Eating feces

amysweet9599 · 05-27-2008, 10:28 AM

I've had issues with my 5 year old female eating feces in the yard, I clean it up throughout the day but sometimes I catch her going to town on it! I had this problem with her in the past while she was on CN Chicken and Rice but when I changed her to CN Herring and Sweet Potato it stopped. Just recently I changed her to EVO to try and reduce her yeast issues and I caught her doing it again! Is this due to the food change? What is it that she is lacking in her food to make her eat feces?! Help - I'm so grossed out!

**Doberdog** · 05-27-2008, 10:31 AM

I'll be interested in the replies. I have a 2 year old Shar Pei mix that is eating stool. No more kisses for her, except between the eyes.

DLS · 05-27-2008, 10:59 AM

This subject was brought up somewhere here before. There are many thoughts as to why some dogs do this. A bad habit which has developed and boredom are the most common cuses of coprophagy {stool eating} A pancreatic enzyme deficiency may cause a small number of dogs to crave the 'extra' ingedients that are obtained from eating stools. Rapid pickup of stools will help break the habit and increased exercise helps allevaite boredom. The addition of Adolph's Meat Tenderizer to the dogs food enzymatically changes the composition of the stool. Or a product called Forbid {?} or try the natural enzymes to help digest food that are available at most health food stores. The use of a highly digestible quality dog food will help.

Maybe put your dog back on the other food. ABout the yeast infection, is it the ears that are affected?

gracieface · 05-27-2008, 11:02 AM

friends with goldens have this problem and I was shocked when my german pinscher did it too, so it was suggested to me to add pumpkin to the food, which I did and haven't had an espisode since, the other suggestion I've heard is pineapple, something about these in the diet curbs the poop eating, don't know why, just that it works.

amysweet9599 · 05-27-2008, 11:05 AM

I would like to change her food back to prevent the stool eating but I changed her to the EVO to alleviate her yeast. The yeast started in her ears and between her toes but is now in her genitals and rear end. It was suggested I do the raw thing but didn't want to start that so I'm doing the EVO Red Meat instead to see if it works...

Funny thing is that when she was on the CN she didn't even look for the stool but it didn't help with her yeast, now I found a food to hopefully help with the yeast but she' back to eating stool!

DLS · 05-27-2008, 11:10 AM

Pineapple and papaya are great natural digestive enzymes.

DLS · 05-27-2008, 11:11 AM

How long has she been on the new food? ANd IS it improving the yeast problem?

amysweet9599 · 05-27-2008, 11:59 AM

She's only been on the new food for a week. I don't see any signs that it's helping the yeast just yet but I'm keeping my fingers crossed! I didn't want to give her anything besides her new food just yet because I want to see if it helps before adding anything new... Maybe the pumpkin will be ok though, she loves it too!

**JanS** · 05-27-2008, 04:59 PM

Boris did it too when he was a pup. The breeder said it was because they learned it from watching their mom clean up after them, but I'm not sure I buy that since I've never had other pups do it.

I had tried every remedy in the book, from meat tenderizer to different deterrents on the market, and finally when we started using the 8-in-1 brand, he stopped within a week or so. It may have been a coincidence, but that was distinctly when he completely stopped it.

We feed the Evo too, and they really do well on it.
If your girl already has an advancing yeast problem, you might need to take other steps before any diet will keep it under control though.

amysweet9599 · 05-28-2008, 08:51 AM

What is the 8-in-1 that you mentioned? What else do you recommend for the yeast besides the food and coconut oil? Also, with the pineapple, do I buy the can or fresh? How much at each feeding? She's 80 lbs.