Do you pets chew on stuff or themselves?

[paddbear0000]

If anyone has a pet of any kind (dog, cat, bird, ferret, horse, etc.), have I found the BEST product! My stupid lab/pit has recently decided to eat the dog beds and I am tired of buying them. They aren't cheap! She's only been eating our other dog's bed--I think she has issues with him!  ). I've been picking it up when I leave the house so she won't eat it, but when I came home from class today and she had started to eat hers! I ran to the pet store and found some bitter spray stuff. Many of you who have pets may have heard of Bitter Apple. I decided to try something else I found tho. My old dog used to eat Bitter Apple like it was candy (probably because it had an apple taste). I found this stuff called Fooey!. It's a spray that you can use on hard or fabric surfaces, even the pet itself! OMG is that BITTER!  I must have gotten some on my hand and when I was eating lunch, I got some in my mouth. That is the most vile, nasty, bitter tasting stuff ever!!! That ought to work! I just sprayed both dogs beds completely and my curtains! I can't wait to see her expression when she tries to eat the bed next time!       

[KT0930]

Just hope she'll lay in the bed, now! My dog chews his legs and paws, and I found some wipes that have some kind of bitter stuff on them, and let me tell ya, the stuff works! I use it, and he doesn't even try to chew for over 24 hours.

[paddbear0000]

It doesn't have a smell to it, just a bad taste! And she is laying on it now, just not chewing on it thankfully. Not that it matters. She tends to sleep on the hardwood floor more than anything.

[highlite36]

That stuff is AWESOME!!!  After my puppy was neutered, he kept trying to pick at his stitches....  Wiped a little bit on the stitch and he stopped licking at it.... :-)

[paddbear0000]

I still have a slight weird taste in my mouth! Yuck! Oh, and I did a sniff test of the beds--still smell like dog.  Although, to their highly specialized noses, they may not!

[Adam_W]

I don't really have any problems with my dog chewing on anything around the house, but she likes to sometimes chew on her own leg or her tail. She doesn't hurt herself or anything and it's quite an amusing site.

Adam

[Patton]

Ours like toys and that but no biting himself and as far as I know doesn't chew furniture. 

[paddbear0000]

Aggghhh!!! I just went downstairs and found a big hole in her bed!!! I'm gonna kill her (not really)! The dog's nuts! She'll eat anything, even rocks! 

[Black]

... OMG is that BITTER!  I must have gotten some on my hand and when I was eating lunch, I got some in my mouth. That is the most vile, nasty, bitter tasting stuff ever!!! ...

     Many years ago my lab/chow tried to eat the rubber bumper pads on my car.  My husband replaced them and I soaked them with Bitter Apple -- not one tooth mark ever again!  Even after I washed my hands he wouldn't let me pet him.  I'd aim for the top of his head and he would duck and then get up and move away.  But I never tasted it. 

BTW, the most frequent causes of obsessive chewing are: teething (in some breeds, especially labs, may last until well over a year old), boredom, lack of sufficient exercise, and anxiety.  The teething they outgrow but it may become a lasting habit.  Sometimes it takes Prozac to get them out of the habit.  The rest can be helped by a mile long run and 20 minutes of Frisbee.  Don't forget to do a walk before and after for warm up and cool down.  If no one in the family is up to that kind of vigorous exercise,  try a professional dog walker or a runner in your neighborhood who would take the dog with them every day.  Also, be sure to provide plenty of chew toys -- large Kongs stuffed with treats, cheese or peanut butter are great.  Some just love to chew and you will be lucky if it is never expensive furniture, electronics, or door frames.

[Falkenbach]

Sometimes it takes Prozac to get them out of the habit.  The rest can be helped by a mile long run and 20 minutes of Frisbee.  Don't forget to do a walk before and after for warm up and cool down.  If no one in the family is up to that kind of vigorous exercise,  try a professional dog walker or a runner in your neighborhood who would take the dog with them every day.  Also, be sure to provide plenty of chew toys -- large Kongs stuffed with treats, cheese or peanut butter are great.  Some just love to chew and you will be lucky if it is never expensive furniture, electronics, or door frames.

