I discovered that dogs with this condition seem to respond very well to the addition of hydrochloric acid and pepsin at every meal. Taking care of it is one thing, but I wanted to stop it entirely. “We went back and forth to the vet many times,” says Volhard, “and each time he was okay. The examination and x-rays showed that DJ had suffered no damage, but he went on to experience several more episodes, including one in which he ate large quantities of autumn leaves. Volhard treated him homeopathically and did acupressure on his stomach meridian while someone drove them to the nearest veterinarian. He had swallowed more than half of one before she could get him out and untangle the mess.ĭJ was the portrait of a dog going into bloat as he stood panting with his head down and his left side brick-hard and slightly protruding. Years ago, Volhard’s Briard, DJ, was with her at a training camp, and when she returned to her room after teaching a class, she was horrified to find DJ pulling curtains through the top of his wire crate. This is true aberrant eating behavior, and in every case I have observed, the result has been bloat.” If confined indoors, they may eat the fringes of carpets, curtains, and whatever else they can reach. “When they are outside and a bloating episode is about to start,” she says, “you sometimes find them eating grass, leaves, and dirt without stopping. Wendy Volhard, author of the bestselling Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog, has observed symptoms of pica in dogs who have a tendency to bloat. Within a week, the puppies from both litters stopped eating dirt. In addition, they suggested adding bone meal to the diet fed to the pups. Panzik and her husband do energy balancing, so they worked with the pups and their sire energetically to correct the problem’s underlying causes. “I am in the field of alternative medicine, and I see a lot of similarities between the physical condition of some dogs today and autistic children.” “Pica is often demonstrated in autistic children,” she says. She recently dealt with two litters born within a month of each other that were sired by the same stud dog, in which the puppies at age 12 to 16 weeks showed symptoms of pica, including the consumption of dirt. In Riverside, California, Jacki Panzik has been breeding Standard Poodles for 15 years, feeding a raw diet and using minimal vaccinations. Other conditions that can coincide with pica include hair loss, dry or flaky skin or coat, pigment problems, infertility, eclampsia or other problems with pregnancy or whelping, birth defects, bone and growth problems, anemia, fatigue, muscle spasms, irregular heartbeat, respiratory illnesses, allergies, digestive disorders, immune system problems, slow wound healing, glandular disorders, and chronic ill health.Īdvocates of home-prepared diets often claim that a well-balanced raw diet eliminates or prevents pica, but occasionally the condition occurs even in well-fed dogs. Treating the patient with an improved diet supplemented with plant-derived colloidal minerals, digestive enzymes, and probiotic foods cured the pica within 21 days, and the dog had no additional seizures. In one case, a female German Shepherd Dog had a history of licking wrought iron and eating Christmas tree lights and glass. Schulman discovered that an “astonishingly high percentage” showed significant manifestations of pica. In a review of the medical histories of patients diagnosed with epilepsy in his clinic, Dr. In the May 1996 Journal of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association, Martin Schulman, VMD, reported that mineral deficiencies often contribute to the development of seizures. When pica is caused by a nutritional deficiency or imbalance, other symptoms accompany the condition. In addition to using positive reinforcement to encourage dogs to consume appropriate food items and leave other things alone, a few simple adjustments to the dog’s daily fare may solve the problem. In many cases, improving a dog’s diet and/or digestion has resulted in significant behavior changes. Most veterinarians consider pica and coprophagia behavioral problems having nothing to do with nutrition because their patients are fed a 100-percent nutritionally complete canned or packaged dog food.īut while it’s true that you are what you eat, it’s even more true that you are what you absorb, and not every dog has a perfect digestive tract. What causes these canine eating disorders, and what can be done about them? Dog owners more frequently complain about another disturbing habit of canine consumption: coprophagia (pronounced cop-ra-FAY-jee-a) or “dung eating.” Though dogs with coprophagia may eat only deer droppings, cat box contents, horse manure and the like, people are most horrified (and frustrated) with dogs who eat their own or other dogs’ stools.
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