Sandy is the wonderful woman who has mentored us with raw food, I’ve found her to be very knowledgeable with all things dog.
A few weeks back I noticed that Sampson had a spot on his paw, I shot Sandy an e-mail and said Sampson was licking at his paw and did she know hot to treat for hot spots. She responded, wash it with apple cider vinegar and put some aloe on it.
When I went to pick up my order of dog food Sandy said, it’s not a hot spot it’s a lick granuloma, look it up.
I asked how do I treat it, and she said with Witch Hazel.
Here’s what it looked like on August 19th.
8-19-12
I meant to google it when I got home but then I couldn’t remember what it was, so I didn’t. I tried different keywords, but unfortunately my dog’s licking his paw but it’s not a hot spot turned up nothing.
I finally remembered to shoot her an e-mail and asked her what it was. Then I googled it.
My trusty ‘go to’ source Wickipedia’s explanation was terribly disturbing.
“Lick granuloma is a form of self-trauma in which animals, particularly dogs, continuously lick a small area of their body until it becomes raw and inflamed. The most common areas affected are the lower (distal) portions of the legs. The most common cause of lick granuloma appears to be psychological, related to stress, boredom or compulsiveness. It is often considered to be a form of canine obsessive-compulsive disorder.”
I was horrified, here’s what I took from that: My dog is exhibiting the canine equivalent of cutting himself. 🙁
Do they have psychologists for dogs?
I took a deep breath and did a bit more research. Web MD had a different explanation.
“At one time, lick sores were thought to be psychogenic in origin and related to boredom and inactivity. It now appears that many cases are preceded by an itchy skin disease (such as canine atopy) that starts the lick cycle. Other possible initiating causes include demodectic mange, a bacterial or fungal infection, prior trauma, and underlying joint disease. The precipitating event focuses the dog’s attention on the area. The licking then becomes a habit that may be perpetuated by psychological events, so behavior may still be a factor.”
I’m pretty sure I can rule out demodectic mange and if he had prior trauma I would probably know about it.
I realize that Sampson and Delilah’s exercise routine has become fairly boring. With the heat of summer I’ve eliminated any chance of a mid-day walk. Our walks are either early morning (on the weekends) or early evening during the week. That can be boring.
Because of Delilah’s reactivity as well as finances their daycare days have been cut. Again BORING.
In case you haven’t noticed, I am a bit neurotic with my dogs. 🙂
Even with all of that, I’m hesitant to believe that Sampson’s licking is psychological. This is what jumped out at me from the Web MD explanation.
“Other possible initiating causes include ….underlying joint disease.”
Sampson just turned eight, even with the weight he’s lost, he’s a big dog. I worry that he has some underlying joint issue.
He’s not scheduled for his annual exam until October and I think it’s too long to wait, so I intend on calling up our vet tomorrow (too bad I didn’t have her cell phone number…) 🙂
In the meantime, I’ve been treating it twice a day with the Witch Hazel and encouraging him to leave it, anytime I catch him licking it.
I think it’s helping. Here’s a picture of what it looks like today.
8-26-12
Have you ever heard of a lick granuloma?
P.S. Dear Wikipedia, you are no longer my go to source for dog related information. Please don’t take it personally. Thank you.
I have never thought Wikipedia as a good source for much. Likewise with Web MD. I have found some of that info out of date.
To me it still sounds like a hot spot. Once dogs start licking they can make those wounds. Our Golden used to get them because he was allergic to fleas. Once we treated him, that went away. Thunder right now has one on his elbow. I think he was stung at the hunt test yesterday since it appeared out of nowhere last night. I put EMT get on it and kept him from licking and it is resolving. Sampson could have had a bug bite which started it and then yeah, retrievers tend to lick once the area becomes inflamed. It is very dry this year and allergies are nasty so it could also be an allergy to a grass or weed.
Please, what is EMT? The witch hazel seems to be helping, but not quick enough for my tastes. Yes he does leave it when I tell him, but I can’t monitor him 24/7.
Were you nervous when Thunder got stung? After that bloat incident I think I would freak out. 🙂
This is must have stuff for us.
http://emtgel.com/
Thank you, I’ve shown it to hubby and the next time he is at Cabela’s he will pick some up. In the meantime, I’m going to continue with the witch hazel because it seems to be helping.
Jodi, my dear, my pal, you are not going to believe this but Sherman has a lick granuloma on his left rear leg. It first appeared last year and I took him to the vet and she said it was a lick granuloma. I am as paranoid with my dogs as you, so I didn’t take her word for it and we took x-rays just to make sure there wasn’t any underlying joint disease. There was not. The granuloma has been fine up until last week and I noticed Leroy licking Sherman’s leg like crazy. Tool a look at it and it was licked raw. Took him into the vet, shaved it up and started putting some SSD cream on it and beat Leroy every time he licked it. Sherman was leaving it alone, Leroy was the problem. This weekend it looked great and then we had something happen to Sherman’s leg. which I won’t go into detail about, anyway the granuloma started oozing again. I just read an article about using Betadine solution on minor skin infections so that is what I am going to start today. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Love the new look of the blog! Congratulations!
Thanks Jen, how strange is it that both our dogs have lick granulomas? The witch hazel seems to be working decently so I will keep using that. 2 Brown Dawgs put a link up for some EMT gel that she uses for her dogs, that might help Sherman. Thankfully Sampson’s isn’t as bad as Sherman’s, I do hope he is feeling better.
My dog Christie had a lick granuloma. We limited her access to the area by putting a long sleeve on her paw which kept it from getting worse but did not heal the spot for good.
At this time, however, she was 13 years old and quite ill with Cushing’s Disease. Her immune system was weak over all.
It appears Sampson’s spot is getting better. Hopefully you’ll learn more at the vet.
BTW, if you need a cheap way to provide some stimulation for Sampson and Delilah, why not see if you can feed at least some of their food in a toy that makes them work for it? I know that feeding raw makes that more challenging than using kibble or other foods. But how about hiding their bowl and making them search for it? Or putting some kind of lid on the bowl that they have to figure out how to get off? The SPCA also puts food in a cardboard box which they place in a bigger box and so on until the dogs have to work their way through 8 boxes to get to their food.
Yeah, it’s messy. But it sure is stimulating.
I shall refer you to Howie and the Pink Sock of Shame http://erinshanendoah.com/lifebypets/?p=849
Howie’s lick granuloma very likely started off as some sort of injury during his time as a stray. He licked it enoug that the vet thinks the hair follicles were likely destroyed, so he’ll always have a little bald patch on his leg. But, he no longer licks it and it’s a lovely skin color instead of red and irritated.
First we tried coating it in neosporin and then spraying with bitter apple to keep him from licking it (per the vet’s advice), but after a few days, the bitter apple stopped bothering him.
The vet actually gave us some ear drops, as an off label use, to put on it to help with the swelling and itching. That, combined with the pink sock (that later was cut to be a pink legwarmer) worked really well to get him to leave it alone.