rwinner Posted December 10, 2015 Report Share Posted December 10, 2015 Just wondering if anyone has seen this before. My 8 mo pup is suddenly trying to eat everything in sight. Grass, carpet, towels, things of that texture. Seems upset and whiny. Shes thrown up once yesterday (dinner) and this afternoon (a bunch of cotton/towel/grass she somehow ate...) Otherwise, she seems fine. pooping, pink gums, eating, seems to have normal energy... Going to see about getting her into the vet tomorrow, and am watching to be sure she doesn't eat any more strange things, but just wondering if anyone has seen something like this before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 I have one dog that has done that periodically since she was young (she's 14 now). She would literally try to gobble up dust bunny, bits of cloth, carpet, whatever. The first time something like this happened she had been working in tall grass that had seedheads. I assumed that she had some sort of weird allergic reaction. Benadryl seemed to work, so now whenever I see her frantically snatching at stuff, I give her benadryl and put her in a crate (to prevent her continuing to snatch up stuff) while waiting for the meds to take effect. This has occurred only periodically over the years and I never had her diagnosed with anything specific, but thought that it might be due to some sort of throat irritation. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon's girl Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 When Micah was a wee little thing, he had all kinds of intestinal issues, and snatching up anything he could get in his mouth was my cue that he was starting another episode. He is prone to IBS and has multiple food sensitivities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloria Atwater Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Could she possibly have some discomfort from teething? Maybe she's got some molars or something coming in that she's trying to appease, since you mentioned texture?~ Gloria Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentleLake Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 She should be done teething by now, shouldn't she? I suppose it might not be a bad idea to take a look and make sure all the puppy teeth are gone and the adult teeth have come in. Could be there's something that didn't fall out or come in on time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwinner Posted December 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 All her teeth have been in for a while now, thanks for the thought though. Woke up this morning to see she had literally eaten huge clumps of her own fur off, and vomited it back up. Still acting very hyper and agitated. We went to the vet but were unable to get to our normal one. The guy we saw wasn't helpful at all, really spaced out and gave zero opinions. Sent us home with tranquilizers and instructions to give pepto bismol, it was frustrating. If it doesnt clear up, we'll take her into our normal vet monday or tuesday to get an x ray and blood work. She is really food sensitive. When she was 5 mo she got sick, rashes, lost weight and stopped growing. We took her off of kibble and put her on raw and it cleared right up. But being on raw we have noticed she can't handle eggs. She had a lot of pork this last week which isn't normal for her, so I'm hoping she is just sensitive to that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwinner Posted December 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Also, anyone have creative ideas for keeping her from eating fur at night? we have a cone for her, but she can still get to her tail in it. I thought of getting her a muzzle, but I'd only want a basket muzzle for overnight, so wouldn't she still be able to get to fur through it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beach BCs Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 How big is the cone? My male injured his foot a couple years ago. The "correct" size cone still allowed him to chew the foot. I ended up buying the largest size cone possible. It looked ridiculous, but it did the trick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwinner Posted December 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 It's pretty big, I think the second biggest. She can just manage to curl her tail around enough to pick at it. Luckily the traquilizers knocked her right out, so hopefully that will keep her from eating everything until we can get it figured out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denice Posted December 13, 2015 Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 I would try to speak with some really experienced in raw diets. I wonder if it is missing something? I believe some of the vet univ have a service to help balance the diet, rather sure Cornell does. Would be worth a phone call. I believe pups go through growth spurt and are Hungry, have you tried giving her more or an extra meal? Is she cleaning up everything? I know quite a few dogs that do not do well on pork. Is all the meat frozen for an extended period before you feed? Seems to me they can pick up parasites from meat that is not frozen long enough to kill it, dont feed raw so not up on all the protocol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waffles Posted December 13, 2015 Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 If it is from the grocery store you don't need to freeze it. If it is say wild boar or deer you hunted, then yes you need to freeze it. You could get a cheap fecal done at the vet if you are curious. I would increase her food to see if that helps as long as she