Re: Pets chit chat thread
Ha! Famous last words! Here we go then... 
Skip right down to the 'Skin Barrier Function' part if you don't want to know the whats and whys... but check the anxiety part first just to see whether it's possible that is your pup's problem.
Regular feet licking is generally one of two things... anxiety or allergies.
Anxiety is usually genetically wired, but humans are really bad at recognising the signs of it. There are literally thousands of dogs who have low grade anxiety, but who are just treated as 'excitable' or 'untrainable' or things like that. It can be mild early in life and get worse as they get older, or can get worse suddenly when something big happens like moving house. Things that can indicate anxiety are obsessive feet licking or licking at a particular spot on a leg (you can tell if they've been licking because any pale coloured fur gets stained a brownish colour), licking at other things like people's legs or walls etc, general excitability or hyperactivity, taking a long time to settle down, whining and vocalising when they're 'excited', not listening to you or being difficult to train, pacing, incessantly bothering you for no apparent reason, being destructive in the house, being aggressive to people, being aggressive to other dogs, barking, breaking out of the back yard and running off down the street, being antisocial, being timid, not sitting still... or lots of other little things.
What can you do for anxiety? Well that depends on how bad it is. Some need medication. Most just need the correct handling and routine to help them feel happier about the world. People tend to inadvertently respond to them in ways that INCREASE anxiety rather than decrease it. Yelling at them, getting frustrated, putting them outdoors, yanking on their collar, walking them on choker chains/check leads, punishment of ANY kind, being inconsistent, changing the rules for no apparent reason, having a generally chaotic or frenetic house... all these things make it worse. They need calm and routine. And when their anxiety threshold is too high, they are actually incapable of paying attention and thinking about doing what you've asked them to do. So getting mad because they wont sit is really not helpful, but that's always the first thing that I see people doing. Dealing with anxious dogs is almost always about training the OWNER, not the dog lol.
Allergies in dogs generally come in two main forms. Food allergies, which develop over time and are in response to repeated exposure to a particular protein or carb source; or environmental allergies, which is genetic and usually shows up in younger dogs but can be responsible for those mild signs that people just think are 'normal'. They can also have both.
Allergies is also a threshold thing. You know that saying 'the straw that broke the donkey's back'? Well apply that to allergies. I normally draw a graph for clients when I talk about this but that's a bit hard here so I'll do my best lol. But basically there's a threshold, and if you are below that threshold then you're 'ok', but if you're above it then you're 'itchy'... and the 'itchy' comes in degrees. Lots of little things tip you further up towards the threshold... allergens themselves are the big one - these are the things that you are actually allergic to and which cause a reaction. But there's others too... hot weather (keep in mind it doesn't really get 'cold' here, so I don't know whether very cold weather would be on this list or not), fleas, humidity, stress, illness, a scratch or scrape from falling over, incorrect nutrition... lots of little things contribute. Then there are things that bring you down from the threshold... medications, antibacterial washes, the correct ration of omega 3 and 6, good nutrition, improving skin barrier function, keeping up with parasite control and vaccinations to prevent illness... and anything that prevents or reverses the effects of the triggers. The aim is to decrease the triggers in increase the preventatives, so that we can hopefully keep things below the threshold line.
Food allergies are in response to something they are exposed to a lot. So that means usually things like corn or wheat as carbs sources, or chicken, beef or pork as protein sources. Ironically, rice is generally low-allergen and rarely causes a problem, even when it's fed a lot. Food allergies also DON'T always show up as gastro-intestinal signs. Sometimes they do, but we see it just as often show up as skin problems. Now changing dog food brands and flavours a lot does NOT mean that they aren't getting that repeated exposure, because things like corn and beef or pork by-products are in EVERYTHING. So you could feed five different types over the space of a year, and still be exposing them to corn every single day, thus still potentially getting a food allergy. And seeing as food allergies can show up as mild skin problems... it is one potential cause. They can also spontaneously start up at ANY time in a dog's life... so a nine year old dog who has eaten the same thing his whole life is just as at risk as a three year old dog who eats a variety of things. It is also nothing to do with food quality... they can develop food allergies to the protein or carb sources in a top quality commercial food just as easily as a poor quality diet or a homecooked one. The ONLY requisite is that it is a protein or carb that they are exposed to regularly over a period of time.
