[Apdfranklin]

I have a jack russell that will chew the hair on his back left foot. Its only his back left foot. Has anyone experienced this before? He will chew on his foot till it turns red.

 

[BoxerMommie]

What kind of food do you feed? If you feed a low quality food I would switch. If not, have you tried adding a Fish Oil capsule or 2 to his diet? My girl used to chew on her front 2 feet when I got her from rescue, once I got her on a corn free diet and on some Fish Oil after about 3 days she stopped chewing on them.

Good luck!

 

[tlavery]

It's possible that he/she is bored and needs some mental and physical activity. If giving the fish oil and increased activity doesn't help I'd go to the vet and have a skin scraping done.

 

[WhiteDogHouse]

How long has the chewing been going on? years, weeks.....

 

[TroysMom]

I had a GSD mix that did that. She literally chewed holes in her feet until they bled. I took her to the vet and they said it could be caused by allergies. We could never get her to stop. If your dog just started doing this, maybe intervention could be taken by the vet. I think she developed some issues (psychotic) by making a habit of it. I don't know ... but it did drive me nuts!!

I'd love to see osme responses.

 

[Traditional Naturopath]

Natural remedies

I have a jack russell that will chew the hair on his back left foot. Its only his back left foot. Has anyone experienced this before? He will chew on his foot till it turns red.

Buy some raw apple cider vinager unfiltered. Shake the bottle up to make sure all the nutrients are mixed into the vinager. Pour it right on the red areas. Keep your dog from licking it off for a couple of minutes, just to give the vinager enough time to soak into the dogs skin. Do this twice a day until the redness goes away.The vinager may cure him from licking his foot. Let me know if this works for you because if it doesn't it may be because your dog has a yeast infection or has anxiety. I can give you some suggestions for that to. Good Luck
P.S. My terrier had the same problem with his front paws-the apple cider worked on him.
Traditional Naturopath

 

[zentrainer]

Food allergies

Biting or chewing on feet is usually a sign of a food allergy. Try a different food and look into an elimination diet. That can be kind of tedious. The most common allergies are: corn, beef, chicken and grains.

My pup eats a diet of fish and sweet potatoes Wellness (which has barley as the grain) and homemade raw with Quinoa instead of a grain.

Your dog may have environmental allergies as well. A board certified vet dermatologist/allegist can do a skin test for that if you want to spend the bucks and do the shots.

I did that for 2 years with one of my last dogs and he was ever so grateful for it.

 

[Apdfranklin]

After we started feeding blue buffalo Ace's feet started to get real better. Now he just chews on his tennis ball non-stop. We were feeding one of your basic brands of Nutro.

 

[LuvsDogs]

Good to hear he's stopped chewing on his leg, but I'd try & replace the tennis ball with something else as the rought surface can wear the enamel away from his teeth.

 

[zentrainer]

Australian Tennis balls?

Are they made with a rough surface? Here they are a soft fluffy material.