my akita bits her feet till they bleed

Question
Hi i hope you can help, i have an akita she is 2 years old and she has started biting her front paws till they bleed, vets have said that she could be alergic to her food i have changed that and she still does it, anything you can recommend i can try on her to me i feels like her pads are very dry, could that be anything to do with it? thanks

Answer
Your dog could have some sort of obsessive-compulsive disorder, demodectic mange, or more likely it is some sort of allergy.

Allergies are either environmental or food-related, and the only way to be certain which, is to have allergy tests run on her and to put her on a restricted diet. If it is food-related, simply changing her food may not help. What if you change from one whose primary protein is chicken and you change to another chicken product... and she is allergic to chicken??? http://www.canobolasvet.com/site/view/116064_Eliminationdietforfoodallergies.pml
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+1587&aid=504
http://www.vet4petz.com/articles/allergies.htm
http://www.peteducation.com/category.cfm?c=2+1587