My dog's chewing his leg - HELP

disillusioned

One of my dogs is chewing his hind leg for the past few months.
The vet thought it might simply be a bad habit and felt that it wasn't an illness. The poor dog has to wear one of those silly lampshade collars so that he can't eat his leg when I'm not around to watch him. I've tried bandages, creams, anti-nail biting paints etc. When he's with me he'll still try to chew the leg so I'm constantly saying "no" to the poor mite. He has a healthy dry food diet and is walked every day.

Has anyone experienced this or know of a solution?

funkyniff

i suggest posting this on irishanimals.ie board
http://board.irishanimals.ie
they are really good at answering animal behavior and can suggest what to do.

hadook

My sisters dog is allergic to a couple of things and he used to display similar behaviour.

We also had a foster dog that had bad mange years previously & when he got stressed he would scratch at his stomach until it bled.

I'd advise you try another vet tbh.

Your dog has something wrong with him or he wouldn't be scratching - could be an allergy, skin infection, intolerance to something in his food...

Buttmunchy

You could try buying some really tough dog toys and ween (sp?) your dog off of its leg towards its dog chews.

Nala

It sounds like it could be a psychological thing tbh. Are you sure the dog is receiving enough mental and physical stimulation? Just like parrots can become neurotic and pluck their own feathers out, a dog can show similar symtoms (i.e., chewing his own leg).

What breed is he? Dobermanns are known to be particularly prone to obsessively licking their paws, whereas collies are notorious for developing behavioural problems due to boredom.

kleefarr

Is he chewing the back part of his leg? Is it just the one leg?
It could simply be fleas. I had a dog that started doing that once, a quick dose of frontline and he was fine after a while.

jimmy rodgers

our vet years ago told us that that behaviour was because our dog didnt have enough fibre in his diet.

Thats also why dogs eat grass sometimes so let him loose in a field and observe.......

pwd

check for any lumps where he's chewing.
My dead dog chewed her front leg all the time.
A big red cancer grew where she was chewing it.
Hope you get this sorted out and it is nothing serious.