Garlic and Frontline Together?

Hi everyone.

I fronline Floob every month to 6 weeks as advised. He's never had fleas to my knowledge, btu my cats have so I keep them all under control as I don't want an epedemic!

Anyways, Floob has terrible OCD with cettain things, most of which we just live with now. However, he has one that's annoying. He constantly nibbles and licks at his legs. I say 'shoulder' but it isn't, it's the joint between his body and leg. Now, it started at the beginning of the summer when flies were around him, once... since then it's just whenever he thinks to do it.

He'll be in the middle of playing and suddenly act like he's being bitten and start nibbling frantically. He's been checked over, by me LOADS of times and by the vet, and there's nothing there.

He has a thing for 'bits', bits of anything, that's why flies are a problem to him. He has a tiny black spot of fur in the area he nibbles at so I think that's gets his attention. He does it to the other leg too which is totally black, so it really is a 'tick' (the vet's term)

So, my idea now, after trying everything else, is to rub some raw garlic on the area. Not a silly amount, just enough so when he goes to lick he stops short. I've used garlic flea remedies before but didn't trust them totally so went to Frontline. All I'm thinking is that if there is a stray flea it could get rid of that too.

I'm clutching at straws here people lol.

Does anyone know if a little raw garlic rubbed on his fur would do any real harm? The theory of course is that he won't like or lick it so it'll washed off after hours.

 

I dont know about garlic, but they do say when things like this are OCD to help break the chewing cycle is to have them wear a cone and you could try those claming devices that plug into the wall and emit those smells that help calm them

 

and there are are itch stop sprays that can help that also have a taste deterrant to stop them. are you sure its not his diet? but you did say it startediwth teh flies

 

I was reading up a little on this recently because of my own dogs behaviour and there is some great information on the link Im posting, its long but covers just about every aspect of the compulsive disorders in dogs, including going back to when it first started, the owners reaction to the dogs behaviour etc, heres a couple of excerpts from it.

"If the pet displays the behavior in the owner's presence, the goal is to ensure that no reward is given and to interrupt the pet so that it can then be directed to perform an appropriate alternative. Distracters might be a horn, citronella spray, water rifle or can of compressed air."

"......if the compulsive disorder is causing no apparent physical harm to the pet, it might be best to consider this a relatively benign mechanism for coping and to allow the pet to continue the behavior. Of course, any conflict and understimulation should first be identified and resolved."

http://www.dermapet.com/articles/art-18.html

What Ive done if the problem isnt too severe is the non-direct distraction, when the dog is doing the behaviour I might cough, or 'open the page of a newspaper'....something that will make a noise but not the same noise every time and not something that 'has anything to do with the dog' but is enough to cause a pause in the behaviour. Obviously this only works on some dogs, the problem can need a lot more work than that.

I dont know about the garlic, I am wondering though if it is a compulsive disorder and the dog for some reason 'cant' get to the site it usually goes for, whether its physically prevented or as with sprays, topical agents, it may find another area to target.

 

I'm not sure garlic would be a deterrent. My dogs eat garlic tablets every day and consider them a treat!

With compulsive behaviors such as chasing shadows, I have always heard that the thing to do is to distract the dog onto another behavior. For instance, when the dog sees a shadow, you train him to go get his ball and bring it to you. It interrupts the cycle. I would think the same thing could apply here.

Border Collies are notorious for compulsive behavior.

 

Thanks for the replies.

That article looks pretty good at a quick glance. I've bookmarked it to read later when it's quiet around here.

My vet told me about that plug-in aroma thing too, so I'll have a look for one of those. Anything's worth a try.

Since day one we've used the 'distraction' method for everything. He's a quick learner so usually if something hasn't worked after a few times (days or whatever it takes) then it isn't going to. I've tried the water shooter too, and ignoring it happeneing. We did that first, then after a couple of weeks went to distraction. Nothing seems to be breaking it.

Floob doesn't like garlic, or mushrooms, so that was why I thought of it as a deterant. I'll read that article first and see where to go from here.