Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

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Lick Granuloma

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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.

Tick Tick BOOM

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Thursday night Delilah and I popped into the drop-in agility class at The Mellow Mutt.

We were a few minutes early so I started my treat shopping, with Delilah’s help of course.

I was checking out the grain-free treats while Delilah tried to steal checked out a pig’s ear.  Sara’s dog, Chuck came over, whether it was to say hello to me or to tell Delilah to back off the treats, I’m not sure.  But before I knew it, they were snapping at each other.

What the BEEP?

I mean it’s Chuck, our buddy, the guy we play with ALL the time.

Chuckers went to sulk in the other room, Delilah and I finished our shopping and then we walked into the agility room.  I looked around and only saw one dog I knew, Brisco a really high-energy little guy.

I walked to the farthest corner of the room.

Dude.  I won’t lie.  That altercation with Chuck really threw me.

So there we are in our corner, Brisco is in one corner, there is a German Shepherd mix in one corner, an Akita named Boots against the wall and this couple walks into the last remaining corner with two Labs, one yellow and one black.

I thought Brisco had a lot of energy, but these two labs had way more and their mom said they’d been swimming and running earlier.  I thanked God right then and there that neither one of my dogs are that energetic.

We were up first and I wish I’d had a video, it was a great run.   All our future runs were mediocre as Delilah was now on the hunt for the treats left behind by the Labs.  In fact, when Sara took the chute up, Delilah spent a bit of time in there cleaning it up.

You can see the little brown treat between her legs, she could smell it but had the hardest time finding it.

During her first attempt at a run the black lab decided to rush headlong into our corner.

That didn’t work well.  She got a face full of chocolate lab.

Thankfully I remembered to scream LOOK, at which point Delilah’s head whipped around and the mom moved her dog out of the line of fire.

After the fiasco with the black lab I tried to keep Delilah distracted with treats.

The A-Frame was set up so when the dogs came over in one direction they could in fact run straight into our corner.

Unfortunately the GSD did not get the memo telling him to avoid the chocolate lab eating treats in the corner.

Yup, he was the next dog that got a face full of chocolate.

By the time we got to our fourth run, Delilah was exhausted and had more interest in cleaning up the leftover treats than she had in running the course again, and I was totally on edge, so we declined a fifth go.

I didn’t get a video of our run, however I did manage to record Brisco’s with his dad.

Up until a few months ago his parent’s were working agility with treats, but he loves the squeaker ball,  so Sara suggested using that instead which works a little better for him.

He doesn’t have the best form but his enthusiasm and energy makes him a joy to watch.  (Mental note to self, don’t hit the stop button quite so soon.)

The Tick Tick BOOM has absolutely nothing to do with this post, it’s a saying I heard on a show and I thought it sounded cool. 😉

WTF/Whoo Hoo Wednesday

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Please note this post is not meant to make light of the deeds described here, only to make fun of, ridicule, bully and just plain beat the shit out of the idiots who commit these stupid acts.

W. T. F.

Well believe it or not, there were two WTF’s at Stone Manor this week and they both happened yesterday!

Hubby was outside when I got home.

I looked up as I pulled in and saw Sampson run across the lawn to greet me.  Sampson loves to be out when his Dad is working outside, Delilah who can’t be trusted to stay in the yard, greeted me from the balcony.

I love when Hubby is home when I get home because it means he can prepare the dog’s food and start supper while I get an early walk in.

I asked Hubby to prepare their food,  while I went and changed into my walking clothes.

The dogs were intently watching Dad chunk the roast.

A big WTF goes out to the canines at Stone Manor.

I jingled their collars and was ignored.

WTF?

I’m the one who takes you for a walk every, single day and you ignore me for a hunk of beef?

Where’s the love man?

Hubby’s the brunt of the second WTF.

I reached down to put Sampson’s collar on and realized he didn’t have his ID collar on while he was outside!

WTF?  I said to Hubby, he was outside without a collar?

Guess what that a-hole said?

Unlike you, I have faith in him.

News flash: I have faith in him too muther f*cker, you know why I have faith?

Because I’m the one out there walking and working those  dogs every day of my life.

Don’t ever imply I don’t have faith in my dogs.  That just might earn you a night or two on the couch.

What kind of idiot lets their dog outside without a collar?

The idiot who lives with me. 🙁

WTF/Whoo Hoo

Injured Dog Rescued From Mountain.

In last week’s WTF post Missy the German Shepherd’s story made the WTF portion of the post.  Technically while it was horrible, the fact that a group of strangers came together to save her should have been a big WHOO HOO!!

I’m still on the fence about this one, only because after abandoning his dog, this jack wagon now wants his dog back.

I have a saying and it goes like this, “You can blame your parents for the first eighteen years of your life, after that you need to own your own shit.”  Yes you can quote me.

I’ll give him credit, the guy owned his shit.

And I’ll own mine, I still haven’t read all the threads on the hiking forum, but I have read this article.  Apparently the guy says he did try and get the dog down the mountain and did call 911 but was told that rescue teams only went out for humans.

I believe that.  But I also believe that there were other options available to him and that he didn’t put forth the effort that one of us would have put forth.

I get that not everyone knows about the great dog resources and support available by social media, but you have to be living under a rock if you haven’t heard ABOUT social media!

Come on!  Women have been reunited with their lost children on Facebook!!

He messed up, he messed up bad.  He admitted it.  He wants his dog back.

Sorry Charlie, only the best tasting tuna gets to be Starfish.

Whoo Hoo

Whew!  My really bad WTF for this week turned out to be a Whoo Hoo!

My dear friend Donna, from Donna and the dogs posted this on my facebook page.

Three Dogs Tied to Ohio Railroad Tracks, One Survives.

I read the post with a sick feeling in my stomach and then tried to get it out of my mind until it was time to write the post.

Quite honestly, even though I read about this kind of stuff all the time, it still just boggles my mind how cruel some people can be.

If you really don’t want a dog, then please just bring it to the pound.  Even if they end up putting it to sleep (it sucks, but it’s reality) at least it’s humane.

When I sat down to write the post I did a little googling to see if maybe they caught the ass-clown who did this and I found this article.

Cleveland police say story of 3 dogs tied to Tremont railroad tracks wasn’t true.

What a freakin relief!

Although I worry now that someone has put the idea out there that some other a-hole won’t attempt to do the same thing. 🙁

Thankfully this week’s WTF/Whoo Hoo didn’t leave me feeling to down in the dumps.  How was your week?  Anything you’d like to share?

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