Strange Collection Of Syptoms....or Nothing?

[ktig]

Hi there.

Just thought I'd run past those with more experience than me a dilemma I have. My mini schnauzer to me seems a little off. He's 18 months old and I've noticed a few different things which may be all nothing and completely unrelated, but I'm not convinced. He has over the last few months developed a bit of a habit of licking at his feet. not to the point of aggravating the skin or even reddening it, but just making his feet pretty wet and slobbery. I put it down to perhaps a mild intolerance to the grass as we've been mowing a lot and I've previously had dogs with the same. About 2 weeks ago, this developed into licking and chewing at his tail and bottom - again, no damage, just wet. I thought perhaps anal glands as I'd noticed he would suddenly stop and sit mid walking from time to time. We went to the vet, where they were checked - nothing too dramatic, she empited them but didn't really think they were anything too bad. the licking has continued and now, in the last few days he seems quieter - taking himself off into his crate or under my bed to sleep - which isn't unusual but he's there more than usual and when he follows me from room to room, instead of just standing, or sitting wherever - he seems to be almost fanatical about sitting with his back against me, or a piece of furniture, or something which is what is striking me as really odd. He's still happy to have a run around and a play, although seemed a little more sluggish than normal on our walk yesterday.

I guess what I'm asking is does this sound like it might add up to something or am I going slowly mad?

[CavsRcute]

When my girl licks at her front paws it means she has pain in her joints.

She suffers from HD and because of this she has a funny gait. This then puts pressure on her front legs.. I take her to trigger point therapy and she is right for about 3 months.

A couple of months ago she was doing these strange things when she was asleep...jumping up and looking behind her in concern.

I checked her anal glands, wormed her and de fleaed . Still no better. Somebody on her suggested she was having a spasm in her back leg. Took her to the muscle man and sure enough she had a bad trigger point.

I would suggest you find a good canine chiropractor or physiotherapist, or trigger point therapy.

They show pain in different ways and my girl sleeps a lot when she has the bad trigger points and licks her paws also.

He may be trying to relieve a spasm etc when he is leaning up against something

[persephone]

My first thought is pain , second, stress.

The pain could be spine related, or internal

Or it could be neurological ...

Seems some more investigation is needed like blood tests to check for indicators of inflammation / infection .

It's good that you have noticed :)

[ktig]

Thanks guys - along the lines of what I was thinking - I think for my own peace of mind I'll get the little guy looked at - fingers crossed it's nothing and he's fine :)

[becks]

it can be a sign of irritation - fleas, mites - harvest mite for eg can be hard to spot, so maybe worth treating for mites and see if that helps.