Obsessed With Licking Paw! Help!
 

Hello all, I am new to this site but after a little exploring, i am so happy i found it! I have a little boy yorkie, Buster, who is 1 year and 3 months old. Buster had to be put in his vet's kennel for a long weekend due to circumstances where I was unable to bring him with me. He was there from thursday late afternoon last week to monday early morning this week. The kennel is at his vet's facility and he has been there for boarding before. Starting last night Buster has been licking his front right paw excessively. He is not an aggressive dog at all and loves people. He also goes to a dog park almost everynight with other dogs. He is very socialized and all around the "perfect dog" (meaning no chewing/aggression). Ever since last night he has been licking the top of his paw so bad that when my boyfriend or i try to stop him he BITES AND GROWLS AT US! I am besides myself, he has never even come close to ever biting someone! I brought him to the vet tonight and they gave me prednisone as an oral tablet for 8 days and a powder to stop the irritation (to be put directly on the paw irritation). Is this common? I know dogs lick from allergies but i dont think he has that because it is just this one paw. If anyone has advice or comments, it would be greatly appreciated ; )

maybe he started doing it as a way to calm himself when he was seperated from you. my boy licks his paw everynight before he falls asleep....kind of like a kid sucking his thumb! lol

Sounds like something is hurting his foot maybe he tried to get out of the kennel and has torn a toe nail. That could be the reason for him biting at you. It may not be torn all the way out , but I would bet you something is causing him some pain. I am sure, but what ever it is , It will probably get better soon, unless something is stuck in his foot.

i just wanted to say Dray you have a BEAUTIFUL yorkie! :)

and to the original poster. i hope your baby's paw gets better and he stops licking.

I agree with the possibility of him having "something wrong" with his paw. Check to make sure he doesn't have a cut or a sticker/thorn in his paw. It sounds as if it hurts him..... poor baby. :animal-pa

Please Read This..
 

Please have it checked out. I don't want to alarm you and I'm sure that with your pup it's nothing bad but we just lost our 10 year old Yorkie with what started as his licking his paw. Turned out he has a mass cell tumor in his foot pad. Initially the vet thought he must have stepped on something and that it may have been glass or a splinter, but after operating to remove what he thought was in there, they found a lot of abnormal cells. The biopsy came back as a stagee III tumor. They removed the tumor etc. during the biopsy but couldn't get clear margins and within months it came back very aggressively. We were going through pre-testing to make sure it did not spread anywhere before we had his leg amputated but we weren't able to follow through with anymore treatment as it spread to his liver. We had to put him down last Friday. Again, I'm not trying to scare you, but something inocent for us turned out to be devestating. Have the vet look. Mass Cell tumors are common but usually on the trunks of the body. Ours was very rare. Our vet of 30 years had never seen it and neither had any of the oncologists including Penn Univ. had ever seen it. I just don't want to see what happened to us and our boy happen to someone else. I hope he is alright. Elaine

I know that my dog Bentley licks his one paw when he settles down to sleep. I think it is a relaxing thing for him to do. I asked our vet if it seemed to be allergies and he didn't think so.