Chewing on paws...

[dragonfly37]

My Pem Corgi Einstein has been nipping and chewing on his paws for over 6 months now. He's already once scratched the fur off the back of both front legs. Now he's graduated to nipping at his back paws and I can see pink irritated skin through his fur. We took him to the vet and they ran some blood and allergy tests and came up with lamb, chicken,some grasses and possibly seasonal allergies. We had him at the vet for two weeks and when we brought him home the first 2-3 days he did not itch or nip at all and then started up with the nipping/itching again. While he was at the vet he ate the food he normally eats at home. SO my conclusion is it's either the weaved jute rug he plays on and/or dust. I'm going to start vacumming more frequently for the next month to see what happens and then put the rug downstairs to see if that works. If those two are not the culprit I don't know what else to do.


Anyone else here have Corgis with allergies? What are the symptoms/behaviours? How did you fix the problem? I feel so bad for our lil dude. : (


Thanks so much!

-
Stacy

[dragonfly37]

And now I just see Michael R.'s itchy dog post! So I'll request a article from him then. ; )

-
Stacy

[glencorgi]

Additionally, do a google search on canine contact allergies, that will definitely give you in depth coverage.

Debbie

[MyPemCharlie]

Charlie has some mild contact allergies which makes him lick his paws. I'm using PetRelief Anti-Itch spray, which seems to take away the itch immediately and has an ingredient that taste's bad, so he quits licking. He seems to itch for only a day or two, then he's all right for a week or more.

Contact allergies usually only last a very short time. Food allergies will be more constant. If Einstein licked/chewed for 6 months, it sounds more like a food allergy (could be in combination with a contact allergan). Did your vet feed him the same food while he was there? There could be a preservative or additive in his food which the vet wouldn't test for in an allergy screen.

My last dog tested positive to 70% of everything they screen tested. Essentially he was allergic to 70% of everything on earth...food, plants, animals. I had to switch his food several times to find one that minimized his symptoms, and he got quite a few oatmeal baths in addition to PetRelief spray for any hot spots.

[Freppan]

Wow! Allergic to 70% of things. You're lucky that they aren't so severe that you have to sanitize everything like a hospital. Good luck with Charlie. <3

Also, dragonfly, there are sprays and such that are supposed to keep dogs from chewing. I'm pretty sure someone mentioned that.

[momentaiamber]

Originally Posted by dragonfly37

My Pem Corgi Einstein has been nipping and chewing on his paws for over 6 months now. He's already once scratched the fur off the back of both front legs. Now he's graduated to nipping at his back paws and I can see pink irritated skin through his fur. We took him to the vet and they ran some blood and allergy tests and came up with lamb, chicken,some grasses and possibly seasonal allergies. We had him at the vet for two weeks and when we brought him home the first 2-3 days he did not itch or nip at all and then started up with the nipping/itching again. While he was at the vet he ate the food he normally eats at home. SO my conclusion is it's either the weaved jute rug he plays on and/or dust. I'm going to start vacumming more frequently for the next month to see what happens and then put the rug downstairs to see if that works. If those two are not the culprit I don't know what else to do.


Anyone else here have Corgis with allergies? What are the symptoms/behaviours? How did you fix the problem? I feel so bad for our lil dude. : (


Thanks so much!

-
Stacy

What food are you feeding? Food is always the culprit, but the vets never say that because they like to make money off of food alergies. If you are feeding a store brand food that is your culprit. Look at the first 5 ingridents. If Corn, Wheat, chicken/lamb by produts soy are in that first 3 listings then you have your culprit. Dogs cannot digest wheat or corn and it escapes by burning through the skin which is why your dog is getting hot spots on his feet which is very common. You need to change over to a high quality food found in independent pet stores. I highly recomment Canine Caviar, Innova, and Canidae will be your top qualitiy foods, you can try Wellness, but I'm not too supportive of that company since they keep changing their formulas. Look up the websites and see which food you like the best. I highly doubt that your corgi is allergic to lamb and chicken. I think what he really is allergic too is all the filler crap they put in store brand dog food. Good luck!

