My dog is 5 and has a diagnosed issue with anxiety.

The past four-five months, my dog has been obsessively licking herself. Not one particular area, but all over. Various spots. Took her to the vet, but because of Covid I couldn’t come inside. When they returned her to me, they said she has some inflammation in her joints (degenerative arthritis) and gave me anti inflammatory medication. The pills didn’t seem to help her. She continued to lick herself.

We took her back to the vet. They took her from me and I waited in the car. They gave her a stronger pain medication. Also didn’t help.

So they circled back to the anxiety issue and said she must be doing it because she’s anxious. They gave us medication for anxiety but all that does is make her sleep all day. I feel like that’s pretty cruel to just make my dog sleep all day.

She’s on a natural food diet. Her skin doesn’t look inflamed. She’s bathed regularly and she’s mostly indoors except when she likes to lay on the porch in sun spots. But she is constantly, CONSTANTLY licking herself.

Any ideas? What’s causing this? I’m frustrated because I can’t really properly discuss anything with the vet because of Covid restrictions. 😩