Has it happened that you are preparing a meal, watching a movie or working on your laptop and your dog, out of nowhere, starts to lick the floor frantically? Every corner, every aisle in search of, surprisingly, hairs !?
When it’s an occasional behavior, something that has happened a couple of times in months, years… you may not have anything to worry about but, if you’ve noticed that your best friend is constantly displaying this behavior, it could be indicating the presence of an underlying condition.
Eventually dogs eat grass during their walks as a measure to purge themselves: inducing vomiting, to get rid of some element that’s causing them abdominal pain, upset stomach, gases, nausea or colic.
In case of having few opportunities to enjoy outdoor spaces, dogs appeal for a second resource: hairs. Licking cumulus of hair and lint on the floor helps them create a stomach disorder severe enough to provoke vomiting and remove the foreign object that bothers them.
However, when this behavior is repeated non-stop: licking the floor, carpet, walls, even their legs, dogs could be manifesting a severe case of anxiety: Lack of physical activity, few mental challenges, lack of excitement, a high level of stress, perhaps stressful routine changes are causing your anxiety to soar.
On the other hand, Cushing’s disease, neurological disorders, and liver disease may trigger licking floor episodes. These symptoms may present due to an organism inability to absorb food properties.
If you’ve evaluated your dog’s routine and discarded that his daily activities may be generating stress or anxiety, if you have checked his food nutritional intake is adequate, a visit to the vet it’s essential to perform lab tests, and rule out medical problems such as the ones we mentioned before.
