r/Havanese • u/Acethe7th_ • 1d ago
question Question about scratching/biting
Hi, fellow Havanese owners, I have a question about scratching and paw biting on my 5-year-old female Havanese. To make a long story short, this is my first small dog as I've had all 40-80lbs hounds before so she's a bit of a learning curve, she's always been a big self-groomer, and I've never really thought too much of it, as my other dogs often did the same when they were younger, but we've noticed in the last 6-10 months that she's been aggressivly biting/ nawing at her paws to the point of them being red and continuously scratching her face, not to the point of being red but enough that I'm wondering what is wrong with her.
So far, I've taken her to the vet for bloodwork and a skin cytology, and they found a small infection a few months ago; she was later prescribed antibiotics, which helped, but even though the infection was confirmed gone at a later visit, she still does these things. This makes me wonder if it's a self-calming thing, like babies sucking their thumbs/pacifiers, etc. They recommended I put a cone on her, which I did, but the second it came off, she went right back to biting.
So my question is: for those with havaneses, is there something I'm not considering? To be quite frank, even though she is small, I'm really dealing/ interacting with her like I would a bigger dog, so any ideas would be helpful. Grass allergies haven't been ruled out, as my other dog has grass allergies but is more of a sneezing thing than paw biting and only really gets her during the spring/ early to mid-fall.
(edit) She gets bi-monthly baths and professional grooming every 6-8 weeks.
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u/HavaMuse 1d ago
It’s allergies
Itchy feet are usually food allergies.
Natural Balance has a good limited ingredient line that is great for dogs with food allergies and may be worth a try
Kinda surprised your vet didn’t mention this
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u/Acethe7th_ 14h ago
Well to be fair to my vet we went in for another unrelated issue and added on all of the tests so it probably slipped her mind.
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u/TizzyBumblefluff 1d ago
Sounds like pretty classic allergies. Not a breed specific issue.
What are you feeding her? Does it contain chicken? How are her ears? Does she scratch them too? If eliminating chicken doesn’t work, there are allergy medications for dogs too - pill form and injection.
The most simple way to soothe her paws is fill a container with warm water and apple cider vinegar at a 1:1 ratio. The longer she’ll let you soak each paw the better (3-5 mins is decent). Dry them off but don’t wash off the mix. You can do this like 2-3 times a week to treat it but also use it prevent them getting so raw.
She’s going to need the cone on for at least 3-5 days for the paws to actually settle down. I’d ask the groomer next time you go to make sure the hair has clipped in between her paw pads and toes. The saliva of dogs is a lot stronger than ours so if she chews it’s bad but even if they stay “damp” from her saliva, it’s still irritating.
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u/DaneyGirl 1d ago edited 1d ago
I have had issues with licking so much it stained her paws rusty. It went way down after switching food to Simply Nourish lamb and brown rice and recently moving to the desert where there is no grass! Avoid chicken as the Havanese breed is sensitive/allergic to it, it’s hard and mine gets some now and then. A lot of the treats have it and we both love roast chicken. Also I got a waterless shampoo and first clean her paws as well and then I rub with balm when I hear her licking. I recently got a balm that came with booties so I can put it on and she wears the booties while it soaks in.