though he is not as hungry and has a very good looking coat, good enough to eat too apparently!

The vet now says its environmental, and I just need to wait it out (five visits later). I can understand that, but I have removed all access to plants trees bushes and grass and the matter is getting worse and has consumed his entire hind quarters and is now causing him to chew his front legs now!


Any ideas? suggestions? solutions? similar occurrences?

I will post a photo as well. :help:

Thanks!!!

Has he had a flea/tick application put on?
When was the last vaccination?
Did the Canidade or does the Legacy have any yeast supplements added?

 

[erfunhouse]

Can dogs take antihistamine? Have you changed any clothing detergent? Used a powder on the carpet? Have you changed lotions? Or body spray?

 

[HellHoundsKeeper]

There is no yeast supplements in either food I believe ( will check on that)
He has never had a flea or tick application put on (vet said he didnt need one and it wouldnt do anything)
and his last shots were in April and almost a month before this started.


I am having issues attaching the photo as well.

 

[HellHoundsKeeper]

No, we have done nothing new. No new soaps or lotions except what was prescribed after the fact. and dogs can have benedryl that weigh more than 50lbs but not more than 50mlg twice a day I believe. Oh and now he is on a new antihistamine that is supposed to be much stronger but still does nothing.

 

[VTGirlT]

Aw poor little guy.. I am not Vet by any means..
But when dogs that look like him, that come in to my work (Humane Society) it is usually food allergies.
Perhaps you should try a Raw diet for a while to see if it helps him.. Always worth a try if nothing else is working. Also try going to a Vet who is holistic, they usually tend to have herbals that can help with things like this!

Good luck to you both!

 

[HellHoundsKeeper]

Aw poor little guy.. I am not Vet by any means..
But when dogs that look like him, that come in to my work (Humane Society) it is usually food allergies.
Perhaps you should try a Raw diet for a while to see if it helps him.. Always worth a try if nothing else is working. Also try going to a Vet who is holistic, they usually tend to have herbals that can help with things like this!

Good luck to you both!

Thanks, Ill try the raw diet. I just noticed as well that there are several small blisters throughout the area the he just made bleed-

 

[ugavet2012]

I would skip anything and everything else and go to a vet dermatologist. A regular vet can work this up but you need to find a good one. When people bring dogs to me who have been seen by other vets and tried multiple things and yet to get an answer or something that works I start over. I do an exam, full history, skin scrape (and sometimes you need multiple ones), skin cytology, fungal culture, and rule out flea allergy by putting on good flea prevention (not frontline). You may even just see if your vet will biopsy an affected area, that could get you an answer pretty quick. This doesn't look like any food allergy dogs I have ever seen, not saying that can't be it. I would for sure do a fungal culture, this could be ringworm.
Could be behavioral as well.

 

[NewbieShepherdGirl]

Is he bored or stressed? We had a golden growing up that would lick one of his front paws raw if he was bored (meaning not getting enough exercise/stimulation) and recently Sasha has taken to doing that when I leave (as I am now working and going to school and her separation anxiety kicked into high gear). If that is the case, what has been working for us is I am retraining her brain. So now every time, and I mean every single time, I leave she is left with a kong filled with stuff. For prolonged periods of time (meaning more than an hour, like when I'm at school or work) she is left with the biggest sized kong filled with either raw meat or canned dog food (the kong is frozen btw) and for short periods of time she gets a smaller kong filled with either yogurt (again frozen) or something of that nature. I also sprayed the area she started licking obsessively with bitter apple spray. It's been a week and she seems to be adjusting better. She still doesn't love to be left, but it seems to lessen the anxiety a bit. One cavet to this though is that if you have a dog that is a chewer it can be very dangerous to leave them with stuff like that because they can choke. Sasha is not a chewer so it's fine, but I wouldn't do it with a dog that had a tendency to chew stuff up.

 

[carmspack]

thinking along the same lines "Is he bored or stressed?" looks to be behavioural , obsessive behaviour -- flank sucker ASPCA | Compulsive Behavior in Dogs

instead of having an urgent itch and scratch biting at themselves dogs with this obsessive behaviour "sooth" themselves while doing this and have this almost trance like look .

The flank sucker rarely injures himself - only sculpts his hair .
I had a young male that was crated and in the area where a mature male was present and females . When those females came in to season he would be anxious (excited) and start with excessive grooming , not injuring the skin , not discernible , never caught him at it - just the results , which were like your dog with the hair over his back leg looking shaved . When the females finished cycling he left his hair alone and was normal. Females cycle - he did it again . Some where along the way he got addicted to this habit - so it is pretty much a permanent look.
He never has never will be bred , even though he trained very easily and is a steady confident dog .
I had read that obsessive behaviours could be caused by high cholesterol levels . "
Journal of Small Animal Practice, studied many different breeds. They believe terriers, German shepherds, Anatolian sheepdogs and dogs originally bred for herding appear to be more prone to tail chasing.
Have you recently had your dog’s cholesterol levels checked?
The majority of dogs with obsessive tail chasing in the recent study were found to suffer from high cholesterol, with HDL and LDL cholesterol both significantly higher than in dogs that only chased their tails on occasion. High amounts of cholesterol may clog cell membranes at the microscopic level, affecting flows of brain hormones involved in mood and behavior. High cholesterol has also been linked to people who suffer from panic attacks and/or OCD.
If you suspect that your dog might chase its tail too often and could have high cholesterol, experts suggest the following "

