Moderate, not obsessive, wound licking

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Erica
Posts: 2697
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:35 pm
Location: North Carolina

Moderate, not obsessive, wound licking

Post by Erica »

Delta scraped up his carpal/stopper pad badly - about half of the skin is just gone. He has been licking it maybe six times total throughout the day, for maybe a minute, and usually stops before I ask him to.

If a dog is moderate in their wound licking, should we still take steps to prevent it? I know obsessive licking should be curbed.
Delta, standard poodle, born 6/30/14
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Nettle
Posts: 10753
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:40 pm

Re: Moderate, not obsessive, wound licking

Post by Nettle »

I always let it happen. Dog saliva has a healing component in it. I can't recall the name but no doubt a Search would call it up. :)

After all, it would be a pretty major design fault in Nature if wound-licking were to be bad!
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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Erica
Posts: 2697
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:35 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: Moderate, not obsessive, wound licking

Post by Erica »

That was my thinking - so as long as he's not obsessing over it and it seems well (no infection or hot spot stuff developing) I'll let him attend to it as he pleases :) Thanks Nettle!
Delta, standard poodle, born 6/30/14
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