Expert: Kaza - 5/3/2010

Question
My Bichon Frise is 7 months old. He had an ear infection and we took him to the vet. He also at the same time starting excessive licking on his paws and has red stains from the saliva around the mouth and paws and tear stains. The vet said it is just a cosmetic problem but I was wondering what we can do to get rid of the stains? He has been on flea and tick preventative also as I thought that maybe the licking is due to itching and skin allergies due to fleas and ticks. It does not seem to make a difference. How do we get rid of the red stains around his eyes and mouth and how do we keep him from licking so much?

Answer
THis is not just a cosmetic issue and is likely an intolerance to something used or eaten initially.
Start an elimination diet and gradually introduce more natural foods, try staying away from the dried foods which are laden with additives, use omega oils in the diet and these can be sourced from oily fish and canned pilchards etc.
I would also make contact with www.bichonhotel.co.uk who stock our products to make the staining hopefully less of a nuisance.

www.eurobichons.com is our site if you need to talk through how to do elimination diets, natural diets etc and we only ever give advice after we have done them.