Agree with all this, but wanted to emphasise that prozac should only be used in cases diagnosed by a vet as OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder, such as acral lick dermatitis). Obviously the vet would need to prescribe the drug anyway, but I just wanted to clarify that you should never go giving your dog your own prozac. That should be common sense of course 

[KT0930]

Thankfully ours usually only chews on his toys. If he chews on anything else, it's himself, and that seems to be he started by chewing at an itch, and just wouldn't (or couldn't) stop. That's when the bitter wipes work.

Padda, I'd be upset about the dog chewing the bed after that, too. My parents had a dog who seemed to be immune to the stuff, but I can't remember what they used after that. Sorry.

[paddbear0000]

As far as prozac, I used to be a vet assistant and saw a number of dogs put on it. I wouldn't really recommend it. It either made the dogs extra wild or doped them so much , they did absolutely nothing anymore. It was very sad. I've tried Bitter Apple on 3 of my last dogs, and they all loved it! My lab/pit is now just licking and sucking the Fooey! stuff off the bed! Like I said, the dog is nuts!

[KT0930]

My lab/pit is now just licking and sucking the Fooey! stuff off the bed! Like I said, the dog is nuts!

    

[LightLizard]

i guess i would be called a 'cat' person. dogs seem too demanding for my taste.
our cat just looks at my dialysis machine and tubes with a dazed, confused look. she's never even tried to play with or sniff any of it.
the only drag about cats is the bathing part.
it's really hard getting all that hair off of your tongue, afterwards.


love

~LL~

[paddbear0000]

the only drag about cats is the bathing part.
it's really hard getting all that hair off of your tongue, afterwards.


love

~LL~

 

I miss my cats! My husband's allergic, so my Mom (who's 500 miles away!) has them. There's Blue, a snow-footed Siamese, Charlie, a tuxedo cat, and Yoshi, another Siamese. I rescued all of them from death when I worked at the vets. I miss them sooo much!   

[kitkatz]

Get the dog a chew toy like a kong and fill it with peanut butter. The dogs I know go nuts over the toy and peanut butter.

[paddbear0000]

Get the dog a chew toy like a kong and fill it with peanut butter. The dogs I know go nuts over the toy and peanut butter.

We have one and do that once in a while. They get too fat if we do it too often, plus with Zoe (the chewer), it only lasts about 1 minute! We tried letting her taste the Fooey! off our fingers tonight, but she kept licking our fingers looking for more! She even loved the EXTREMELY hot hot sauce! Go figure! I give up!

[skyedogrocks]

My dog Luke is a nutball also, he loves the bitter apple taste.  He's a freak of a dog, the only toy that he can't rip apart are the kongs.  Last night he ate a pencil and eraser.  I almost freaked out.  I called the vet to make sure he wasn't going to poison himself.  It was lovely to see half a football eraser in his poop this morning.  Stupid dog!!!!      .  My poor lab, Skye loves the soft toys and she can't have them because he rips them to shreds.

Sometimes it takes Prozac to get them out of the habit.  The rest can be helped by a mile long run and 20 minutes of Frisbee.  Don't forget to do a walk before and after for warm up and cool down.  If no one in the family is up to that kind of vigorous exercise,  try a professional dog walker or a runner in your neighborhood who would take the dog with them every day.  Also, be sure to provide plenty of chew toys -- large Kongs stuffed with treats, cheese or peanut butter are great.  Some just love to chew and you will be lucky if it is never expensive furniture, electronics, or door frames.

Agree with all this, but wanted to emphasise that prozac should only be used in cases diagnosed by a vet as OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder, such as acral lick dermatitis). Obviously the vet would need to prescribe the drug anyway, but I just wanted to clarify that you should never go giving your dog your own prozac. That should be common sense of course

When we adopted Skye, she was 5 years old and had a horrible case of Separation Anxiety.  We tried everything with her, doggie day care, leaving the house every few minutes and working our way up.  She ate through a plastic crate and bent a metal one.  Nothing worked, so they put her on Prozac.  I hate it, totally changed her demeanor.  She was so latharjic, not herself at all.  So, we took her off of it.  About 2 weeks later, I started working from home and that totally cured her.  Within a month we could go out and not worry about her tearing apart the house.

