Any ideas how to stop paw licking / chewing

CorvusCorax said:
Really, what countries?

Anecdotal I know but I've collated hundreds of sets of results over the years (including supplying lists of passes and fails to vets who took the x-rays) and I can tell which lines, by now, are going to throw up problems.
Even dogs graded as 'still OK' under the SV scheme, start to show signs of wear and tear relatively young-to-midlife, IME, compared to dogs with 'none' or 'nearly none'.
And it's much more apparent than HD, where dogs with even 'severe' HD I've known, weren't visibly lame until much later in life, if at all.
It's obvious harder with schemes which don't have a cut-off point/the concept of a breeding or competition ban.
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I think New Zealand requires PH (according to the breeders over there I have chatted with). I don’t like plain screening rads as hard /can’t see laxity.. I did plain rads on 2 BCs 10 years ago (neither young and both assessed by radiologist as normal ) and they produced severe HD in the litter (2 pups requiring THR).
I think it’s interesting that we don’t seem to have reduced the incidence of CHD v much by using plain screening rads.. (anecdotally and from what I’ve read, I sure see it just as much as when I 1st started practicing!)
 
KEK said:
I think New Zealand requires PH (according to the breeders over there I have chatted with). I don’t like plain screening rads as hard /can’t see laxity.. I did plain rads on 2 BCs 10 years ago (neither young and both assessed by radiologist as normal ) and they produced severe HD in the litter (2 pups requiring THR).
I think it’s interesting that we don’t seem to have reduced the incidence of CHD v much by using plain screening rads.. (anecdotally and from what I’ve read, I sure see it just as much as when I 1st started practicing!)
Click to expand...

I've never had a dog with HD or ED because I look back three/four/five generations and don't go for lines where a dog (with clear scores) is implicated in bad scores, is used, or is used in combination with a another line. Some people will take a chance because they like the other things the dog brings. Every time a bad score comes back I check the pedigree and there is always at least one dog that makes me go 'ah, that one'.

I think the breeding value number introduced by the SV (which takes into account ancestors, progeny and siblings) is a very useful tool. But that relies on everyone getting their dogs scanned and submitting them to the same scheme, which isn't so usual as it is in Europe.

It works if people study lines, but not everyone has that luxury (of well recorded lineage) and of course it takes a generation or two to know which the problematic dogs are.
 
My huskyXGSD female had itchy skin on any grains. Switched to strict grain free wet and dry food and it resolved. She did the obsessive paw licking too and was with us since 8weeks, fab wild outdoor freedom life, so no stress regarding environment.
The thing with her was even just a bit of grain set her off, so had to be careful with treats and make sure they were grain-free too.
 
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