The way to check for a food allergy is to do a diet trial... and this can be done in two ways. Either using a 'novel protein' diet, which is something they have NEVER been exposed to before; or a 'hydrolysed protein diet', which is something that has had the proteins and/or carbs broken down so small that the body doesn't recognise them and therefore doesn't react to them. You need to do the diet trial for 8-12 weeks at a minimum and it's vitally important that during that time NOTHING else passes their lips but that diet. No treats, no scraps, no tidbits, no bones, no flavoured things (including wormers or heartworm products, though you CAN use unflavoured brands during the trial)... nothing that has any carbohydrate or protein in it. Both types of diet come in commercial types, and the hydrolysed diet is considered the gold standard of diet trial. It's possible to do a novel protein diet at home, but it's generally expensive. Here in Aus we usually use things like duck, turkey or fish as a the novel protein, and tapioca, pumpkin, or sweet potato as the novel carb source, because those things are not generally fed to dogs here or included in commercial foods. Some people have success using grain free foods, because they often have odd things like bison meat as the protein and no grain based carbs... but they sometimes still do have corn or chicken by-product... so if you aren't using one of the specially designed diet-trial foods then you have to check the labels VERY carefully.
If all symptoms stop after 12 weeks, then you can be pretty sure it's a food allergy. Then you start adding in ONE new ingredient each week and wait to see if they start reacting again or not. It takes a long time, but it's worth it. If symptoms improve but don't stop completely, then it's possible that there is BOTH food and environmental allergies going on.
What do you do for food allergies? Control their diet, don't feed them the things that they react to. And if the symptoms are skin then work on improving skin barrier function (which I'll get to at the end).
Environmental allergies can be to anything... grass, pollen, carpet, mouse hair (yes, we once had a dog's allergy test come back as allergic to mouse hair), dust mites, chemicals... lots of different things. These can trigger things by direct contact, but are actually normally an inhaled thing and are thus very difficult to control. They are also often allergic to more than one thing, so ripping up your back lawn or carpet MIGHT help, but it's no guarantee lol.
The way to diagnose that is either by allergy testing (by a dermatologist), a medication trial (put them on something for atopy but not food allergies, like cyclosporin, and see if they get better) or rule out a food allergy by doing a diet trial (which is our preferred method) then treat as appropriate.
What do you do for environmental allergies? Depends on how bad it is. Some need medications. Some can be managed by working on reducing the threshold triggers and skin barrier function.
Skin barrier function is a complicated mechanism to do with the way that the cells of the skin are held together and the integrity of the different layers of the skin. Basically, if you have itchy skin, dry skin, allergies, redness, or are licking a lot then the skin barrier function is going to be shit. And when it's shit, it can't keep allergens out and so then you get triggers and kick up to the itch threshold a lot faster. So we want to improve this as best we can.
One of the best ways is to make sure they have the CORRECT ratio of omega 3 and 6 in their diet... which is harder than it sounds. You can't just add fish oil... it doesn't work like that. You need both the 3s and the 6s in a specific ratio. The easiest way is to feed a commercial 'skin support' food, because it's all calculated and added in there already, along with some other nutrients that help the skin. The hard way is to work out the current ratio of the food you feed and then calculate how much of each you need to add in... and that means an omega 3 source and a separate omega 6 source added in different amounts. If you do a home-prepared diet then it's actually easier, because you can add something called 'Megaderm' in and will be fairly accurate because most home-prepared meat+carb+veg diets don't have much omega 3 or 6 in them.
The other way is to apply a soothing, moisturising lotion or cream that actively helps to improve skin barrier function. We use one called 'Aloveen', which is a leave in conditioner that is made with oatmeal and aloe vera and has this special micro-bead formulation that clings to the skin and keeps allergens out. It's difficult to use on feet but is fabulous for the rest of the body lol. Anything that is oatmeal, pawpaw or aloe vera is going to help, but you have to be careful of things that are designed for human skin as we have a different pH level than dogs and so using human stuff on dogs can actually exacerbate issues. I've had some clients also have success with Alpha Keri oil too (the oil, not the lotion).
The other things is to keep the secondary bacteria and yeast infection down. This means using antibacterial/antifungal shampoos to wash their feet and/or body with. Do NOT use tea tree oil on inflammed skin because it stings like a bitch. We use one called 'Malaseb' and we tell clients to wash the feet every second day for a week at first, then weekly or fortnightly for life. Lather it up, leave it on for ten minutes then rinse and pat their feet dry. You dont' have to do the whole body, just the feet. Then put something moisturising on afterwards, like the Aloveen or similar.
It can also help to rinse their feet with cold water when they've come in after a walk (again, it doesn't snow here so use maybe warm water for you?) or protect their feet when they walk by using special dog booties. And generally do everything you can to reduce the triggers... keep up parasite control, check for food allergies, reduce stress, all that kind of thing.
