Sometimes you can be surprised when you see your poodle eating its own poops. This is called coprophagia. Poodle can behave this way, despite how old and what kind of breed it is. The reasons for doing it and the methods how to stop it are unknown. Therefore, here is coprophagia analysis and given some advice how to prevent your pet from this bizarre action. We give some outlook for this, to be more precise, what can cause it and the consequences. Of course, we provide you with useful advice and proper home medical treatment to prevent eating feces.
What causes eating poops?
There is not any accurate explanation concerning this topic. Although there are some assumptions, which are probably may be a reason of this problem. It is not likely to be a malnutrition problem because very often dog simply does not finish its meal to substitute it for poops. There is another problem, such as low quality food it consumes. We all perfectly know that dog food consists of fillers which bring nothing but harm to dog organism.
This is very profitable for those who produce dog food, but it can be dangerous for pet health. Have you ever noticed a huge amount of food which your poodle eats, however, the desire to eat more is present? The simple explanation is little percentage of nourishing food. The poodle tends to seek and swallow everything they want. This can be either plant or poops (no matter if they are your dog or others). Nevertheless, feces of its own are not supplied with all compounds it needs, as it seeks for it. So the only way out is to look for them in other dog poops. One more point about it is moving low-quality food which hard to digest through the body in a circle. While indigestible food is about to go off the body, the dog swallows it again. It is a huge topic to speak. All in all, try to control what kind of food your dog is given. Demeanor is the really crucial question. You should be aware of your dog behavior peculiarities. Maybe, your knowledge lets you prevent this strange act of eating poop.
Misconceptions
People’s belief that dog eats its own feces in order to hide the proofs should not exist anymore. This idea is impossible, except for the situation in which you yell at your dog for housebreaking.
One more false believe is that puppies follow their mothers. It is well-known fact that dams eat their children’ poops. This is a quite natural process of taking care of offspring. Three-week puppy is self-sufficient enough to take care of itself on its own. There is a small probability of remembering something from puppies early childhood. So this myth about following mother’s example is failed.
Here are some real reasons causing eating feces. Idling being home alone for a long time your dog can suddenly come up with idea to taste something new, such as its feces. Boredom is a logical consequence of stress. Feeling down and quite absent can make your pet eat poop. By the way, it is closely connected with separation anxiety. Barking, whining, chewing can be simply substituted with eating feces.
Your dog views may be deluded by misconceptions that feces are special things which need to snatch quickly. To some extend, this is true. Remind yourself your reaction to your dog defecation. You start to clean extremely quickly running to the poop as if it is your prize you were fighting for. Also, puppies may think that it is a game Who Snatches First. You can read how deal with these misconceptions.
Does eating poops cause a serious threat?
It makes sense that eating poops really develop some disorders. Sickness level relies on various conditions. There is a possibility of getting sick of eating its own poops. It happens very often as a consequence of worming process. As a result, new worms can be born in dog’s stomach again. Digestive trouble is a well-connected consequence of eating poops. According to the fact that dog eats indigestible food, elements of which move away from the body, while dog swallow it again so that bad bacteria moves in a circle. By the way, illnesses caused by bad food can accumulate in the dog’s body and turn out in a serious disease in a while.
If your dog vomits after eating other dog’s poops, it is more threatful. Your pet can have a lot of new diseases in addition to what it already has. Be on the alert about whipworms, hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms, parvo, corona, giardiasis, Salmonellosis, cryptosporidiosis and campylobacteriosis. It may happen that dogs eat cat feces, especially when dog and cat live together. Ring the alarm when your dog has such bacteria as clostridia, salmonella and campylobacter.
Medical terms we should know as coprophagia provocation
Eating feces causes anemia, a disease characterized by iron lacking. Only a vet can say that your dog has this illness as there is not any prominent signs of it. In general, you can notice how tired your dog is, its decreased ability to do exercise, poor appetite and lightening gums. The other illness is diabetes. You can easily notice it when your dog is thirsty, and, as a result, often need to pee, lose its weight despite having a great amount of nutrition. If your dog feels sick, has diarrhea, bad appetite, fever or lose its strength, it is likely to be inflammatory bowel disease. Dogs usually eat poop for the sake of getting the nutrients they lack. Solid waste from your dog bowels is an appropriate thing for your pet to substitute all their shortage. That causes your dog to have intestinal parasites. In order to this see that your dog has a biannual stool test.
Clumsy walking, too much of head shaking, nervous and unsteady behavior are the neurological disease symptoms. It is not an exception that this may be caused by eating feces. If your dog suffers from skin and coat problems, it may be no other than thyroid disease matter. You should know what kind of vitamins your dog need to be healthy. If you buy high standard food, it contains all your dog need. See that your home-cooking food consists of a variety of vitamins and minerals. Do not let your dog suffer from vitamin and nutrition deficiency. Look after its coat, skin, teeth, muscle, behavior and defecation process. If you see any declensions, you should be on the alert.
It is important to watch what you are feeding your dog. There are plenty of dog food makers and it is very easy to be misled in our choice. Remember, good food is not obligatory to be popular. Do not economize on prices. It is usually a low quality product when it has a low prices. Good products would never cause coprophagia just because it is easy to digest and contains a lot of chemical substance necessary for good health without any fillers.
