Comments | naturalliving: Pet hairballs

cabybakes79 in naturalliving

Pet hairballs

Dec 28, 2010 21:12

My border collie has an obsessive licking problem, which I know is usually stemmed from psychological issues (she is a rescue with many strange behaviors, which we've learned how to cope with).
But there is one issue that is stemming from the licking that I am very concerned for her health.
( Cut for poo talk... )

pets: dogs, pets: health, pet remedies

Comments 29

anonymous December 29 2010, 03:20:34 UTC

cabybakes79 December 29 2010, 03:21:37 UTC

Applied how?

karisitas December 29 2010, 03:36:01 UTC

Tea tree oil can be toxic to dogs - I wouldn't recommend this.

cabybakes79 December 29 2010, 03:37:55 UTC

That's what I thought. Thus, the edit to my post.
I sure wouldn't ingest tea tree, much less give it to my dog! Which is why I asked the commenter how to apply the stuff, as it wasn't logical to feed it to her.

Thread 9

jennifer0246 December 29 2010, 04:06:07 UTC

Brush her, probably several times a day. Consider using a Furminator or other brush designed to help remove the loose undercoat hair. The less hair that's there for her to ingest, the better. I'd also speak to your vet to see if they'd recommend a diet, or supplement to help digestion, or even a medical to help with the anxiety that is causing the overgrooming.

noveldevice December 29 2010, 04:36:31 UTC

Give her olive oil on her food and brush her regularly.

The licking is because bcs tend toward anxiety, which is magnified in bcs bred in the last fifteen years after the breed got popular. (We never had problems, but our bcs were all working dogs from working breeders. It makes a huge difference.)

nabba December 29 2010, 18:04:37 UTC

agreed that the working lines make a huge difference. I've seen so many neurotic BCs and that's NOT the breed at all, it's because people got involved in breeding who shouldn't have. It's exactly why the correct groups kept them out of the AKC.

agree that brushing daily will help too

noveldevice December 29 2010, 20:03:34 UTC

If I were going to get a bc these days I'd go back to the second breeder we got a dog from; his dogs are excellent.

To be honest, while I love bcs, unless I had property and livestock again I'd never touch a bc, as a dog, because the good ones need to work, and it's not worth having a bad one. Also, bcs are my mom's thing. I like sighthounds. :)

nabba December 29 2010, 20:14:24 UTC

Where were the lines based? Mine are Scottish based. My youngest (and service dog) is going to be 2 in January and I'm debating breeding her, as I live in an area where they are used as working dogs. My other two are 12 and nearly 16 (in February ( ... )

Thread 6

dangerous_beans December 29 2010, 04:43:55 UTC

First suggestion: Bring Pooch to the vet to make sure she's passed all the hair and/or that she's not licking because of an unseen injury or allergy. If the licking is a rescued-dog quirk (That's wonderful, by the way! I'm really stoked that you adopted a pooch!) I agree with the brushing suggestion. Make it a pleasant routine, 'cause dogs love routines and if she's getting positive attention from you... bonus y'know ( ... )

annotatedchaos January 6 2011, 23:19:46 UTC

I second all of this. I work as a dog groomer currently and I have two dogs of my own. She could be licking because of hot spots or other skin issues that need treatment. When my little duck toller, Sadie, had pooping problems, adding oil (I used fish oil capsules--broke them open and squirted them on her food) and making sure she was hydrated solved the issue. A Furminator, like many others have said, will get rid of tons of hair. Another fix for the time being might be trying some OxyMed spray...I use it on my GSD for his dry skin and hot spots...it's safe if dogs get any in their mouths BUT it has Bitrex, so it may discourage her licking. Also (I think someone else touched on this?) I'd really encourage you to work with her in terms of solving the cause of the obsessive licking--not to sound like a huge fangirl, haha, but I love love love Cesar Millan and I think looking at some of his books and/or his website would really help. I've had good success applying his methods to my dogs and dogs I work with.

pickleboot December 29 2010, 05:22:44 UTC

this one might be more than olive oil and a raw diet(which really can help nervous animals and their digestive tracks when done right) can do. i think a vet visit is in order to make sure it is not just a rescue/nervous dog thing and make sure she is not allergic to her food. my first question is what are you feeding her? is it heavy in grains? this could be something as simple as a grain allergy and switching to a grain free(or whatever the allergen is) food might stop the licking. i know if we switch our boxer to a food high in fish, he starts licking and farting like you will not believe ( ... )