Did you change his food before the foot chewing happened? If you did, go back to what you fed him before the feet started to itch him. I won't lie, it is a nightmare to narrow down what the problem is. Most common cause is food but could be environmental, such as new carpet, or shampooed the carpets, fertilizer, grass, on and on. Can you think of anything that changed about the same time the gnawing started? OH another thing, treats, any new treats? Treats can cause just as much problem as the food! Anything, even if you wouldn't think it should bother him, for instance, my dog is extremely allergic to elk antlers...they are supposed to be so healthy but she had an attack of hives an hour after she chewed on one!

Try any of the GRAIN FREE brands of dog food. Buy the smallest bag you can find. I like Blue Buffalo and Hills Grain free ( this is not Hills Science diet brand) You might try the very limited foods that has only a protein and a vegetable. I would try venison or lamb.

MY pets have never liked the vet dog food.

Interesting...he did get some elk antlers for Christmas last year and the problem started not long after. I will definitely look into that. And I do appreciate the suggestions of grain free foods and simple protein/vegetable food.

We thought since the vet recommended the Hills it would help, but it has clearly given the poor boy problems.

Thanks!!!

I think that it might be the elk antlers. Thanks arkansas girl. I have cooked a meal for mine before using chicken breasts, peas, and carrots. Cook boneless chicken breast in a small amount of water. When they get done, remove and let cool. Add sliced carrots to the water and cook, just before they get done, add English peas. Cut or shed the chicken and add back to the vegetables. If that works well, you can add cooked rice to the rest. You can't feed this long term, but is is fine for a while.

We have hidden all three of his antlers and we'll see how that goes. We also changed his food today to something with a simple protein and vegetable (DH did that while I was working) and he seems much more enthusiastic about his food. Hopefully he won't wake us at 1AM tonight to go out. Poor guy...

I've had 3 successive dogs with allergy problems.

Perhaps the most important thing I've learned during that time is change only one thing at a time.

I hope things are going better today. I second the idea about treats. You need to not give them for now. If things get better, be very careful with the chicken jerky treats and the rawhide chews. We have had trouble with both. I am glad to know about the elk antlers.

Another bad thing about the antlers is that they are so hard that they can break their teeth on them.

Thanks, all. He slept all night and is still pretty chill this morning, although he is limping heavily because he ripped one paw apart yesterday. :-( We have gone to the new simpler (grain free) food and hoping that helps (and agree we'll make only one change at a time. He has never been able to tolerate many treats, so no worries there. And the antlers are gone for now. The list of foods he can't tolerate is long based on the allergy testing we had done.

He has been so good for so long, this whole thing has been a bit of a shock, but I suppose like humans, they are more prone to develop allergies as they age?

Thanks again for all the input.

Good sign that he slept all night. Hope things went well today. It sure would help if they could talk and tell us what is wrong! I think that the allergies do build up. Sometimes they can handle a small amount, but then something pushes it over the top.

Agree with jean and arkansas, change one thing at a time. Several weeks to check for a reaction at a minimum. Sherry is right, sometimes they can tolerate a small amount but with too much, they develop symptoms; classic for many allergies.

Is there any particular time when doggy is most likely to chew his paws? Does it occur after coming in from outdoors when his paws have been in contact with grass, etc? Indoors (in contact w/carpet, floor cleaner)? As one author puts it, dog paws are like Swifters, picking up whatever they come in contact with.

Have you tried rinsing paws with copious amounts of cool/room temp water, does that provide any relief? Caution drying w/ towel that may have residual detergent/fabric softener; maybe use paper towels.

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2111&aid=143

https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/dog-care/allergies

If your dog's feet are 'hot', itchy and red, but the rest of his body seems fine, then it's very possible he's allergic to something that his feet are coming in contact with on a regular basis.... carpets (especially those that have been shampooed recently, or treated with a deodorizer), and even grass are common culprits.

Thanks for your input, nanny. We did find out that many grasses are on his allergy list, and it's hard to keep him away from them. He's always been a grass eater despite our best efforts...especially the fresh stuff in the spring along our country road.

As for the carpet, we have mostly hardwood floors and the rugs we do have haven't changed since we got him. We did get him a new bed and, in our efforts to isolate this problem, ended up going back to his old one, but that didn't help much either. The only thing that seems to keep his chewing a bit muted is being on Temaril-P. We hate to leave him on this drug long term, but as soon as we wean him off it, the chewing ramps back up.

Meanwhile, changing foods has stopped his diarrhea. Yaay!

When I was trying to find out what mine were allergic to, it took several days for the stuff to get out of their system and to see an big improvement. No diarrhea sounds like a great step forward!

Hi Just Me, I'm sorry your boy is having so many issues. While no grain foods are a good start, a limited food diet would be a better option to consider. There are several brands to choose from and I've found the website Chewy.com to be a useful tool to help narrow down the options. Natural Balance was the standard in limited diet foods for a long time, but other companies have also started offering some very good options. The trick is to find a protein that your boy has never tried before. Venison, Bison, Fish or Duck are a few that come to mind. Since his allergies are so severe, it's probably going to be his best option even in the long term.