Anyway... I think that's more than enough for now! lol
Originally posted by Shahaku
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Skip right down to the 'Skin Barrier Function' part if you don't want to know the whats and whys... but check the anxiety part first just to see whether it's possible that is your pup's problem.
Originally posted by Shahaku
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Anxiety is usually genetically wired, but humans are really bad at recognising the signs of it. There are literally thousands of dogs who have low grade anxiety, but who are just treated as 'excitable' or 'untrainable' or things like that. It can be mild early in life and get worse as they get older, or can get worse suddenly when something big happens like moving house. Things that can indicate anxiety are obsessive feet licking or licking at a particular spot on a leg (you can tell if they've been licking because any pale coloured fur gets stained a brownish colour), licking at other things like people's legs or walls etc, general excitability or hyperactivity, taking a long time to settle down, whining and vocalising when they're 'excited', not listening to you or being difficult to train, pacing, incessantly bothering you for no apparent reason, being destructive in the house, being aggressive to people, being aggressive to other dogs, barking, breaking out of the back yard and running off down the street, being antisocial, being timid, not sitting still... or lots of other little things.
What can you do for anxiety? Well that depends on how bad it is. Some need medication. Most just need the correct handling and routine to help them feel happier about the world. People tend to inadvertently respond to them in ways that INCREASE anxiety rather than decrease it. Yelling at them, getting frustrated, putting them outdoors, yanking on their collar, walking them on choker chains/check leads, punishment of ANY kind, being inconsistent, changing the rules for no apparent reason, having a generally chaotic or frenetic house... all these things make it worse. They need calm and routine. And when their anxiety threshold is too high, they are actually incapable of paying attention and thinking about doing what you've asked them to do. So getting mad because they wont sit is really not helpful, but that's always the first thing that I see people doing. Dealing with anxious dogs is almost always about training the OWNER, not the dog lol.
Allergies in dogs generally come in two main forms. Food allergies, which develop over time and are in response to repeated exposure to a particular protein or carb source; or environmental allergies, which is genetic and usually shows up in younger dogs but can be responsible for those mild signs that people just think are 'normal'. They can also have both.
Allergies is also a threshold thing. You know that saying 'the straw that broke the donkey's back'? Well apply that to allergies. I normally draw a graph for clients when I talk about this but that's a bit hard here so I'll do my best lol. But basically there's a threshold, and if you are below that threshold then you're 'ok', but if you're above it then you're 'itchy'... and the 'itchy' comes in degrees. Lots of little things tip you further up towards the threshold... allergens themselves are the big one - these are the things that you are actually allergic to and which cause a reaction. But there's others too... hot weather (keep in mind it doesn't really get 'cold' here, so I don't know whether very cold weather would be on this list or not), fleas, humidity, stress, illness, a scratch or scrape from falling over, incorrect nutrition... lots of little things contribute. Then there are things that bring you down from the threshold... medications, antibacterial washes, the correct ration of omega 3 and 6, good nutrition, improving skin barrier function, keeping up with parasite control and vaccinations to prevent illness... and anything that prevents or reverses the effects of the triggers. The aim is to decrease the triggers in increase the preventatives, so that we can hopefully keep things below the threshold line.
Food allergies are in response to something they are exposed to a lot. So that means usually things like corn or wheat as carbs sources, or chicken, beef or pork as protein sources. Ironically, rice is generally low-allergen and rarely causes a problem, even when it's fed a lot. Food allergies also DON'T always show up as gastro-intestinal signs. Sometimes they do, but we see it just as often show up as skin problems. Now changing dog food brands and flavours a lot does NOT mean that they aren't getting that repeated exposure, because things like corn and beef or pork by-products are in EVERYTHING. So you could feed five different types over the space of a year, and still be exposing them to corn every single day, thus still potentially getting a food allergy. And seeing as food allergies can show up as mild skin problems... it is one potential cause. They can also spontaneously start up at ANY time in a dog's life... so a nine year old dog who has eaten the same thing his whole life is just as at risk as a three year old dog who eats a variety of things. It is also nothing to do with food quality... they can develop food allergies to the protein or carb sources in a top quality commercial food just as easily as a poor quality diet or a homecooked one. The ONLY requisite is that it is a protein or carb that they are exposed to regularly over a period of time.