[Black]

... they put her on Prozac.  I hate it, totally changed her demeanor.  She was so lethargic, not herself at all.  So, we took her off of it. ...

Whenever possible the Prozac should be started at a low dose and gradually increased over several weeks until it is to a therapeutic or effective level.  When a gradual increase is not possible it may make the dog very lethargic for a few days, or even a few weeks, until their body adjusts.  It may take several weeks to get the dose high enough to control the behavior, yet low enough to not change their personality.  (The same thing sometimes happens to some dogs put on phenobarbital for seizures.  The first few days they may sleep most of every day and even stagger when they first get up to walk.  But after a few days or weeks they return to normal activity and the dosage is adjusted to the lowest effective level.)  Prozac should, whenever possible, be a short term solution to behavior problems, while behavior modification techniques are implemented.

If your vet did not explain that or tell you that the dosage is subject to the tolerance of each individual dog, then you need to tell the vet why you didn't use it, so they know they screwed up. 

Separation anxiety is sometimes difficult to treat.  You did good!!!

[Falkenbach]

Chloe, my smaller bully, is a spinner (obsessive compulsive tail chasing). This is common in bull terriers, unfortunately.

I used to have her on Clomicalm (clomipramine). Prozac is sometimes used for this condition too. The clomicalm did work well, and it didn't changer her personality or anything. I was very pleased with it, but couldn't afford to keep it up. I ended up taking her off it because of the expense - also because I did more research into spinning and found that Chloe's case was nowhere near as bad as I thought.

As she has aged, the problem has pretty much desisted of its own accord. She is now 14 years old.

[goofynina]

You got to remember, the dogs lick their butt so what is a little bitter apple going to do?? 

[Patton]

You got to remember, the dogs lick their butt so what is a little bitter apple going to do?? 

Does that mean dogs breath isn't really breath??? Should I continue to allow our dog to lick my face???   

[Black]

...I ended up taking her off it because of the expense - also because I did more research into spinning and found that Chloe's case was nowhere near as bad as I thought.

As she has aged, the problem has pretty much desisted of its own accord. She is now 14 years old.

Yes, the high cost of medical care even affects our pets.    But it is amazing how time and loving care can often alleviate many of their problems.  Seems like there ought to be lesson in there for us.

[paddbear0000]

...I ended up taking her off it because of the expense - also because I did more research into spinning and found that Chloe's case was nowhere near as bad as I thought.

As she has aged, the problem has pretty much desisted of its own accord. She is now 14 years old.

Yes, the high cost of medical care even affects our pets.    But it is amazing how time and loving care can often alleviate many of their problems.  Seems like there ought to be lesson in there for us.

Tell me about it! We spend almost $50 a month on Zoe's "pee" pills for bladder incontinence. Yikes! We do it because she was such a depressed little dog when she kept leaking. She actually seemed less embarrassed when the problem got fixed by the pills. Plus, our entire house has 102 year old oak floors, with not a stitch of carpeting (we threw out all the pee stained rugs since she kept peeing on them and haven't been able to afford to replace them).

Speaking of loving our pets, here's an incredible woman--http://news.windingroad.com/etc/puppy-love-woman-gives-up-car-to-get-pup-back/

[Falkenbach]

...I ended up taking her off it because of the expense - also because I did more research into spinning and found that Chloe's case was nowhere near as bad as I thought.

As she has aged, the problem has pretty much desisted of its own accord. She is now 14 years old.

Yes, the high cost of medical care even affects our pets.    But it is amazing how time and loving care can often alleviate many of their problems.  Seems like there ought to be lesson in there for us.

I have been in contact with Alice Moon-Fanelli, probably the world's leading researcher on OCD in dogs, particularly spinning. She said it is common for the condition to slow down, or desist, with age. But I'm sure that lots of love has helped, too!

Chloe also had to have surgery last week. There was no money to pay for it ($400), but I dipped into my "absolute emergencies only" fund. She had some lumps removed so they won't become cancerous (caused by sun damage). Some people would say "why bother doing that with a 14 year old dog?" - well, our last bully lived until he was almost 18, so why wouldn't I give Chloe the best shot? She's otherwise very fit and healthy.