Hiya

We've scissored away most of his fur on the part of his leg that is most irritating, and his skin is hard and scaly. It's in the exact same place that a needle was put in when he has his castration operation a couple of months ago, so I'm thinking if it's got something to do with that. We think he may have picked at it after his operation, and he's kept picking at it, which has meant that it keeps re-scabbing over. He hasn't touched it all day, but if you touch the area yourself, he gets chewy on your hand and is obviously distressed. I think we'll probably have to take him to the vet but in the meantime, we are going to try and prevent him from chewing it as much as possible to allow it to heal. His other leg is fine in this area (and he had one needle in the other front leg too).

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I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011

Could be something bacterial, or just that it was sore so he licked it, which made it continue to be sore, and so the cycle begins.

Have you got some aloe vera at all? Might help soothe it.

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I dont know if you have heard of acral lick granuloma. You can google it. I do not think this is what ollie has as he is a well balanced stimulated dog. But you might still want to research. If you go to the vets please keep us posted.

Unless you touch the skin, he isn't bothered by it. We have obviously touched the area today to look at it and clip the fur, and that's the only time today that he has licked it. We gave him a rawhide chew tonight so he wasn't bored, and he hasn't chewed his leg all evening. So I don't think it's really REALLY bothering him otherwise he would do it all the time, even if he was stimulated etc.

Can I clip the fur right down really short without causing any more problems to the skin? Or should I just leave it to try and heal on its own?

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I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011

I would hazard a guess it is to do with the castration in a way.
When the vets give i/v anaethetic sometimes the go thorough the vein and this can cause the some of the anaesthetic to go peri vascular and as it can be quite irritating this may have induced ur dog to start licking and making the surface skin sore.
If u can break the cycle this should be enough to allow the healing process.
Sometimes when this happens in solid coloured dogs the fur comes back a dif colour, in black dogs it come in white in colour pointed cats it comes back in what ever the oppisite colour is!

it does seem to have started after his castration (i don't think it was a huge problem before) but he did chew his paws sometimes (back and front) but it was always different ones so likely to be just boredom or a simple itch.

We'll try to prevent him licking it. We know if he's been licking it cos his fur is all wet there, so if his fur isn't wet, we know that we are succeeding.

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I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011