The way to check for a food allergy is to do a diet trial... and this can be done in two ways. Either using a 'novel protein' diet, which is something they have NEVER been exposed to before; or a 'hydrolysed protein diet', which is something that has had the proteins and/or carbs broken down so small that the body doesn't recognise them and therefore doesn't react to them. You need to do the diet trial for 8-12 weeks at a minimum and it's vitally important that during that time NOTHING else passes their lips but that diet. No treats, no scraps, no tidbits, no bones, no flavoured things (including wormers or heartworm products, though you CAN use unflavoured brands during the trial)... nothing that has any carbohydrate or protein in it. Both types of diet come in commercial types, and the hydrolysed diet is considered the gold standard of diet trial. It's possible to do a novel protein diet at home, but it's generally expensive. Here in Aus we usually use things like duck, turkey or fish as a the novel protein, and tapioca, pumpkin, or sweet potato as the novel carb source, because those things are not generally fed to dogs here or included in commercial foods. Some people have success using grain free foods, because they often have odd things like bison meat as the protein and no grain based carbs... but they sometimes still do have corn or chicken by-product... so if you aren't using one of the specially designed diet-trial foods then you have to check the labels VERY carefully.
If all symptoms stop after 12 weeks, then you can be pretty sure it's a food allergy. Then you start adding in ONE new ingredient each week and wait to see if they start reacting again or not. It takes a long time, but it's worth it. If symptoms improve but don't stop completely, then it's possible that there is BOTH food and environmental allergies going on.
What do you do for food allergies? Control their diet, don't feed them the things that they react to. And if the symptoms are skin then work on improving skin barrier function (which I'll get to at the end).
Environmental allergies can be to anything... grass, pollen, carpet, mouse hair (yes, we once had a dog's allergy test come back as allergic to mouse hair), dust mites, chemicals... lots of different things. These can trigger things by direct contact, but are actually normally an inhaled thing and are thus very difficult to control. They are also often allergic to more than one thing, so ripping up your back lawn or carpet MIGHT help, but it's no guarantee lol.
The way to diagnose that is either by allergy testing (by a dermatologist), a medication trial (put them on something for atopy but not food allergies, like cyclosporin, and see if they get better) or rule out a food allergy by doing a diet trial (which is our preferred method) then treat as appropriate.
What do you do for environmental allergies? Depends on how bad it is. Some need medications. Some can be managed by working on reducing the threshold triggers and skin barrier function.
Skin barrier function is a complicated mechanism to do with the way that the cells of the skin are held together and the integrity of the different layers of the skin. Basically, if you have itchy skin, dry skin, allergies, redness, or are licking a lot then the skin barrier function is going to be shit. And when it's shit, it can't keep allergens out and so then you get triggers and kick up to the itch threshold a lot faster. So we want to improve this as best we can.
One of the best ways is to make sure they have the CORRECT ratio of omega 3 and 6 in their diet... which is harder than it sounds. You can't just add fish oil... it doesn't work like that. You need both the 3s and the 6s in a specific ratio. The easiest way is to feed a commercial 'skin support' food, because it's all calculated and added in there already, along with some other nutrients that help the skin. The hard way is to work out the current ratio of the food you feed and then calculate how much of each you need to add in... and that means an omega 3 source and a separate omega 6 source added in different amounts. If you do a home-prepared diet then it's actually easier, because you can add something called 'Megaderm' in and will be fairly accurate because most home-prepared meat+carb+veg diets don't have much omega 3 or 6 in them.
The other way is to apply a soothing, moisturising lotion or cream that actively helps to improve skin barrier function. We use one called 'Aloveen', which is a leave in conditioner that is made with oatmeal and aloe vera and has this special micro-bead formulation that clings to the skin and keeps allergens out. It's difficult to use on feet but is fabulous for the rest of the body lol. Anything that is oatmeal, pawpaw or aloe vera is going to help, but you have to be careful of things that are designed for human skin as we have a different pH level than dogs and so using human stuff on dogs can actually exacerbate issues. I've had some clients also have success with Alpha Keri oil too (the oil, not the lotion).
The other things is to keep the secondary bacteria and yeast infection down. This means using antibacterial/antifungal shampoos to wash their feet and/or body with. Do NOT use tea tree oil on inflammed skin because it stings like a bitch. We use one called 'Malaseb' and we tell clients to wash the feet every second day for a week at first, then weekly or fortnightly for life. Lather it up, leave it on for ten minutes then rinse and pat their feet dry. You dont' have to do the whole body, just the feet. Then put something moisturising on afterwards, like the Aloveen or similar.
It can also help to rinse their feet with cold water when they've come in after a walk (again, it doesn't snow here so use maybe warm water for you?) or protect their feet when they walk by using special dog booties. And generally do everything you can to reduce the triggers... keep up parasite control, check for food allergies, reduce stress, all that kind of thing.
Anyway... I think that's more than enough for now! lol
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