Coprophagia Medication New Haven CT

Q. I am hoping you can shed some light on a recent problem that has developed with my 6-year-old male retired racing Greyhound. He has suddenly found that eating frozen poop (his own and others) is a tasty treat. He weighs 80 pounds, and I feed him two times a day at the rate of 2 1/4 cups per feeding. He is on a mix of Turkey and Barley Pro Plan and Nutro Lamb and rice given in even quantities each feeding. He also gets four snacks a day. People are telling me that his new poop-eating habit could be the result of a vitamin deficiency. Could this be so? If a deficiency is the case, could you recommend a vitamin for him? I really do not want to change his diet as it took me some time to find the right one for him. He was having a problem with diarrhea on a regular basis, and this food mixture seems to have solved the problem. In case you are wondering, I did have him checked for parasites while he was in his diarrhea phase (especially had him checked for giardia but nothing was found). A. You have brought up a very disturbing and mysterious behavior in dogs known as coprophagia, or eating of feces. I like dog kisses just as much as any other dog owner, but there are situations which can dampen the pleasure.

The ingestion of feces can cause serious medical risks, including intestinal parasites such as roundworms or giardia, as well as unwelcome bacteria such as salmonella.

Author: Jon Geller, DVM

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