EAting grass

[shatchp]

Hey all,

 

Ollie has been a grass eater since we've had him...loves the salad. I've always associated eating grass with dogs feeling under the weather, and in fact Ollie had a bout of giardia the first month we had him. (He was 4 months then, now he's 8 months.) Presently, he is giardia-free (two fecals said so), and was de-wormed recently as well. But, he's still going after the salad: at the dog park, in the front yard, etc.

 

What do you think? I tend to over-worry after losing a young dog earlier in the year to illness. Do your healthy dogs eat grass?

 

Thanks,

 

Sam

[OurBoys]

JJ and Jake both eat grass. I don't think anything of it. It's never made Jake sick and JJ's only thrown it back up once. Even our cat eats it.

[shatchp]

Good enough for me. I feel a little silly worrying about it, but it gives me confidence to hear from someone else...so thanks.

[Olivia]

We jokingly refer to Carlie as a little cow on occassion, she will just stand and eat grass and eat grass and eat grass. It's never made her sick and she's been doing it for about 7 years now. She seems to prefer nice young grass and will scorn old tough grass.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. I just make sure that I only let Carlie eat grass in areas where I know the grass hasn't been sprayed with pesticides.

 

Olivia

[Michelle K]

Rain and Nykie, both, love to eat grass. I worried about them at first, but it doesn't bother either of them, so I gave up. LOL

[clara]

Oh ya, Ling is a total cow about grass. Trevor sometimes tries to get her to stop, to which I respond, "oh leave her alone, she's grazing". It's never upset her stomach, and it's never seemed to correlate to any illness either. She also especially likes the young tender grass....yummie!

[luv2napp]

I wonder if it's the breed? Both of mine have always eaten grass since the day I got them. People laught when they see that and say they want to borrow Lacee to mow their lawn.

[nancy]

When folks ask what breed Fergie is, we often answer, "Holstein" - especially if she's grazing.

 

She's also very picky about exactly which blade she wants.

[Guest TheRuffMuttGang]

Mine all love to eat grass and it only causes a problem for Mojo. I suspect that's because he likes to go to the park and just eat and eat and eat. Then at 3am he pukes me up a pile of undigested grass. It never fails. Even if we go to the park first thing in the morning, he won't puke the grass back up until the middle of the night. The funny thing is he never pukes back up any of his food with the grass. It's always just a blob of grass...like it neither digests in his stomach or moves through his intestines undigested. It's sort of strange, actually, because my other dogs will just have green poop if they eat too much grass.

[sharkie]

both of mine are grazers, my bc prefers fruits and will pluck things off pear and peach tree and my lab prefers the...well... grass and weird brushes. never sick though clover would occasionally puke peach cores

[MagicGirl]

Magic is half Goat. She helps keep the grass out of my flower beds. She eats some every day and rarely gets sick. She will occasionally hack some up, always right after she has been eating it and she does it in the flower bed so I don't have to clean it up. Such a good dog.

[Shetlander]

I wonder if it's the breed?

 

I wonder that too. There are 4 other BC's in Quinn's "play group" and sometimes all 5 of them will be eating grass at the same time like a little herd. Only one of them ever seems to get sick from it.

 

[sharkie]

OK LOL try this for those who have google search bar that gives search suggestion...

 

type "dogs eat" and the first suggestion will be "dogs eating grass". This is ahead of chocolate, poo, grapes etc. Maybe it's more prevalent we've thought

[sluj]

My Allie-mutt does it. First thing she does in a new place is sample the local fare. I've never worried about it, though I do have to monitor her other veggie intake -- too much gives her gas.

[sharkie]

good point

 

Watch Out What Grass Your Dog Is Eating

 

Unless your dog is in the habit of regurgitating grass on the dining room floor, there's no reason to worry about it. Dogs have been eating grass for thousands or tens of thousands of years, and there's no evidence at all that it's bad for them. That isn't the case, however, when grass has been treated with insecticides, herbicides, or other chemicals. Most products say on the label whether they're dangerous for pets. In any event, you should certainly keep dogs away from grass soon after chemicals have been applied. Most products break down fairly quickly, but they can be quite dangerous if your dog eats them while they're fresh.

[DebC]

Whew! What a relief to read this thread - Janie is a grass eatergrazer. I always thought it was because they had an upset tummy. Bo usually just grabs bites of 'salad' here and there as we walk, but Janie makes a meal!!

Glad to know it's not terribly abnormal!

[Mudpups]

Glad to hear its 'normal', I always thought it was because they were feeling a bit sick:) Taj is eight weeks today and eats lots of grass. Well he tries to eat everything (sand, rocks, gumnuts, weeds, bricks, shovels, carpet etc) but he has a particular fondness for grass. Some of it just comes out through the other end!

 

Michelle

[BCBaxter]

I have an english springer that eats it constantly. We ended up having to rush him to the e-vet when he became so bloated that he was in pain. They had to knock him out, lavage (sp?) his stomach and put him on antacids. They brought up nothing but grass. We also had to withhold food from him for 24 hours until he could have a bm on his own. When he finally did...it was grass twisted in a perfect knot!

 

Since we noticed that he would run outside and eat grass whenever anyone came over (frustration?), we have taught him to go and grab a toy to keep in his mouth before coming outside. This has helped tremendously. While he still grazes from time to time, as long as a toy is in his mouth-he won't.

 

My aussie will pull chunks of grass up as he runs, but rarely eats it.

[BCjetta]

All my 3 eat grass too. Jetta will go out for hours grazing and never has an issue. Turbo doesn't have a problem either. Hannah has the same problem as Debbie's Mojo. She'll eat a bunch and it sits in her stomach. I feed her and the food goes through but the grass sits and then it comes up, always in the middle of the night. It almost looks like a cat hairball made of grass. One time she kept vomiting in the mornings but nothing would come up. It happened for a week or so before I took her to work and we looked down to her stomach with the endoscope. We could see a wad of grass in the duodenum just going out of the stomach. I guess it would go into there and get stuck because it was too big and then move back into the stomach. I gave her a bunch of laxatone and it must have moved through. Because of her issues, I try to prevent her from eating grass.