Excessive butt licking?

[twobadfish]

Seriously, I think it's neurotic. He's been de-wormed twice and his butt seriously looks like a vagina birthing a baby. It's disgusting.

He licks, chatters, bites, he'll just go all out for several minutes at a time. We recently just started interrupting him every time he starts... is there something to this? Is Ronin just neurotic?

 

[Moth]

Have you had his anal glands checked?

Maybe they need to be expressed...

 

[Renee750il]

It could be anal glands.

Or has he been around any politicians lately?

 

[Grab]

I'd definitely have the anals checked.

 

[thehoundgirl]

Yeah it could be anal glands, I would take him to your vet to have them expressed.

 

[Whisper]

My first thought was worms, but if you're sure he doesn't have any, I definitely think anal glands. I've seen that be a problem with dogs that excessively lick and/or scoot on their rear.
I've also heard of people expressing anal glands themselves, but I don't know how, and either way I'd recommend having a vet do it.

Or has he been around any politicians lately?

 

[Barb04]

One of mine does this and it's allergies.

 

[smkie]

I was thinking allergies, or some other medical issue. Have you talked with your vet about it?

 

[twobadfish]

Haven't gone to a vet about it yet... allergies could explain his chronic ear infections as well?

 

[Aleron]

This really does sound like anal gland issues to me.

Haven't gone to a vet about it yet... allergies could explain his chronic ear infections as well?

Or hypothyroidism. If it turns out he has anal gland issues and chronic ear infections, I'd suggest having a full thyroid panel done.

Irish Setters can be prone to food allergies though too, so you may want to try switching to something that doesn't contain any of the main ingredients his current food contains. Maybe you can also try a grain free or fish and potato type food and see if there is any improvement.

 

[Renee750il]

Haven't gone to a vet about it yet... allergies could explain his chronic ear infections as well?

Or a systemic yeast infection, which many vets won't check for.

 

[twobadfish]

Before we take it back to the vet we're going to try a raw diet as it seems when he was on Orijen/raw lamb his ears were doing the best. It was just casual observation so I'm not positive. But we'll see how it goes.

If the raw diet and an aggressive ear cleaning regimen doesn't solve it long-term I'll take the suggestions in this thread. Much appreciated!

 

[Dogdragoness]

Ewww I hate excessive butt lickers, I have a licker. his skin looks great so I don't think its that. I just think he is just really clean ... but I cant take the sound ... so I usually tell him to stop

 

[ACooper]

Holy old thread batman! I thought Renee was back for a minute! LOL

 

[LabLover95]

I would definitely have his anal glands checked. Mollie was licking her butt like crazy, accompanied by a gross fishy smell (you know what I'm talking about ), so we took her in and were told she had full anal glands. We just couldn't keep up with how fast they were filling so she got an infection which later ruptured her anal glands and burst her rectum. Luckily we got her to the vet in time but she could have died if we had waited another couple hours.
Now, I'm NOT saying that this is going to happen to your dog! Hers was an exceptional case. Just saying that IMO you should get him checked out.
Hope this all gets taken care of!!
LabLover95