♫♪♫When I’m Not Lickin’ My Two Feet..!

Epsom Salts, Foot licking in Bulldogs, Magnesium sulfate

♫♪♫When I’m Not Lickin’ My Two Feet..!

In Bulldog Health, Childrens' Literacy, English bulldogs, K-12 Education, Thats' Life on April 6, 2011 at 8:20 AM

A few months ago, a concerned bully brought this observation to the NATION:

How about a bully who licks too much? Bubs licks her paws constantly.

Ahh, foot lickin’. I do it. You do it. Bullys all do it. Foot lickin’. I do it so much, I wrote a song about it. Like’ta hear it? Here it go:

I’m— a— Bulldog with a first name it’s T * H * A * T –That!

I’m a bulldog with a second name it’s One – O * N * E — One!

Oh.., I like to eat and sleep and Tweet
When I’m not lickin’ my two feet—
And there you have it. Plain to see

I’m T * H * A * T *O * N * E

Granted, foot licking looks pawsitively awful to People, especially People who don’t know us very well and even the who do live with and love us. It sounds pretty nasty, too. People wonder why we do it. What are we doing? Is there something wrong with us or worse, is it harmful?

Yes. And could be!

Foot licking is a sign. It’s your body tryin’ ta tell you somethin’ and you need to pay attention! It’s a symptom. And it’s a symptom that may take you in many directions. But first, let me share a little of my own story. *Cue violins*

Hi. I’m ThatOne, and I am– a foot licker.

Hi, That.

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I was an obsessive, noisy, sloppy foot licker, presenting with throaty umphings, wet, slobbery sounding slurping, fly biting behavior and tongue flicking, and then almost manic, obsessive attention to my feet and one foot in pawticular.

I could go on maniacally licking my feet for hours if She’d ever let me. Which She NEVER did! She knew right away when I started presenting these behaviors something serious was going on up in here but She didn’t panic and She didn’t go running off to the vet. She always does a few things in this order first:

The benign wait-and-see
Internet/Research
Common sense at home, OTC (over-the-counter) remedy
Vet.

At first, She decided I was maybe not intellectually stimulated enough. So whenever I started with the foot licking, She would leash me up and we’d go out fur a vigorous walk. She’d also let me wander about and sniff fur as long as I wanted. When I came back in, I never returned to the behavior. Hypothesis: Foot licking is a symptom of boredom. The Solution: Go fur a walk when you start with the behavior. Get some exercise.

Hypothesis: You may have an allergy. It may be an environmental allergy or it could be a food allergy. The Solution: You may need to change the brand of food you’re eating or eliminate that favorite dried chicken jerky treat. Or you may have an environmental allergy– plant mites, or pollen or mold. She had to change Her detergent to a dye free, perfume free brand and that made an enormous difference fur me!

You may have yeast in your ears. I recommend the 50/50 vinegar and water solution to flush the ears. Foot licking is not to be ignored. Something is at the root of your excessive foot licking. And the operative word here is excessive.

If you are not biting yourself or your saliva output is not so excessive so as to stain your fur or you have not licked until you made a bald spot or made your skin raw– (you see where I’m goin’ with this?), I highly recommend you get in the habit of maybe once a week standing in a tub of warm water with Epsom salt. Make sure the crystals are thoroughly dissolved. And try not to drink the water.

She uses Epsom salt in my bath water. She will usually fill the tub to a level where the water completely covers my feet with hot water, pour the Epsom salt in, stir, and then allow the water to cool to tepid. Tepid means warm, not room temperature, not cool or cold. There needs to be warmth! Then I stand in the water anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes depending upon whether I’m taking a full bath or not.

I’m a working TripleA Therapy dog. I work four days a week, so I have to bathe every week. The #bullDogNATION! is not recommending or endorsing weekly bathing, just a weekly foot soak with the salts. Just like bleach is bleach, Epsom salts are Epsom salts. You do not have to look fur a name brand. There is no “special” epsom salt. Store variety is no less effective than the spa variety.

CVS Epsom Salt Lavender Scented Epsom salts or magnesium sulfate are made up of a naturally occurring mineral found in water. Epsom salts derives its popular name from the town of Epsom, England, where the compound was first distilled from water. The chemical formula for Epsom salts is a rather simplistic one: MgS04-7H2O.

Epsom salts are easily obtained at any drug store or supermarket. Inexpensive and versatile, the salts can be used for a number of different applications around the home. Many of the applications have to do with expediting healing, as well as improving the quality of the skin and helping with basic grooming. Even People love it!

If there is itching and scratching and foot licking, do a full body salts soak. You should realize some diminution of the foot licking behavior, and especially the obsessive component of the foot licking behavior should fade completely. Epsom salts makes you smell nice, too. I especially lub the lavender scented Epsom salts. Great fur me. Aroma therapy fur Her. And the lavender scent deters drinking the water which I used to do.

It’s my responsibility to advise if your foot licking is obsessive and is resulting in self mutilation or injury: GET THEE TO YOUR VET! You may have a skin allergy, atopic dermatitis, flea allergy, food allergy, inhalant allergy, contact allergy, or bacterial allergy.

I’m especially sensitive to mold, jade ground cover, ant venom, and I may never suddenly change my diet or introduce a new and novel food to my diet otherwise it’s back to the noisy, slurping, obsessive, fly biting, foot licking obsessive behavior fur me.

If you are biting, chewing, scraping, knawing on yourself; if your skin is red, scaly and raw or your saliva output is so excessive as to stain your fur or you have licked and chewed a bald spot or have hurt yourself, this is serious and you need immediate medical intervention. GET THEE TO YOUR VETERINARIAN! Immediately! If not sooner!

OK, NATION, to recap, foot licking is a sign you may have an allergy or yeast in the ears.

Try the Epsom salts bath and soak, flush the ears with the 50/50 vinegar and water solution, (common sense home remedies), do the benign wait-and-see. If there is no change to the behavior, GET THEE TO YOUR VETERINARIAN!

I am still a foot licker. It relaxes me. But my behavior is completely under control with diet, exercise and the Epsom salts spa bath that I frequently write about in my blog. It’s a good thing! Now you try it!

Good luck Mr. Phelps. BOL!