Precious!

Question
Hi! Am looking for any info online before taking my miniature schnauzer in to the vets soon. She was a year old in August and up until now have not had any problems with her whatsoever. She has been licking all four of her feet so badly that they are soaking wet. This goes on mostly at night before we go to bed, she sleeps with me. Throughout the day I'm seeing her sitting on the floor with her head looking up in the air, like she's staring at something, but there's nothing up there. Both these things just started within the last week or so, the licking has been getting a little more pronounced, the staring up is about the same. She also seems to be wanting to go into hiding now - like kept trying to crawl under the sofa and stay there so I had to nail a piece of molding trim onto the frame to keep her out of there. There has been no one around here who would have abused her in any way for her to be fearful. We have no small childrens, all grownups here and all love her to pieces. Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated, thanks alot. Laurie  

Answer
Assuming that "good ol' Uncle Albert" isn't visiting from the Great Beyond (don't laugh, I have heard that dogs can sometimes "see" spirits....), my first guess might be an ear infection causing her to look up at the ceiling, or maybe even small seizures. I wouldn't think the foot licking would be from the same thing, but it is unusual that these symptoms/behaviors all started about the same time. Foot licking is often a sign of allergies (which ear infections can be from, also), so I guess that is what I would have the vet investigate first.

Karen