[dragonfly37]

Hello all!

Thank you for the suggestions/replies! : )

Here it is a bit later and I just went crazy cleaning after my original post. Reading the allergy post I saw that some people mentioned carpet deodorizer as a problem for their dogs. I realised that the carpet deoderizer may be the problem. Ein plays on the jute rug in the living room and rolls around on it and rubs his snout all over it as well as the runner in the hall. Both of these are the places I sprinkle the carpet deodorizer. Sooooo I am hoping that this is the problem. I rolled up all three carpets and put them away and vacuumed the floors and washed the floors with some apple vinegar and water. Also washed his beds using some natural citrus oil based detergent. We're also going to buy some of the food that the vet gave him the last couple of days Ein was at the vet. There's a possibility it's the food he's currently eating.

Life with the lil dude ain't boring I tell ya! : )


Thanks again!

-
Stacy

[MyPemCharlie]

Hi Stacy,

If you think the carpet deodorizer may be the problem, you might wait a week before changing the food. If the allergies go away while on his current food, you can pinpoint that the problem was, indeed, a contact allergy to the carpet deodorizer. My recommendation is to only change one thing at a time to help you rule out possible causes.

[Louwants]

I agree with Chris. Try just removing all the carpet freshner first, then see if the chewing and licking subsides. Then try the food. Duncan has seasonal allergies from grass outside. He just scratches like he has fleas and spins his bottem on the floor like a merry go round to reach his nubbin. You can give them Children's Benedryl Meltaways to help with the itching also.

[fogebotom]

Make a list of the cleaners, detergents, shampoos, etc that you use. Many times those are the culprits. Marg did the same thing when I changed the additive to the steam cleaner, then when I tried to go to an organic, sensitive skin detergent.

Like humans, it's a game of elimination-remove it all, then slowly add one item at a time back.

Good luck!
Cindy and the crew at Foggy Bottom
www.foggybottomusa.com

[dragonfly37]

Lindsey and all,


Thanks for the tips!

This morning I got out Ein's allery test results and checked again what he rated higest in. Chicken and lamb and some grasses. Visited the website of the company that makes his dogfood,Evo, and on the list there was chicken, chicken meal and chicken fat. *sigh* I feel like such a bad mommy! : (

Talked to my husband about it this morning and he suggested that maybe we should look into making Ein's food. Oddly enough this week I picked up a copy of the newest issue of Alternative health. They have an article on cooking food for your pets. On the first page of the article? A pic of a woman and her Pem Corgi. A sign? LOL! ; )


Anyway I'm going to look into that today too. Anyone here cook for their dogs? Good sites for recipes?


-
Stacy

[MyPemCharlie]

Don't feel bad. You didn't know until this week. I was giving my allergic rottie a Kong stuffed with peanut butter almost daily plus cheese as treats...until he tested allergic to peanuts...and cow dairy products!

You'll get lots of different opinions (arguments/fights) on just what a healthy BARF (bones and raw food) diet should contain. I think it's fine to try the BARF plan with lots of research, time and effort slaving over a hot stove, and expense. If I hadn't finally found a food that agreed with my last "allergy dog", the BARF diet was to be my last resort.

You can find loads of BARF recipes with a quick Yahoo/Google search. I'd think you could cook a huge pot and freeze individual meals in ziploc bags to save time and effort.

I ended up taking my dog's "allergy" list (Cisco tested allergic to every single meat except for lamb, and allergies to most of the food fillers except rice) to the premium pet supply stores and reading every single food ingredient label in the lamb formula group. It was also time consuming, but he ended up on Nutro Natural Lamb and Rice. It didn't have any of his tested allergens and also had the fewest additives and preservatives which might have caused an untested allergy. Outside chronic ear infections from the allergies, Cisco had a beautiful coat and lived a generally normal, healthy, happy long life.

Omitting chicken and lamb should be fairly easy for you whether you choose to cook or to find a commercial food without those ingredients.