I have a 1 and a haf year old chihuahua cross and a 2 year old Pomeranian cross. Also a cat. The chi got very ill in Feb this year, from eating the poms and her own poo! She also ate the cat poo (stole it from it's litter tray) boy did I learn to keep that out of her sight! I clean up after them both immediately, but can't do it 100% of the time like when I'm at work.
She somehow got salmonella poisoning, very rare for dogs to get this. The vets can't explain how, my other dog was fine and they always ate the same food- supercoat and mydog tin food. I put it down to the poop eating, that was the only thing she could really get to. I kept a very close eye on her the entire time.
The salmonella gave her a bad case of IBD - inflammed bowel disease which made her constantly vomit and have pure bloody diahhrea as her intestines were swollen red and inflammed. It was extremey frightening. She spent 2-3 days a week in hospital, for 3 months and in May we began to get it under control. She is on a special strict diet now, and will be for the rest of her life as IBD is controllable but not cureable. So far the vet bills have come in at $4k for the 3 months she was in and out of hospital, all the tests they have run and iv fluids she was on everyday to keep her hydrated.
Nowadays she still sneaks in the odd poo into her diet (silly girl!) which gets her tummy upset, but I try keep ontop of it by feeding them when I'm around so I know I can clean up immediately!
Try avoid the poop eating, it may seem harmless but if your unlucky it can do some serious damage
Sorry if there are any errors in the post, done it on my phone!
Last edited by modmommy; July 17th, 2010 at 11:47 PM.
I used to work at a vet clinic and we sold this powder called Forbid. You put it in your dogs food and it makes their poop so bitter they don't want to eat it anymore. It worked a charm for a number of our poop eating clients.
Modmommy - SCARY! I'm trying so hard to keep the backyard clean, but often when I get home from being out, there are traces of eaten poo on their hammock . Weird that your dogs were eating supercoat too.
Twin Sister - thanks for the tip, I'll go and ask my vet about it.
Both my pets were on Supercoat Dry food, but only the one has been having the tummy upsets, and she is the only one who continues to eat the poop if I don't clean it up in time (even her own!)
She is now on a very expensive diet- Hills 'ZD' Allergen free Wet food ($4 per small tin) and Dry food ($70 per 3 kg bag). It's all she can handle. She still gets a slight tummy upset every fortnight or so but it's manageable. I also add half a teaspoon of a natural pro biotic to her food every day which I buy at the vet clinic. It helps her tummy deal with bacteria when she does eat what she shouldn't etc.
Twin Sister- The sad thing is because she has IBD (not sure if the IBD bought on Salmonella, or the reverse) she has to be on the above diet for her entire life. The slightest change in food and she is off vomiting/ diarrhea again. At one stage she had a sore foot and the medication for that even set her off so we had to stop it immediately. She just has really sensitive guts...
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