isn't having diarrhea. If she is getting a lot of variety in meats from different animals and enough organ (kidney, liver) then i would guess something other than diet. Let us know what your vet says if you do take her back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentleLake Posted December 13, 2015 Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 ^^ What Waffles says. Commercial meat raised domestically (in the US) is fine. I freeze any wild meat for at least a month before feeding. That's longer than recommendations, though, which I think is 2 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon's girl Posted December 13, 2015 Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 Two weeks at 0 degrees Fahrenheit for wild pork, longer if your freezer isn't cold enough. I do this with all wild game, except I also do it for a month. Pica, eating things that are not food, is usually from a mineral deficiency, like zinc, so checking to make sure the diet is balanced isn't a bad idea. Pica is usually associated with eating certain things obsessively, like drywall, dirt, chewing on chainlink fence, not grabbing whatever on the run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diane allen Posted December 13, 2015 Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 This may well be an adolescent pica issue - hopefully you are closer to solving it! That said, I'll share my experience but preface it with this: Mine was a 10 year old large mixed breed. He had always been an easy keeper, well trained, no issues. Somewhat suddenly, he started chewing (not so much ingesting, but some) everything - book bindings, blankets, table legs. I couldn't figure it out - until I found the tumor WAY back under his tongue. Even brushing his teeth, it wasn't a place I looked very often. He happened to be lying upside down (goofy boy that he was), and I noticed something odd. Turned out to be oral melanoma. This isn't a common cancer in dogs, but not unheard of. I'll skip the rest of the story, since I hope that isn't what you are dealing with. But if so - let me know and I'll share my experience. Do get her checked - thoroughly. Best of luck. diane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz P Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 Ripping out sections of fur and eating them is not normal. Am I correct that this dog is being fed a raw diet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwinner Posted December 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 Well thank you everyone for the advice and support. We were planning on taking her to our normal vet today for a full work up, but she is much better now. Over the weekend we switched her to just chicken and fed her more since she seemed so hungry, and fed some pumpkin to see if that would help her need to eat everything. Kept her on tranquilizers so she would settle and let her rest for a couple of days. Yesterday she was mostly better, just a little lethargic. Today its like nothing ever happened (except it looks like a two year old got a hold of her tail and butt fluff with some scissors...) Had the cone off since yesterday, no more eating fur or anything else. I doubt it was an allergy. When she was eating fur, she wasn't picking at her skin, she was getting long tufts of it on her back cutting molars and chewing until it was cut off. I think she only did it because she was in a crate with no access to grass or carpet. I'm really hoping that it was just the unusual amount of pork she got last week and it won't come back. She is on raw and we do use grocery store meat. She gets the most variety we can give her (chicken, beef heart, whole fish, turkey gizzards, pork and beef organs) as well as a multivitamin since I was concerned about manganese and iron deficiency. We feed raw mainly to control what goes into her since she is sensitive, and it has been a learning experience figuring out what she can and cannot tolerate. Looks like eggs and pork are out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentleLake Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 Make sure that pork wasn't enhanced. More and more often pork, chicken and turkey are enhanced with up to 15% (occasionally more!) added broth that's pretty heavily salted. You have to read the fine print on the package, and/or look at the sodium content on the nutritional label. Naturally occurring meat has about 75-85 mg salt per serving. The enhanced meat my have 4.5-5% more salt! And beware the label "All Natural." Salt is natural. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwinner Posted December 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 Oh wow, I knew it was an issue with chicken, so we watch for that, but never realized they did it to pork as well Thanks. Other than that, does her diet seem okay to you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentleLake Posted December 14, 2015 Report Share Posted December 14, 2015 Yes, it looks good, as long as you're giving enough organ, which is 10-15% with half of that being liver. Pork is a fatty meat, too, and some dogs require a gradual introduction to it, or even a small portion of pork along with bone or another meat. It's one of this things where you have to know your dog. If you remember where you got the pork and the brand, it might be worth going back to the store to check the label. If it did have a high added salt content you might consider trying pork again another time, making sure it's unenhanced and maybe a smaller portion along with something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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