Eating her paws

[Tishi24]

So we welcomed our Yorkie into our home 2 weeks ago. She is 10 years old and she originally lived in California and now she is in NY with us. She is chewing on her paws and I don't know what to do. Her paws are red and irritated and I took her to the vet 2 weeks ago when I got her. He put her on antibiotics and steroids to see how she reacted. The treatment is over and now he says bring her in next week and we will try the next step to figure out what it is. Not sure what that means? Anyway, I think I am going to find another vet but in the meantime she is going at her paws and I feel so bad for her. I read on the internet to soak her paws in bentadine? but it doesn't seem to help. I am thinking of getting booties for when I walk her so her paws don't come in contact with the ground. I feel terrible for her -- help!

[kjc]

Hi and Welcome to YT!

Do you wash her feet after walks? Lots of snow so lots of salt which can be irritating.

What food does she eat?

[pstinard]

I do a betadine foot soak before bath time to cut down on the yeast responsible for the "corn chip" smell, but it sounds like this could be a food or other kind of allergy. Hopefully the vet will be able to figure it out.

[megansmomma]

It sounds like allergies possibly food. Did you change her food when she came to you? You could try giving her Benadryl to see if that's helpful. I'm surprises your vet would want you to wait another week.

[matese]

welcome to YT, I use to live in Da Bronx, there are NO GOOD VETS in Da Bronx, I used County Animal Clinic...1574 Central Park Ave. (corner of Tuckahoe Rd.) ...Yonkers, NY...914-779-5000...I lived on Tremont Ave. near the old section of St. Raymonds Cematary it was a 15 minute drive.

[Lilah Charm]

An allergy sounds like a likely culprit, or a fungal disease. I would go bland with chicken and rice (though admittedly chicken can be a protein allergy and rice although a more tolerable grain is still a grain) because with those limited ingredients you can really start to eliminate dietary issues. I think booties seem like a great idea, of course her paws will need time to air out especially if it is a fungal or bacterial issue- the dr didn't think so and therefore did not prescribe an antibiotic or anti Fungal cream? It may just be habit after ten years, who knows what she has been through...? Perhaps a yucky tasting spray like bitter yuck would help, but if her paws are raw that seems like it would hurt. All dog boots seems like an excellent go to for yters- she has great reviews- best wishes for sore pup paws

[Tishi24]

Thank you all for the great advice and thoughts.

I actually started changing her food now because of the allergy. I am moving her towards a grain free diet to see if thats the actual issue. I used booties but then she stood there and would not move. She is too cute so I took them off and went out.
I am concerned she has had so many changes that she has anxiety as well She follows me everywhere -- she gives my husband a hard time at night when it is time to go out if I don't go as well. She doesn't bark all day when I am gone but I want her to feel secure. Any advice would be helpful to help her adjust to all the recent changes.

Thanks
Tricia

[Wylie's Mom]

The cardinal signs of allergies is paw chewing/licking so to me, this absolutely sounds like allergies. Food allergies only account for about 10% of allergies, so most likely it's environmental like grass, pollens, dust etcetera.

For allergy solutions, please read this thread, especially at the very bottom: http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/die...tart-here.html

[mimimomo]

Just wondering if she had a skin scrape w/cytology to rule out if it's bacterial or fungal, etc...that would narrow things down. Make it easier to determine if it's allergies (most likely enviro) or not.

[Sirbarkley]

My parents 16 year old dachshund has a similar dermatitis irritation on her belly (near her girl parts), and licking too much makes it worse. I bought Zymox enzyme shampoo on amazon, and it seems to be helping. The enzymes are supposed to be effective for fungi and bacteria. Good luck, one of the hardest things about being a dog mom is getting them to stop licking!!

[Yorkeezy]

I completely understand how hard it is for you to feel helpless against the licking! I adopted my 9 month old yorkie 1 month ago and noticed immediately he was licking licking licking biting licking all of his paws. Broke my heart because he is the hAppiest most loving little guy and could tell he felt an urgency to do this out of discomfort.

After a vet visit, I began giving him hydroxazine which is an antihistamine, to combat the environmental allergies the vet thought was the probably cause. Within 1 day I noticed large improvement and then he eventually completely stopped!
The vet explained to me that this is a common problem for dogs and ESPeCIaLLY yorkies!! Also that if the culprit were food allergies there most likely would be issues with other things like ears and digestive.

I hope this helps!

[Tishi24]

I'll definately talk to my vet about the hydroxazine -- thanks so much

[Lilah Charm]

Inbetween now and the vet visit you might try something like ' allercaine', we just got it at the retail store I work at today and I am excited about it for pets just like yours: the idea is that it stops the itch and discourages licking too. It has lidocaine to numb the irritation as well as an antiseptic, aloe and lanolin. It sounds like a great product. Of course getting to the root of the problem with your vet is the most important thing to do but especially for the habit that this issue can be/become, something like this sounds like exactly the thing to do.

[Tishi24]

Originally Posted by mimimomo

Just wondering if she had a skin scrape w/cytology to rule out if it's bacterial or fungal, etc...that would narrow things down. Make it easier to determine if it's allergies (most likely enviro) or not.

We got one last week and I am waiting for the results

[Verbena]

Hello and welcome to YT. I hope you got the results that and she is on her way to healing