Dog biting itself....

[ShinyAndNew]

Does anyone know of causes for this? My lovely, very experienced, university educated vet, thinks it is dermatitis and there is not a lot we can do about other than manage the symptoms with anti inflammatory injections and soothing shampoos. If it gets worse and affects the dog's quality of life he will refer him to a dermatologist and we will go from there wrt treatments etc.

DH, who is not lovely, nor experienced with dogs or university educated or a vet, disagrees. Her thinks there is another reason the dog is biting itself and thinks that it is effecting his quality of life. His mum got his dog pts for doing the same thing. Over my dead body is this happening with my dog, although DH insists that is not what he wants either. He just wants me to treat and stop the biting and scratching. But can't tell me how.

DH is concerned that boarding kennels will phone us to end our holiday early and collect the dog if he keeps biting himself.

So what else can I try? (just to keep DH satisfied that I am treating the biting problem)

Dog has been bathed, is wormed and flea'd regularly, has been brushed and I have cut out all the matted bits in his fur he has caused by biting (all of the above are done weekly anyway). Would having him stripped/shaved help? He is a fox terrier X.

What part of its body does it bite? I assume it's not taking huge chunks out of itself but sort of nibbling?

All of it's body, mainly back, legs and stomach. Lots of nibbling and licking, but on occasions he has taken big chunks of his hair/skin. This is when we go back to the vets for injections. It's happened about twice since I have had him. We've had him coming up to a year now.

Atm, he is worse, but not the point of breaking the skin. The vets says his is likely to be due to the heat irritating the skin condition and try and keep him cool.

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Ok, you need more from your vet. Being that itchy all the time IS a quality of life issue - how would you or I feel if we were so uncomfortable! If the symptomatic treatment isn't managing this condition adequately, and it certainly doesn't seem to be, then you need to either manage it differently or get referred on to a dermatologist. This may well be an allergic type of problem and if so there are numerous other ways to manage it beyond those you mention. While I think your vet has been right to make it clear that this sort of problem often has to be controlled rather than cured, the control should be good. I think your dog deserves better relief than he's getting.

Thank you. I will speak to the vet again on Monday. We have an appointment for preventative anti imlamm injections for when he goes to the kennels. We got him from a pound and he was really bad when we first got him. His feet were bleeding he had bitten them that badly . So it's possible it may be exasperated by stress, hence the preventative injections.

It's not constant biting. He can eat/play/walk/sleep without having to bite. It seems to be when he is unoccupied that he does it.

I don't think it is boredom. He is walked/trained/played with daily.

I saw a dog on a TV prog that had bitten itself bald. They treated it for allergies (did actual blood tests I think) but also it had been moved into the desert (in the US of course) & the dry air helped too.

Actually what the vet said about the the heat ties in with that. Could you get him a fan? (Seriously!)

Oh & having him stripped might well help, if it is the sticky heat doing it.

Try taking him off his regular food today and just feeding him some boiled chicken or fish with boiled white rice. Could be a cereal allergy, which is really common.
This really does work. Good website site is dogfoodproject.
One of my dogs has a grain allergy and bites his paws until they bleed if he gets any cereal.

There is a whole branch of veterinary medicine for skin problems. You really need to see your vet (as I see you plan to) and ask to be referred for full investigations to be done if your vet is unwilling or not experienced in this field. There could be many causes and many potential treatments including washes, antibiotics, antiparasitics, food trials (please do this properly just changing off something for a while is not a proper food trial and can cause an imbalance in nutrients too if not thought out correctly), essential fatty acid suppplements, immunotherapy vaccines (allergy desensitisation) and other drug therapies such as atopica or steroids...to name the ones that come to mind.

Good luck - your dog does not have to put up with constant itching.

Gold dust dog back from vets. Lovely vet fetched other lovely vet to discuss.

Gold dust dog been given a topical steroid cream to be applied twice daily and we have been advised to give Piriton twice daily. They think as it is allergy based itching as it is worse in summer. Pollen allergy is the most common. They checked nothing had changed in the house i.e different cleaning products etc. Nothing has changed.

If this doesn't work, gold dust dog will be given oral steroids. The next step will be allergy tests.

Kennels must call them if he gets worse/doesn't stop and they will advise further. My dad is to collect dog from kennels and take him to the vets for me for oral steroid prescription, if he hasn't improved after a week.

I promised DH that gold dust dog wouldn't cost much. I didn't want a pedigree pup. I wanted a rescue dog. His first vet appointment cost £100! It's been around £60 per visit ever since. Gold dust dog has now cost more than any pedigree would do. He's worth it though

how is gold dust dog doing under the new regime, shiny?

Ok,this is a major breed problem in fox-terriers.I am assuming he is a wire? I am on my second wire and he is an old man now so 22 years of fox terrier companionship,and they both have had skin issues.My first one was the worst,it was much worse in summer, and if he came into contact with anything perfumed so be very careful what you use to clean the house especially your floors,the carpets,his bedding.The one I have now is slightly better,but he is always a little bit itchy.He has had steroids at times but only for short periods.Evening primrose oil can help too.Oily fish in his diet might help,a couple of times a week.Stress makes it worse and they are very sensitive and highly strung dogs,so easily stressed!Dog 1 used to bite his legs until they were bald in the Summer,but in Winter time he was much more comfortable.Any kind of flea bite can set up a major reaction where the dog will be super itchy so keep away from anywhere that might have cat fleas around as they will bite him,and de-flea him regularly.You can also get specialist oat shampoo from the vet although it wasn't madly effective on dog2 here.You can do a lot to keep him as comfy as possible,but he will probably always have some issues with his skin and be itchier in the heat etc.Keep his bedding cotton at the moment,so it doesn't make him overheat.Diet will be trial and error,you can ask your vet and then try different foods for him,plenty of long off-lead walks etc and don't leave him alone for long as they hate it.I will keep thinking about it (v tired now so rambling)and may have something else to add,but if you have any breed questions I'm happy to help.