A few times a day my 12 year old will excessively luck his bed for a few minutes. Anyone else had this with their dog or have siggessugge why? He recently had his yearly check up & his health is fine, I just don't think it's a very nice thing to do!!
Hi @lou D Is your dog showing any other changes in behaviour? Wanting to follow you around much more, anxious when you leave the room?
Both mine do this occasionally. It starts with a little paw or leg licking then moves to bed licking. It LOOKS like it's a comforting thing, but it annoys me so I redirect them and they stop.
Sometimes this can be a sign of pain - excessive licking of furniture or walls or the dog's forelegs.... When the dog is hurting but can't reach the part that hurts or it's an internal part(!), they will often self-soothe in this way. You mentioned that he had a yearly check-up recently - did the vet take any bloods or urine samples? If not, it would be a really good idea just to do that, as it's pretty non-invasive and might give you more information. Did you tell the vet about this licking? If not, tell them when you take him and they should give him an all-over exam, looking for any sign of tenderness or pain. If the vet can't find anything, you could discuss with them whether you can still trial a short course of NSAIDs (like Metacam or similar). If the licking stops whilst the dog is on the NSAID, you can be pretty sure that it was caused by pain. Many things are hard to diagnose in dogs just through physical exams and not everything shows up on blood tests obviously. Older dogs frequently suffer arthritis (something like 80% of dogs over the age of 10 show arthritic changes on x-ray, even if they are symptom-free) and because dogs are quite stoic they can be in a lot of pain without necessarily showing much! If you notice an improvement when the dog is on the NSAID, then return to the vet and press for more diagnostic tests or a discussion about the cause - you may need some x-rays to see if it's arthritis, for eg.... The other primary cause of licking is dementia sadly, especially in older dogs. There are some natural and quite effective supplements - like Activait - and many small changes you can make, in that case...