so with a higher dosage of fish oil, and lecithin granules or liquid lecithin sourced from sunflower seeds he was able to stop himself , even if a female was in season.
Now he gets an oil that has unrefined rice bran oil , a very good source of phosphatidyl serine and choline .


I'd rather have this than a tail chaser , same syndrome.

 

[carmspack]

here are some aides which came out of Temple Grandin's research https://anxietywrap.com/Videos/?id=dc53f584-8507-4d64-bcda-f5630bcbd085

 

[Catu]

Another vote for behavioral.

As bad as it looks on the picture, the skin itself doesn't look red or irritated and you have already done your homework ruling out the most frequent causes.

 

[HellHoundsKeeper]

see I thought it was behavioral as well but he does it in the middle of training, exercising etc.. He will stop mid walk to scratch or chew, thats why I thought it was fleas initially. Plus he plays all day long with either me or my pit mix.

 

[HellHoundsKeeper]

oh and as for the skin not being irritated I dont believe it is except for where what appears to blisters are popping up which he than chews and makes bleed.

 

[HellHoundsKeeper]

So we were on a walk this morning and mid walk he had to start scratching Almost every time we stopped he scratched....

I am nervous that it is behavioral and that hes not getting enough exercise/stimulus but would he still do it mid workout kind of thing?

Also when he bites his legs he does the thing with his foot like he is running in place, (not sure what to call it -) a twitch maybe. Not sure if its relevant but that leads me to believe its an itch too.

Other than the body rap what are some other things I can do if its behavioral? We already give him a bone that he loves to chew on when he is in his crate, and he destroys the kongs so those are out.

 

[VTGirlT]

It could be both even?
My friends has a shepherd who chews all the fur off her tail, and so it looks like a "rat tail" poor girl!
But she does that because she learnd to do it from her younger days because of bordem when she was in her previous place she was in a outside kennel 24/7 with nothing to do, no toys.. so what she did to keep her self entertained was to chase her tail in circles all day and chew the fur off her tail.
So it could be behavioral, however, if you say he would stop mid walk and itch himself, than it sounds more to like a physical problem.
So perhaps its both and they are some how overlaping each other. Like perhaps because of the behavioral problem of chewing his fur off, he is irratating his skin and or it feels funny because its naked there? Just some thoughts. But defiantly go see a holistic vet or at least one other vets opinion!

Good luck!

 

[Aramis' Mummy]

I have a small dog that used to do that. When I switched to raw feeding it cleared up. She would chew herself until she could barely walk on her paws and her legs and anywhere else she could reach were bald and red . She now doesn't chew on herself at all and her coat is all shiny and soft. I vote raw!

 

[carmspack]

good shampoo with Defendex -- then later a good shampoo with anti fungal such as Selsun Blue fortified .

Change diet . Raw . supplement with essential fatty acids and lecithin -- . Make sure you have good vitamin and mineral in diet.

 

[Mary Beth]

I agree it could also be behavioral. Though there still could also a health problem. It is a nasty cycle, first the small irritation - then the dog chews - it gives relief - then the fur starts to grow back - that itches - the chewing starts - then the dog gets relief - that feels so good, he keeps doing it. Sorta of like people biting their nails. I know my Sting had it this spring - a little scratch on his front leg - I thought for sure some type of allergy - because his case was not severe and more textbook case of compulsive behavior - the vet said that is what it was. I did get a bitter spray - it has tea oil in to promote healing but I also worked on redirecting. When he would chew - I would make a sound - when he looked up - I would praise him - also I would give him his bear to chew on - it worked - his skin is all cleared up now. The spray I used was Natural Touch Chew Not for Dogs. I also gave him HomeoPet Skin & Itch drops.

 

[GatorBytes]

I would think this is an immune system issue post vaccination (1 month after).

Def. consider RAW - by using raw you are providing the amino acids in the most undenatured form. Promoting glutathione (cannot be supplemented - created by other amino acids), the body's natural detoxifier.

Raw, organic, cold pressed coconut oil (hexane free) @ 1tsp./10lbs of body weight - split am/pm will help with yeasty issues.

Use externally too on the sores - but you will have to cover as dogs love the stuff

Also go to a holistic vet so you can address detox from the adjuvants (mercury, aluminum etc.) in the vaccines...this is an early warning of future issues to come...also - do not neuter at this time, no sense upsetting the balance with hormones going out of wack too