Chewing paws

[jazzybaby]

My dog has been paralyzed in her back legs for about a month now, she is recovering from IVDD surgery and has about a 50% chance she will walk again. We have been doing home therapy with her a few times a times a day and have started noticing her legs stiffening and she has even started kicking them when we tickle her toes. She can sit up and lay back down now with no help and can pull herself across the floor to her toys or to follow my husband and i. We are getting ready to start laser therapy in the next week or so which we hope helps. However the past two days we have noticed that she has been licking and even chewing her back paws we stop her so she can chew any sores. Her vet did not say anything about why she was doing this when we told him i have read it could mean that feeling is coming back and she is could be getting a feeling like when your leg or arm falls asleep. Is this true?

[critters]

It's VERY true. Buddy got "itchies" on his back and would bite them with a vengence. Neurontin/gabapentin did the trick for him, and we even had to extend it several times.

[CarolC]

The chewing is a temporary phase some dogs go through during recovery from paralysis. He will get over it, but right now you need to insure he cannot chew (with an e-collar if necessary) and I would get the gabapentin ASAP as critters mentioned.

The thing is it might seem kind of innocent but dogs can do real damage that way. We've had members come home to blood everywhere more than once. One dog had to have surgery on his foot.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5254&p=28758&hilit ... ted#p28758

A couple of dogs have chewed their male area.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10910&p=63931&hilit ... nis#p63931
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12546&p=65205&hilit ... nis#p65205

One dog chewed through his ligaments.

http://www.handicappedpet.net/helppets/ ... =4&t=11598

Dogs have been euthanized because they did too much damage (while the owner was asleep or not home).

Just so you know how important it is...