If you mix a little 100% pumpkin in with his food as a fiber additive it should help to keep him regulated. Or you can just give him a spoon of it as a treat. Just don't over do it though or you'll experience problems with gas and constipation.

My dog went through allergy testing too and in addition to yeast, she came up positive to several types of mites. I can always tell when they're bothering her feet outside because she walks funny (as if she's tip toeing). When she was younger, I'd throw a sock on the paw she was chewing on and that would help to keep her away from it but with all four paws and wood floors, your guy would slip if you put them on all his feet. There are booties you can get to protect their feet while outside, I've seen them on Amazon. They have varying reviews depending on how people use them but given his condition, you might want to look into that as an option. If he is able to keep them on indoors too, it may help prevent him from chewing so they can heal.

Also, is yeast on the list of his allergies? If so that can make his paws itch too. Mal-A-Ket wipes have worked wonders to help relieve some of the irritants on my dogs feet. They are also anti-fungal and will kill any yeast on his pads or in between his toes. I got ours originally from the Vet, but they're also available on Amazon or Chewy.com. It probably goes without saying but I would also make sure to avoid any food with yeast of any kind in the ingredients as well.

Hang in there, I know it's terrible to see them itching and chewing on themselves, it takes time but eventually you'll find some workable solutions.

lukkiirish...thanks! His tummy has settled nicely on the food we got him and it does have Fish, which he's not had before. He's eating with enthusiasm again and his "output" is back to normal. :)

We have the little booties for him mostly for winter (we're in snow country with the usual salting of the roads, too). He can take almost anything (including bandages, booties, etc.) off his feet in about a minute flat. So he is spending considerable time in the Cone of Shame lately, unfortunately. But we will keep trying. Thanks for the encouragement. He does seem better. And I will check into those wipes.

Hi mdln, he attacks his paws at all different times. No pattern that we can see. And we even bought a paw washer when we thought that might be it.

DH has a nephew in vet school, and after chatting with him, he made an appointment to take him to a veterinary dermatologist at Michigan State. I'll let you know if we find out more. Thanks! (BTW, great links!)

Just Me, are you in Michigan? That's where I am, so I totally get it in regards to snow country, the one blessing is that winter offers some relief to their toes. So glad to hear you're slowly finding resolve to the issues, a fish kibble is a great choice, that's what we feed our Lab and her coat is so soft because of it. Not everyone has the tenacity to stick with it the way you have, your pup is lucky to have such a loving family. :c) I hope you'll let us know what you find out from MI State. Maybe they'll have some information that can help the masses.

Glad to hear you are going the vet derm route! Please keep us updated.

After reviewing history, what we've tried, and what he's allergic to (via our test results, which we brought in), the boy is on allergy shots. We'll see how this goes. She doesn't think it's his food (and the current food has completely cleared up his diarrhea problems). So we'll try this. We love him AND he's been pretty pricey this year. :)

OH, and yes, we're in Michigan, lukkiirish. Very fortunate to be only about an hour from MSU.

Well If nothing else, he's on a better food ha ha (after a really bad experience I can't tell you how much I hate the Vet foods). But on a more serious note, that's basically the same direction a doctor would take if your guy was human. The vet ended up putting our dog on Allercept, it's an allergy serum that comes in drops or shots. I give her a couple of drops a couple of times a day and the supply lasts six months. I'd say It works about 95% of the time especially when it's supplemented with an antihistamine in the spring and summer. And when it comes to expenses, here's the real eye opener. The orginal Vet we went to charged 178.00 for two small vials where as our current Vet only charges 123.00 for the exact same prescription. I was stunned, so it may be worth your time to shop around and see if you have options in regards to cost. How funny, we're about an hour away as well to the east and close to the Palace.

Indeed! He really likes the new food and his appetite is back. We really thought the MSU vet and student were great and DH is going to administer the shots (I really don't want to do that!). They did say it can take 6 mos to a year to help.

Our current vet is great...we just wanted to try something more at this point. And the MSU team used our vet's allergy test results, etc. Thank goodness...we don't want to pay for that twice!

We are an hour in the other direction. Outside Grand Rapids.

Cheers!

Thanks for the good news update. Am a huge fan of veterinary teaching hospitals; I have used both Univ of IL and Wisc.

I don't know if anyone mentioned this or not, but anytime you switch foods you need to do it gradually because it can cause him stomach upset as well as diarrhea.

I had a dog that also chewed on his paws and he too was a German Short-hair/lab mix. We switched his food several times thinking it was the food. The chewing was a mystery until one evening when he went to stand up but couldn't. It turned out he had a tumour on his spine that was causing numbness in his paws which irritated him, so he chewed them.

I hope you have a better outcome than we did, but it gives you something else besides allergies to consider.

