Why is my dog licking her rear?

I found this on Goolge for you; I hope it helps. It seems this could be occurring for a number of possible reasons.

Such as:

Anal Gland Issues
Intestinal Parasites
External Parasites and Allergies
Skin Infections
Grooming
Anxiety

In short, because this could be any of those issues (or a combination of them), I would suggest consulting with a veterinarian. Obviously if it is just a grooming routine, that is nothing to worry about. Get it checked out, in either case.

She was like this before the vet visit and after and she’s groomed regularly. She’s actually a calm dog normally. She listens pretty well and isn’t hyper. I had the vet check her for the very reason that she may have come in contact with some virus or bug. The only time it seems to change a bit is her food. Only, I’m not sure if its from pooing too much or maybe a reaction to the food.
You know, like the way people get an irritated anus from pooing to much. I figure dogs probably have that same problem.

@Pandora I see. Have you had a conversation with the vet about the particular food your dog is eating? As far as I know, there are certain fresh meats that dogs can actually eat. Again, check this out with your vet to be sure. Maybe your dog does have a food allergy. She might need to avoid certain ingredients.

So, am I getting this right:

Pandora’s dog eats favorite food, licks herself
Pandora changes food, licking stops
Pandora’s dog resumes licking
Pandora takes dog to vet
Pandora’s dog gets anal glands expressed, but continues licking

Is this it?

In that case, yeah, it absolutely sounds like the food is the issue. In general, why do you think pooping a lot is healthy? What’s a lot, and how often? Are your dog’s stools firm and dark? They should be. Fruits and veggies are not necessarily healthy for dogs in large quantities, and dog food labels can be tricky. What’s in there besides the fruit and veggies?

I am not a vet.

@longgone, I’ve tried other foods and they would make her constipated a although she would poo daily she would have a really hard time pooing and part of the problem I think was that she didn’t want to eat a great deal of those other meaty foods. So I figured it could give her hemorrhoids.

So we changed to another dry dog food that she loves to eat and it has more fruits and vegetables with chicken and she loves it. I figured the extra fiber will make her poo more and she has and they are not hard and dry and she doesn’t strain, but now she goes about 3 times a day and also eats more. The poo comes out yellowish, but the dry food bits are yellow and orange looking.

I don’t think her current pooing is due to an allergic reaction but rather because she eats more. It’s low in calories and she is not fat so I feed her extra because she will eat it and apparently it doesn’t fill her like the other foods, or she really just didn’t like the other foods. The other food would keep her full longer but she ate very little and I think it didn’t give her enough fiber in her diet.
The only other food that I know she will eat without any problems is soft foods but that’s not good for her teeth. Vet doesn’t recommend soft food for dogs. More chances of getting dental diseases.

Is the obvious solution mixing the old constipation food with the new poo-tastic food?

Maybe if you get the mix right, you can get her down to one healthy dump a day that’s firm but not too dry?

If she’s going three times a day you’re basically buying poop in a bag.

Any time you change your dog’s food you should be doing it gradually. Switching from High Fiber So Much Filler And Bits to Paleo-Dog Low Carb Special is obviously going to result in constipation. Her digestive system isn’t used to it. It would be like you switching from eating Subway sandwiches every day to nothing but shrimp cocktail.

Protein is filling and will result in drier feces. Cheap filler is going to lead to processing lots more poop, for little nutritional benefit to the dog.

I, too, am not a vet

It really doesn’t sound like this is a good food for your dog. Constipation is not right, either. I, for one, don’t agree that dogs should only be eating meat. That’s what wolves do, yeah – but we’re ignoring 14,000 years of domestication, if we pretend dogs are wolves.

You just haven’t found the perfect food yet – for some dogs, it takes a while. If you tell me what you’ve tried, I may have an idea.

Check out this image: http://cdn.akc.org/poop-infographic1.jpg

I think try a combo of new food and old food, as already suggested, or a totally new food. When I eat foods or vitamins that constipate me I just eat a small handful of raisins that day to counteract it. I don’t eat three meals of just raisins.

Well I tried the half and half and so far no extreme pooping and butt licking so far and she ate the whole bowl full. So we will see. Thank you all for your input.