Dogs are our furry, cuddly, and loyal lifelong friends. When you choose to welcome a dog into your home, you’ll inevitably learn many new things about how to take care of and live with a dog. But when they start exhibiting strange behaviors like eating poop, it may be time to introduce some tactics to stop them.
If your dog eating poop and throwing up becomes a regular occurrence, you must find out whether this is a sign of something more going on with your dog’s behavior.
Why is Your Dog Eating Poop?
Eating feces, their own or other animal’s is no strange behavior for a dog. From time to time, your dog will eat poop because they like how it tastes. It results in awful breath and even bad hygiene from your dog.
Causes of Your Dog Eating Poop:
- Coprophagia is an ordinary condition that creates the urge in dogs to eat poop and does not mean your dog is suffering from any illness.
- Puppies can grow up with the habit of eating poop, and while they might grow out of it over the years, many continue to eat poop even when they grow up.
- Lack of sufficient digestive enzymes means that there are undigested nutrients in your dog’s poop. The nutrients attract them to eat their poop.
- The presence of a parasite can also hinder your dog from getting proper nutrients and trying to ingest their poop as a way to compensate for nutrient deficiencies caused by parasites.
- Anxiety and stress can also lead your dog to behave erratically and eat poop.
Consequences of Your Dog Eating Poop
If your dog eating poop and throwing up is happening quite often, you are right to worry that it may be an indicator of something seriously wrong with their health.
If your dog eats other animals’ poop and throws up, it can be due to parasites and bacteria within the poop. Not only is it a health problem for your dog, but it can also even be transmitted to you.
Lack of proper enzymes in a dog’s diet can also lead to them throwing up after eating poop. If your dog has suddenly started behaving erratically and eating poop, you should visit the vet to root out the problem with your dog.
How to Deal with It
To compensate for the lack of proper nutrients or vitamins in your dog’s diet, you can look into incorporating supplements into their daily food. You can also use stool softeners to prevent your dog from ingesting any of its poop.
You can also discourage the action by physically removing your dog from where they’re pooping and from other animals’ poop. It will eventually become learned behavior for your dog not to eat poop.
You can try other blatant methods, such as spraying a mixture of water and vinegar onto poop to discourage your dog from eating it or rewarding your dog every time they do not eat poop.
If your dog has been eating poop or even other animals’ since the beginning, you may chalk it to a behavioral problem. However, if they suddenly start throwing up or eating poop, see a vet for a proper diagnosis.
