Bonnie is licking/chewing herself sore.

[binka]

I've noticed over the last week that her fur is going thinner in places - mainly on her bum, back legs and chest. She's not scratching but I have noticed that she "nibbles" herself - not a lot but every now and then she has a "good go".

I took her to the vet today as I was worried she might have mange. The vet says its not mange - they took her in a little room and looed at her under some sort of special light and also sellotaped her back - no sign of mites.

The vet says she thinks there is some sort of bacterial infection but that the infection will be secondary to something. So she doesn't know what the something is. Anyway I have been given a 8 day course of antibiotics for her and also some moisturing shampoo.

So today she had a bath and has started the meds.

Anyone any idea what may be causing this? I've only had her for 5 or 6 weeks - could it be stress?

thanks.

[bobble]

no ideas here ,,, but bob is in the same boat.. it happens about twice a year we are on week 3 .... as i type hes crewing away.
hes on a bath every 3 days ( sooths it but to be honest isnt helping much .)
he was on 6 anti hisstermeans a day( say it how its spelt as i have no idea...)
they didnt have an effect either and if they did it was for about an hour .
malaseb? was the shampoo my lasat vet gave us , but new vetr gave me vibrac soothing stuff....
we had ALL THE TESTS DONE SCRAPS ,,, BIOPSYS , AND THE FULL BLOOD TESTS AND ALLERGY TESTNG ..... came up zilcth
the biop[sys said he had a hypersenseivity to something..... but following tests showed nout.
ending in a big vets bill .. dump founded the vet said all we can do is try agian when hes really bad ..!!!
just makjes me sad hes not comfoy in his own skin.

[binka]

She's on the same food she was on at the rescue so I don't think its a diet thing. Maybe she's allergic to my house! Bill today was £58! She's insured, excess is £70 though. However vet says that further appointments for the same complaint can be added togetehr so I can claim.

[vickyb]

Has she been wormed?
How warm is the house, could she be reacting to heat, dry air? used any different soap powder etc on her bedding or shampoo'd carpets?

Our little Trix is a demon for itching, it comes and goes but we can't get to the bottom of it. No pun intended but her anal glands are one factor in it but I assume your vet thought of this..She has had to have steroids when it's been really bad. Someone did suggest using a filter jug for water just in case it's to do with chemicals in it but it didn't make a difference

Maddy had a horrible bacterial skin inf when we fostered her and it's just clearing up on its 2nd lot of ab's. The vet also gave us some hibiscrub to dilute, wipe on then rinse off well to keep skin clean.
As he said though we'll probably never know what causes it, just treat it..

Her fur will go thin, a lot of greyhounds do, Gracie is just coming out of the bald legs/bum phase - looked awful, but is regrowing ok now, think it was part of her winter moult. Did Bonnie have a kennel coat when you got her? (thick fur, often brownish if she's dark.) Obviously keeps them warm when kept in kennels but then moults off with a vengance when they live in a home and they look pretty ratty when this happens.
Nibbling can be just a bad habit, they get a bit bored so nibble and before you know it they can do themselves a lot of damage, could be a bit of that too.
Hope it settles down it's so frustrating

Just a thought if it doesn't, you could try contacting the food manufacturers to check if they've altered the ingredients as that could cause skin problems.

[cadbury]

We have a similar problem here with toby the terroist. He has always scratched and chewed himself since day one, nearly 18 mounths ago. Over the last two mounths it has become a bacterial infection. He's had a bactiaeral culture done to make sure we're on the right ab's and will be on another mounth taking the total treatment with ab's up to two mounths.
Toby has the added bonus of a sevre heart condition which means steriods are out of the question unless we stop his heart meds which is a total no no. Not a clue where it's come from, bar habbit. Malseb baths help but we had to lay off them for a while. The best thing we've done is make him wear a t-shirt to stop him attacking his arm pits. I tried little trousers too but even with a ribbion to tie them to his collar they were a pain, to stop him attacking his groin.
The only thing he has different to the other dogs is no fish due to salt content and his heart, so we're staring evening primrose and cod liver oil to help with the fatty acids to improve his genral skin health. He'a also been having a tea spoon lightly cover with manuka honey 15+ with his meals. We did try applying to his skin but ended up with a very sticky dog that the other wanted to lick
Bonnie will still be losing her kennel coat and ajusting to the centeral heating, my thought was anal glands and some greys have a gentic thing commonly know as blad bum syndrome. My mums girl Maggie is a blady bum and she sheds her bum fur twice a year, we've cheacked her thyroid andno probs there.

[Nettie]

Has your vet checked her anal glands? Full glands can cause itching.

[binka]

I'm not sure if the vet checked her glands - if she did she didn't mention it. She was doing something round the back end, but then went round all her body - I'd assumed just checking for bald/sore spots.

The house isn't too warm - thermostat is set to 19 degrees.

Now I did wash her bed the other week and used Persil so maybe she's reacting to that. I bought her a new bed last week so thats not yet been washed, so will wait to see if it makes that a difference now she's not on the other bed.

The other thing I thought of this morning is that the Dap diffuser is right by her bed - so I;'ve moved that now.

Will see how she goes with the antibiotics. I've also bought some wipes today that says it soothes itching so will try those.

[Jane and Sara]

Bob licks and during the firework season licks his legs raw. I've tried special diets, Dap diffuser, everything is washed in Surcare and he tends to be cool rather than too warm - more recently I've tried calming pills from the vet (extremely expensive) NOTHING has worked. I now spray his legs with bitter apple when he has a real go. He seems a very calm dog now but I think he is still suffering from whatever happened to him before he came to me - when he arrived he was extremely traumatized, peed everywhere, followed me all the time and wouldn't settle. I am just hoping that the licking is the last of his stress-related problems and this will settle down eventually. Apart from where he licks his coat is lovely - and if he can't lick himself he licks his duvet - this is what makes me think it is emotional rather than physical.