Hi -
I am the mom of a 6 year old female German Shepherd. About a month ago she started some behavior that she hasn't stopped yet and I am doing some research before heading to the vet.
Like I said, about a month ago, she started licking her rear end. Not all day, but mostly in the evenings while hanging out with us. She'll go on with it for some time.
I've read some about the adrenal glands, and I thought that might be the problem. However, she doesn't do any of the things that might point to that being the problem. There is no pain upon pooping, she doesn't seem to have any pain at all from it that we can tell. She doesn't 'scoot' along on her bottom. But she does seem to lick where she has been sitting, and if she sits on a wood floor, I can see some moisture there. She doesn't have a smell.
She does eat deer poop, cat poop, bird poop - we live in the country and she eats any kind of poop she gets to before we see what she is doing and stop her.
She is a very well behaved dog, and is trained (career changed guide dog in her previous life) only goes to the bathroom when we tell her. She is regulated to going twice a day (poop) and five times a day for pee. In the last month she has gone once in the house during the night, which is unheard of for her. It was so much more than she usually goes (about 4 days worth), and looked much different than her usual poop - six big piles, dark and soft, but not runny. It still had form and was easy to clean up (this is along the lines of TMI but without this info I'm not giving you complete info!). And she has had very yellow runny diarreha once this month, but thankfully that was outside and her next poop was fine. Besides these two incidences, her poop is not a lot and she doesn't seem to have any pain upon going or put off going.
I'm wondering if she might have worms from the other poop she eats outside? Seems like that might be an obvious answer, but she's lived with us for four years doing the same thing, and hasn't had this behavior before this. You'd think worms would have shown up before now.
She is mostly an inside dog - goes to work with me every day. Is never outside by herself. Eats 1 cup of Innova (green bag) in the morning and 1 cup at night. She goes walking with us, but isn't too active. Carries about 10 extra pounds more than she should, but if we exercise her too much she stiffens up and can't get up our stairs. So we keep her active each day, but not too active - not much running or jumping. Just walking.
Other than this rear end licking, she is the perfect dog. I need to get this figured out so she can be back to her normal self again.
Any ideas or direction of what might be wrong here are much appreciated.
Thanks,
Cindy
I am the mom of a 6 year old female German Shepherd. About a month ago she started some behavior that she hasn't stopped yet and I am doing some research before heading to the vet.
Like I said, about a month ago, she started licking her rear end. Not all day, but mostly in the evenings while hanging out with us. She'll go on with it for some time.
I've read some about the adrenal glands, and I thought that might be the problem. However, she doesn't do any of the things that might point to that being the problem. There is no pain upon pooping, she doesn't seem to have any pain at all from it that we can tell. She doesn't 'scoot' along on her bottom. But she does seem to lick where she has been sitting, and if she sits on a wood floor, I can see some moisture there. She doesn't have a smell.
She does eat deer poop, cat poop, bird poop - we live in the country and she eats any kind of poop she gets to before we see what she is doing and stop her.
She is a very well behaved dog, and is trained (career changed guide dog in her previous life) only goes to the bathroom when we tell her. She is regulated to going twice a day (poop) and five times a day for pee. In the last month she has gone once in the house during the night, which is unheard of for her. It was so much more than she usually goes (about 4 days worth), and looked much different than her usual poop - six big piles, dark and soft, but not runny. It still had form and was easy to clean up (this is along the lines of TMI but without this info I'm not giving you complete info!). And she has had very yellow runny diarreha once this month, but thankfully that was outside and her next poop was fine. Besides these two incidences, her poop is not a lot and she doesn't seem to have any pain upon going or put off going.
I'm wondering if she might have worms from the other poop she eats outside? Seems like that might be an obvious answer, but she's lived with us for four years doing the same thing, and hasn't had this behavior before this. You'd think worms would have shown up before now.
She is mostly an inside dog - goes to work with me every day. Is never outside by herself. Eats 1 cup of Innova (green bag) in the morning and 1 cup at night. She goes walking with us, but isn't too active. Carries about 10 extra pounds more than she should, but if we exercise her too much she stiffens up and can't get up our stairs. So we keep her active each day, but not too active - not much running or jumping. Just walking.
Other than this rear end licking, she is the perfect dog. I need to get this figured out so she can be back to her normal self again.
Any ideas or direction of what might be wrong here are much appreciated.
Thanks,
Cindy
