Question
My wife and I have a ~7 month old unfixed male Dogo Argentino mix who's rather orally fixated currently. He has somewhat sensitive skin, and has been licking/chewing around the base of his tail; this has caused quite a bit of irritation.
He is in otherwise good health, happy and energetic. He may have a gluten sensitivity (as his mom did) but that's as of yet unconfirmed, and we feed him gluten free food anyway. He occasionally manages to steal a few kibbles from our other dog, of non-gluten-free food, but we haven't observed any reactions (unless this is indeed a reaction)
We're wondering what remedies we can use to help heal/prevent further irritation, and what kinds of deterrents we can use to stop him from agitating it.
We bought an inflatable collar to prevent him from reaching it.
Answer
Sadly, skin problems always warrants a physical exam. It's one of those things where you need to physically be there to examine the skin and run some tests (i.e skin scrapings) to rule out the problem.
The head collar is a great idea, make sure he can't make matters worse. A few things come to mind when an animal chews at himself:
- Parasites - Fleas are usually a generalized itch but they can focus on one area, mange and mites are also ones that can start and stay in one area but can also spread to the rest of the body.
- Hot spot - these are infections that occur after an animal has been swimming in water (possible to obtain with a cut). If the area remains moist it allows bacteria to grow and cause irritation, since the area is irritated the dog will continue to lick and chew making it worse.
- Injury - When a dog gets injured they tend to become focused on it and lick at it continuously, in the end they can develop lick granulomas.
- Allergies - allergies from food or environment can cause this behavior, you will also see excessive licking of the paws.
- Skin/Fungal infection as a whole - This is just a compilation of everything mentioned above, they can all cause skin infections of sorts you just need to figure out if it's fungal or bacterial. Depending on how deep the infection is you may just need creams, a wash or an oral antibiotic/fungal.
I'm not sure where in Canada you are but call around to price shop, not everyone is priced the same. Also to save on some money if they give medications ask for a script as sometimes you can get medications cheaper at a human pharmacy (if it's available). Before they run any tests be sure you ask for a detailed estimate!! It's so important to know this prior to doing anything that way you can discuss which options would be the best one to spend your limited funds on.
Keep up with the head collar until you can save up some money to be seen in person, they will be able to clean it up (clip and wash with special cleansers) and guide you from there.
Answered By - Rebecca RVT