Oh, my, Debra. I'm sorry to hear that. Thanks for the info.

How is your baby doing? I have been checking and thinking of y'all.

The food issue seems resolved and he's back to normal on that front. He is completely unbothered by getting the shots, and we're just waiting to see if they help over time. He's also on Apoquel which is hard to find...luckily MSU had some for him. Some days he seems great and other days he will chew a paw when we're not looking. I think the days he gets a shot it seems to react, so maybe it makes him itch more? He had a great run at the dog park the other day, and a bit later, he came out of the den limping and had chewed another paw. We're still hopeful the shots and Apoquel will help over time. Thanks for asking! :)

It takes a while for the skin to totally heal up and until that happens, his paws will still be very sensitive and you know how healing causes a wound to itch...same is true for dogs. It took a long time before my dog's paws were toughened up, so running around at the dog park is enough to get tender feet irritated. It's just going to take a while.

His paws are still tender, for sure, arkansas girl. He just loves to run wild at the dog park, and we probably should have waited a bit, but he needs to burn energy. It's a challenge to balance. We can't let him run free outside fences, because he runs away. He's a rescue, and we keep thinking he'll stay nearby, but he randomly proves us wrong. We live on a river, so he comes back wet (eventually) and having eaten who knows what? ;-p

I did some research and found a slew of protective footwear for dogs, Here's a couple:

http://www.dogbootsactive.com/dogpag/dogbootcomments.htm

http://www.therapaw.com/thera-pawboots.aspx

Those are cute...I'll share them with my DH. Our dog is really good at getting ANYTHING off his feet and pretty quickly. But maybe the stylin' ones with the red Velcro would work. Thanks!

Probably if he's running like crazy at the dog park, any boot would most likely fall off. He probably needs to get out on the feet to toughen them up. Dogs just love the dog park, I am so glad they opened one where I live and it's about 3 miles from the house. We go every day, all year round unless it's raining.

That's great news about your dog, so glad to hear he's doing better. I'm wondering if the itchiness you mentioned after he's given the Apoquel could be a negative reaction to it. I read a little bit about it on Drugs.com and it seems it could be (maybe?). If it doesn't stop doing that soon, you may want to speak to the Vet about it, especially since it's a newer drug. Also, I'm so glad you "get" his need to burn energy. Our lab acts as if she's in pain if she has energy to burn. We use a doggie day care called Camp Bow Wow, it's a franchise with a couple of centers in your area. The only reason I bring this up is I know they offer 1/2 day rates and believe me 6 hours will exhaust him! But since it's indoors in a clean and controlled area, his feet will heal easier. They're also really good at watching them and stop him from chewing his feet.

We are very lucky to live near Shaggy Pines (http://www.shaggypines.com/) and DH is retired, so he takes our boy there as often as possible. Best $$ we ever spent for a crazy runaway type dog. :)
He slept all night without the cone and didn't chew a paw, so it's a good morning! <happy dance>

Well, that is good news! Poor guy...I bet they are so sore.

That place is pretty cool, I haven't seen a privately owned park like that before; I love the concept. And of course EVERYTHING cool is in Grand Rapids! (wink wink) We have Orion Oaks dog park close by, it's county owned with 900 acres and a lake. We've been there several times and our Lab loves it but I wasn't as comfortable. While it's only 30/yr it's basically a free for all. There's no guarantee that all the dogs are properly socialized, vaccinated or even healthy. I was also surprised at how many people didn't watch their dogs or have them trained. I would be ecstatic to have a place like that close by too. I think guidelines and caution to ensure the dogs there are healthy and socialized is important and worth the extra cost.

Yes, that dog park is great! It's pricey, and we let our membership lapse when I was between jobs, but after about a year, we had to renew it. He just LOVES it there. And they keep a really clean and well run park. We feel really lucky to have it. The closest open beach for him to run is way up near Muskegon, which is just too far for a regular dog run.

Just for comparison, it's 16.00 for 6 hours of supervised play at day care....so yeah it's a little pricey but I think that the controlled environment makes it worth it. At least they have lots of pricing options too. I like it and would certainly utilize it if we had something like that in our area.

Thought I would do a quick update. We have FINALLY gotten our dog straightened around. He is off all meds except his monthly allergy shots and Vitamin E. His fur has all grown back (he shed a LOT of his fur while on drug therapy...his tummy was going bald). Along the way, the vets at MSU tried a new autoimmune injection (not on the market yet and $150/shot) that may or may not have helped. But we were able to wean him off his drugs (Prozac, Apoquil, etc.) over time and he is back to "normal". His diet is California Natural Salmon and Pea and nothing else (well, except what he manages to snatch on his outdoor walks).

I can't say enough about the vets at MSU. They were really compassionate, concerned and almost as happy as we were to resolve this issue.

Thanks for everyone's input. It was nice to have support online while going through this issue.

Great! Thank you for updating, glad to hear things are better.