Here are some example of harmful fillers for your dog. Animals digest together with fat can be extremely dangerous for your pet. If you see that the food you have bought contains animal fat without naming this animal, be careful with such food. Sick, killed, drugged animal can be in food for your dog. Beef tallow, brewed rice, cereal food fines, corn bran, corn distillers, dried grains with soluble, feeding oat meal, corn or wheat gluten, oat, peanut, rice hulls and lard consuming are extremely dangerous for your pet. Chicken, beef byproduct inappropriate for us such as necks, feet, bones, intestines, eggs, genitals are harmful as well. If you see a naming containing word ‘meal’, for example, soybean, fish, corn, liver, meat & bone, meat, blood, pork, poultry meal, it is better to change or throw away this food. All in all, steer clear of these ingredients. It would be beneficial for you to know at least names of these harmful products. They are phosphoric acid, potato product, soybean mill run, soy flour and wheat mill run. Coloring and preservatives such as BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, propyl gallate, blue 2, red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6 stop your dog to eat poops but they are terrible allergies cause.
Protect your dog from danger
If your pet eats its feces outside your house, keep an eye on your pet move. Being on their own they do whatever they want, including eating their own poops. It is usually explained by curiosity. Teach your dog how to walk on leash. It would be useful for your dog. It is the easiest way how to make your dog not to eat poop. If you teach your pet how to react to “Leave it” command, this will come in handy not only in this situation with eating feces but also in others.
Being home alone, your dog is not under your control. So this is quite dodging situation. Tips about food additions can help you. Also, there are some steps how to cope with separation anxiety.
Preferring cat poops
If you have the opportunity to place cat’s urine and poop box available for your cat and hard to reach for the dog. You can set it on the washer or dryer. For little poodles a good tip is set this box inside Rubbermaid container and make a hole for your cat to fit but not for the dog.
Preferring other dogs poop
Walking on leash is the easiest and controllable way to avoid this situation. It also helps you to keep your dog away from its bad friends, injuries and being lost. Do not forget about “Leave it” command. Prove that there is nothing interesting in dogs feces. Clean after your pet very patiently. Do not make your dog think that poop is very important reacting to this process very exciting. Praise your dog when it does to the right area to get rid of poop. All in all, do not make a lot of fuss about this natural process.
Some supplements
You can read about home methods of avoiding eating feces. Basically, for some dog it works while does not for others. You should carry out experiments to figure out what of these methods are suitable for your pet. Admittedly, some elements works for your dog in any way. With time passing it is getting used to it, so you have to substitute.
There are already estimated additive below.
One point for hot sauce. Never use it for dog food. Dog’s mouth cavities can be burnt. In addition, the dog will be afraid of eating. If we talk about using it as a treatment, it is very active help for avoiding eating feces. You can cover dogs feces with it, so your pet will not have any desire to eat them. Some people say that it worth to let your dog try them with a hot sauce, but it is unfair towards you four-leg friend. Mind you, there are some better methods.
Pineapple has two points. The poodle is allowed to eat this rich in manganese and vitamin C fruit. Pineapple has a lot of sugar, nevertheless digest is made quite slowly because of the fiber content. Therefore, it is absolutely beneficial to give this fruit for your dog in a small amount. Bromelain, a proteolytic enzyme, help absorb protein and digest food. Exactly because of bromelain pineapple can help eating feces.
It is good to suggest for your puppy two pineapple slices for each meal. For grown-up toy poodle two slices are also enough but for miniature poodle three is good while for the standard it is better to add four or five slices. You can also squeeze pineapple.
Meat tenderizer have two points . Just because having papain in tenderized meat, it can stop your dog eating feces. Protein-digesting enzyme gained on unripe papapya is called papain. Moreover, tenderizing meat is a good help in undergoing digestion.
It is not proved information that papain makes the food smell and taste bad, so they prevent your dog from eating feces.
You should remember about monosodium glutamate (MSG) that are in meat tenderizers. It is believed to be consumption safe, but it is a controversial question. Some people claim that this element can cause health problems such as headache, blushing, excessive sweat, numbness, false pain, sickness and strength lose. This is why it is better to avoid using products with MSG.
Pumpkin has also two points. But it concerns only real fruit in cans, not filling for pies. It is a good cure for sickness, diarrhea and other intestinal diseases. There are some ideas that it can prevent your dog from coprophagia.
Supplements
There are well-spread supplements which can cure coprophagia. Some can be very effective for a poodle. They are good to eat, have a good taste, and make poops tasting extremely disgusting. It really deserves to try these methods just because of moderate price. You can read about them below. They are rated on descended order.
Forbid, a purified protein feed, makes stools taste neutral. Wheat Gluten and mentioned earlier MSG are its active ingredients.
Easy to chew pills Deter contained MSG and Oleoresin Capsicum (good addition to spicy food) is not advisable for containing MSG.
Potty Mouth has no MSG. Brewers Yeast, Cayenne, Biotin, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B6 Niaciamide, Iron and Copper are Potty Mouth ingredients. This pills are easy to chew and sold by moderate prices.
NaturVet Coprophagia Deterrent Soft Chews are natural medicine and suitable for most of the dogs. Yucca Schidigera, Parsley Leaf, an Enzyme Blend and Chamomile are active components. Brewer’s Dried Yeast, Dried Potato Product, Glycerin, Lecithin, Vegetable Oil and Water are ingredients as well. This product has one more good advantage. It is about getting rid of dog bad breath.
To sum it up,
It is always a difficult question to figure out what causes eating poops and how to get rid of this habit. All in all, it is possible. The only thing you need is to be aware of dog organism peculiarities and be patient with stopping this problem. Very often it is a matter of reciprocity of several elements in order to cure this disease. You should keep your eyes open on what your dog is eating, be sure you have limited the access to poops and take care of dog emotional conditions simultaneously. Do not forget about food supplements and you forget about what the coprophagia is.