Chewing feet - he's driving me mad

Monty constantly chews his feet and it's driving me up the wall. It's never the same foot and I've checked each one over thoroughly for anything stuck or cut and there's nothing. He doesn't mind me touching them so I know there's nothing wrong as last time he genuinelly had something wrong with a paw he wouldn't let me near it and snapped at Rich.

So why is he doing this?? He's also constantly licking his other "bits" but I assumed this was just a man thing!

It can be a food related thing. How are his anal glands?====or do you mean that is what he s licking?

rune

as said above, or some other sort of alergy, does he scratch his ears a lot?

He doesn't really bother much with his ears but anything else is fair game in Montys mind - feet, balls, willy and occasionally anal glands but that isn't as often.

Feet are every day sometimes for 20 minutes at a time.

What are you feeding and is he at all overweight---that can cause it as well.

rune

Is it red between the pads? (Could be exzema) Or are his pads cracked (paw wax if they are). or maybe he bites his nails?

He's on JWB fish and rice which we swapped him onto a month ago but he chewed his feet before this when he was on Oscars. He's not overweight at all really.

He's definitely not chewing his nails as I can see him getting his teeth right between the pads. between Pads are maybe a little red but I guess this is due to him constantly chewing them. The pads aren't cracked at all.

Is he 'preening' or putting the whole paw in his mouth?

If its the whole paw, what are the length of his nails like? Hoki chews her whole front fee sometimes - usually when her nails are a bit long - she then ends up biting her nails.

It can also be a sign of boredom - presumably he has something else (chew or toy) to chew if he wanted?

If its 'preening' (e.g. nibbling), then I think it is more likely to be an allergy or irritation of some sort.

If it's ecezma related (like one of my dogs), then it could be the fact that you've been out in the wet, it's pretty mild, which means you are giving the ideal conditions in his feet to harbour bacteria, i.e. warm and moist. If I were you, I'd shampoo them with a coal tar based shampoo, dry them thoroughly,slap on some Sudocrem overnight (it'll give a nice thick barrier to the skin for the next going out in the wet session). If it is related to ecezma, then it will be itchy, hence the reason he's gnawing at them (just like George used to with his, feet are favoured with this). If that doesn't work, then it could be a fungal thing, again caused by the warm, moist conditions. So do as suggested with the shampoo and the drying, and then use an anti-fungal (same as humans use for athlete's foot, but can't remember the name of it, a dark blue tube with yellow writing I think?). I used this on Cassie once and it cleared it up instantly, but hers was caused by constantly being in the paddling pool and me not drying them, she got a fungal bacterial thing going on with her feet and for the first time ever, she started gnawing at them and really badly! Good luck!

p.s. Hibiscrub would be excellent to wash them in! It's the same with the horses when they get mud fever on their legs, we used to use the hibiscrub and then a barrier cream such as Sudocreme, it works!

he gets his whole foot in his mouth then uses his teeth to gnaw inbetween his pads. His nails look ok and aren't looking long.

He's got plenty of toys to chew on and often does so can't see it being boredom related.

I'm going to have a really good look at them tonight and see if I can see anything and then maybe think about speaking with our vet.


Thanks for the info about the shampoos. I'll definitely look into that. I'm not sure if the wet weather makes much difference as he does it the same when it's not rained for ages and been dry.

I'm going to give them a really good check over tonight and maybe apply some sudocrem after giving them a good soak.

I just find it weird how it's never the same foot.