Foot-chewing drives many people who own dogs crazy. Visualize that you’ve just drifted off to sleep, only to to be awakened by the sound of your dog going to town on his paws right alongside you. Not the recipe for a pleasant night’s rest, without a doubt. Dogs lick their feet for a number of reasons, and they can do considerable harm to themselves if the primary cause of the licking isn’t discovered and treated. Read on to discover what might be causing your dog to chew and lick his feet.
Most Common Explanations why Dogs Chew Their Paws
Allergies
Allergies are likely the number one cause of foot-chewing in dogs. Although foot-chewing can occasionally occur in dogs with only allergies to the food they eat, the vast majority of these dogs are allergic to environmental allergens.
Dogs can be allergic to just about anything they come in contact with, from grass to dust mites. When an allergic dog comes into contact with whatever they’re allergic to, it stimulates a hypersensitivity response, and the resulting inflammation causes an intense state of itchiness. So it makes sense that when a dog is allergic to grass, and the dog walks on grass, his feet are going to get intensely itchy. And licking is apparently pretty effective at momentarily quelling the itch, so allergic dogs lick their feet.
Pain
Pain in the toes and feet is a common trigger of licking behavior. There’s even evidence to support the theory that licking stimulates the release of endorphins, naturally-occurring compounds that can cause local lowering of pain. So if something hurts or is uncomfortable, and you lick it, causing release of endorphins and consequently a decrease in discomfort, you’ll keep licking. This is typically called the itch-lick cycle.
Pain in the feet may be from many causes. Previous trauma can bring about arthritis in the joints of the toes and feet, which may stimulate licking. Spinal problems also can cause pain or tingling in the feet. Slipped disks, also known as intervertebral disk disease, can put pressure on the nerves that travel down the legs to the paws, which leads to tingling and something called “neuropathic” pain. In very rare cases pain of this nature can be attributed to a genetic nerve disease, so any excessive paw chewing in a puppy should be investigated immediately.
Foreign bodies
It’s quite simple for dogs that run and play in tall grass to get grass seed heads (also known as “grass awns”) lodged between their toes. And since they’re barbed, sort of similar to a feather, once they get embedded in the skin they can easily migrate into the foot, and get stuck there. It can be a couple of days between the time your dog gets a grass awn stuck between his toes and it causes him enough discomfort to start licking it, and thus, causing you to notice it. And by that time you won’t see any evidence of the grass, and he probably won’t allow you to look at it anyways.
Usually vets will have to provide a mild sedative and perhaps a little local anesthetic to numb the area between the toes, because it’s already painful and inflamed. Then they can usually clean out the grass with saline, or pull it out with forceps.
Ice balls
If you live where it snows, you’ll likely see ice balls collect on the fur between the toes when you take your dog out for a walk or a romp in the snow. Often they’ll bite and chew at these balls in an effort to eliminate them, given that they pull on the fur and skin and is quite uncomfortable. You may use a product called Musher’s Secret in the spaces between the toes to discourage ice formation. We’ve also been told that Vaseline works as well, but we haven’t tried it ourselves, since our dogs are divas and we are in Florida.
Infection
Infections in the feet typically happen in a few different ways. Previously we mentioned allergies as a cause of foot chewing, and one of the common secondary problems associated with this is deep bacterial skin infections. If the skin gets chewed enough, bacteria from the mouth is sure to cause infection. And this results in more licking, and so on, and so on….
Dogs may also get fungal infections on their feet, including those brought on by yeast and ringworm. These conditions need to be properly differentiated and treated accordingly with anti-fungal drugs.
Nail problems
Dogs can get weird problems of an auto-immune (when the body attacks itself) nature in the nails, however these are pretty rare. The most common reason behind foot licking associated with the nails is broken or torn nails. Dogs are notorious for getting their nails briefly stuck in the cracks on decking as well as in other spaces, and when they move the foot they’ll often fully or partially tear the nail off. This leaves the tender “quick” or “cuticle” exposed, and this hurts, especially when they walk on it. If this happens to your dog you’ll have to have your vet cut or remove the nail, and apply a bandage to keep the foot comfortable enough for walking while the cuticle toughens up again.
Behavior
Like so many of the weird things our dogs do, we’d love to declare that there’s an underlying behavioral problem to foot-licking, like obsessive-compulsive disorder. And even though this could certainly happen, it’s pretty rare. Usually there’s another inciting cause to foot-licking, and left unattended a behavioral attachment may develop.
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