If you write about dogs or live with dogs, then sooner or later you will be writing or talking about poop. It just goes with the turf. It’s my day for that, and I have good news about poop.
As some of you know, Bud, our re-homed dog from Arkansas, came with some surprises and new challenges. Rescue dogs are a crapshoot under the best of circumstances, they can be a string of surprises.
Yesterday, Bud leaped up into the air near a marsh and snatched a small bird leaving its nest to look for food. He held the bird in his mouth and dropped it when I shouted at him to leave it, the bird flopped down into the marsh and died .
Gus, our first Boston Terrier, never did anything like that, nor have any of the other dogs I have had. This was hard for Maria and I to watch, but Bud, sweet inside the house, is ferocious outside, a true hunter with enormous prey drive.
He wasn’t being cruel, he was just being a dog. But it was not fun to watch, we were both upset. Part of the challenge of living with animals and also of rescuing them.
Bud’s other problem (in addition to marking furniture for months) was enthusiastically eating poop – his and Red’s and Fate’s. Every day, every chance he got.
On a farm, this raises some health issues, because the dogs can pick up worms and parasites easily. Bud was having accidents in the house, we realized he was just eating too much between the food and the feces, and his intestines are short, he can’t hold food inside of him for too long.
Bud grew up living outside in a small pen, he eliminated right where he sat, ate and slept. This was a hard nut to crack. We tried all sorts of home and vet-recommended recipes, from pineapple to pumpkin, none of the worked. This week, a breakthrough.
Carol Johnson, the dog rescue person in Arkansas who saved But and got him well and shipped North, said the vet who treated Bud recommended sprinkling all the dog food with meat tenderizer. You might want to check with your vet before getting it for your dog.
Bud sniffed it the first few days, all three dogs are eating normally now.
I never heard of this solution, but ordered some and it has been going on all of the dog’s food all week, every meal. Yesterday and today, we noticed that Bud wasn’t eating dog poop any longer. He would go up to it, sniff it and walk away.
It’s early in the game, but I think it’s working.
We’ll give it a few more days, but this feels like a big break. Sometimes, you get advice you can use.
I would be interested in how the meat tenderizer is working. Our dog, eats poop whenever she can find it -hers.
So far, so good..two days..
Uh … Crapshoot = Pun-of-the-day?
Adolph’s no salt meat tenderizer did the trick with my shih Tzu’s. something to remember is some Indian tribe in the southwest U.S. the name for dog in their language is translated too poop eater in English.
Same!
I certainly hope this works. Dog owners are asking me all the time why their dog eats poop and what to do about it.
I have never had an answer for them I wonder if it only applies to dog poops–if Bud will still be interested in hen,
donkey and sheep poop?
We’re not feeding it to the chickens and sheep, so that is still fair game for him. Just the dogs.
What kind of tenderizer ? I have a Jack Russell terror…I meant to write terror…that eats wild turkey poop with wild abandon. Occasionally it leads to three days of sickness. I wonder if the tenderizer solution would work to stop this disgusting habit?
I just get regular Meat Tenderizer, Cynthia, its just some powder…
Never heard of this but giving this a try on our Beagle. Thanks!!!!
Meat tenderizer is MSG, which is really bad for humans. I can’t imagine it is good for dogs. It is obviously doing something to “tenderize” the food and help it digest, but I fear the cure may be worse than the problem over time.
We’ve discussed it with our vet…
It’s a myth that MSG is unhealthy for humans. Is has exponentially less sodium. Sodium is much worse. Check it out. Google: “is msg really unhealthy?”
I don’t my medical advice from Google Marty but trained doctors who know me
Bud probably killed more than one bird as I suspect it was nesting in the marsh. Eggs or young usually are abandoned when 1/2 of the pair is gone.
Yup. That’s what happens when momma birds get killed..