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Older Cairn, barking jags and belly licking/chewing


rfaulds

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Hello,

Our Duncan, a ~15 year old, male, 19 lb, Wheat cairn lately has exhibited extended barking jags and excessive belly licking and chewing.

The vet witnessed a barking jag during a visit and does not think pain is involved.

When he barks like this, he sits on his backside, and rocks further back, raising his back feet off the ground under him, and then barks and barks, sometimes completing a full circle while barking for 2 minutes or more. Afterward, he is fine and back to normal.

He also licks and chews his belly obsessively...to the the extent that his belly hair mats and also his chin hair gets stiff with all the extra saliva during the belly chewing. We've had to put a cone on his head at times when he just won't stop worrying his belly.

He still eats ravenously as usual and his urination and elimination are perfectly normal.

In between barking spells  he  behaves normally for hours at a time.

Blood tests are pending, the vet said it could be cognitive, with the advancing age.

But to us it seems more specific (rear and belly area) and perhaps some amount of distress or discomfort.

Has anyone seen similar behavior?

Thanks,

-Rob

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On the barking we have noticed that sometimes when our Cairns get old and are becoming deaf they go through a period of being REALLY LOUD.  Maybe not specifically a barking session like you describe, but I can imagine different dogs experiencing it differently. I think it's because they stop hearing themselves normally and maybe are trying to make up for it? I dunno! Interestingly once they are more or less profoundly deaf they become very quiet, mercifully, as they are no longer disturbed by noises of any kind, their own or external.

The licking thing I can't fathom. I hope the blood work and perhaps some persistent vet investigation offers insight. Among many other possible reasons sometimes licking is a stress or self-calming reaction. We had a dog who experienced "sundowning" pretty strongly starting around 16 and while his anxiety presented differently, it was intense in perhaps a similar way.

Good luck and thinking calming and loving thoughts for your old boy and his family. 

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  • 5 months later...

Toto gets 1/2 doses of children's strength Benadryl, per our vet's recommendation this Summer. 

Either he had a sensitivity/allergy to grasses, or sand gnats and the like were getting his feet and legs when he went out on the lawn (ha!  crabgrass! and assorted weeds are the major ground cover here!).  He'd come in, and gnaw and lick at his feet, and even if I rinsed them, he continued to worry with his paws.  I know from experience how badly all the little critters in the yard, especially in the Summer, can make one itch.  He's done well with the Benadryl.

If your Cairn has a 'funky' smell he could have yeast.  There are prescription shampoos to help with that, and you can dilute Listerine (only the original, golden-color) to use as a spray to help with the yeast once it is under better control.  Our first Toto had a yeast-y coat, and we were very careful with his diet.

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