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alimentation

Nutrition: Dog Eating Disorder

16 mars 2022 2 min de lecture
Alimentation : trouble alimentaire du chien

Diet: eating disorder 

Questions about your dog’s diet? You’re in the right place!

What should I do if my dog won’t eat?

There are many causes of anorexia in dogs. The most common are fever, sexual excitement in a male in the presence of a female in heat, or food competition when a dominant dog prevents another dog from accessing the bowl. Any deterioration of food resulting from improper storage is also a common cause of loss of appetite. Nevertheless, apart from these situations, a dog that is not eating should be taken to a veterinarian.

My dog eats too much

In this case, the dog is said to be suffering from bulimia. This may be related to fear of not having enough food (food competition between dogs), a neurohormonal imbalance, boredom, a diet insufficiently concentrated in energy, or a digestive absorption disorder. Measuring food intake, output (the dog’s feces), and weight changes, along with carefully observing the animal’s behavior, will initially help the owner provide the veterinarian with information to guide the diagnosis toward one of these possibilities.


I don’t know what else to do—my dog eats absolutely everything

A dog’s consumption of inedible substances is called “pica.” The occasional ingestion of grass, consistently followed by vomiting, is not associated with any psychological disorder or nutritional deficiency. Although people often say that the dog is “cleansing” itself, it actually has little significance beyond play. However, when this behavior intensifies, it very often signals the onset of gastritis (inflammation of the stomach lining). True pica, on the other hand, involves licking walls and floors or eating soil, and in most cases reflects a “depressive” syndrome. In this case, the dog must be treated, and its living conditions should be reviewed as a priority, since they are often the underlying cause.

My dog eats its feces. What can I do to make it stop?

Coprophagia is when a dog consumes its own feces or those of other dogs. Except for mothers, who naturally lick their puppies’ feces to clean them, this behavior in dogs is generally linked to the fact that the feces they consume contain undigested nutrients that still have residual palatability. The first priority is therefore to look for a digestive assimilation disorder in the dog that produced the feces being consumed (often the dog itself, incidentally), by having the stool analyzed to check for the presence of undigested fats or starches, or possible parasites. This phenomenon can also follow excessive food consumption, which reduces digestibility by exceeding digestive capacity and speeding up intestinal transit. In this case, simply reducing the daily ration is enough to restore normality. Finally, some dog breeds are predisposed to coprophagia, including large breeds such as German Shepherds, which are frequently affected by pancreatic insufficiency.

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