Dog Community

Grass Eating

Posted : 6/2/2006 8:01:41 AM

       My recently adopted 6 year old 10 pound toy poodle has a sensitive stomach, I already figured that out. I've kept him on the diet he had in his previous home, Nutro Lamb and Rice small bites, because that's all he can tolerate. Any tiny addition and he experiences gastro distress. A small piece of cooked chicken can upset him very easily.

    My question is, he has times when he is frantic to get out to the yard to eat grass, tons of it, and will spend a good half hour out there at that activity, almost obsessively in pursuit of grass to eat. He's out there right now. Before he begged for the door to the yard, he was sitting near me and I could hear his stomach noises.

    Do dogs eat grass because their stomach is bothering them or is their stomach bothering them because they eat grass? Any suggestions on what I may to do help this one's digestion? Don't know if its relevant, but: When at the vet this spring I had a pre-op blood screening done on him, just to get a baseline, and the vet said that one of the numbers on his liver function was slightly elevated, not anything to worry about, but something to watch.

Thanks

forpaws

Posted : 6/2/2006 8:06:19 AM

Hi Angela,

It is not really known why they eat grass but some suspect it is like us drinking a soda to calm down our tummy. And others say they eat grass for enzymes they are lacking. Not really sure on the answer here but poor little thing. I feel for him.
Keep an eye on those elevated levels for sure.

pb_n_chocolate

Posted : 6/5/2006 8:55:42 PM

My dogs arent as for lack of a better word....."frantic" to eat grass but when were out for walks they will always take a nibble and a certain kind of grass...not sure what kind or if they find it in the yard they will eat it aswell- not sure why though....

angelamarie

Posted : 6/6/2006 3:55:18 PM

It's very apparent from my boy'd behavior that he gets the frantic grass eating compulsion when his tummy is upset, and it doesn't take much to have that happen. We are very careful with his food and treat intake, but the other night he got a hold of my other dog's flossie (dried beef tendon) and ingested a bit before we caught him. The next morning he was frantic to get out and eat grass and then had bowel problems.

jessies_mom

Posted : 6/6/2006 4:21:13 PM

Jessie's system is sensitive too but not as bad as your guy; she used to do the same thing but since we changed her to a food with digestive enzymes ( Eagle Pack Holistic) she rarely has a problem. You can buy enzyme supplements such as Prozyme to add to your dog's food; it may be worth a try. Also, adding a little yogurt to the food helps.

Hope Lumbis

Posted : 6/6/2006 8:35:18 PM

Although it is not 100% known why dogs eat grass from my experience with reading as well as with personal experiences I have seen dogs eat grass for 3 main reasons.

They will eat grass to make themselves vomit, to relax their stomach or to help in digestion.
It is not a bad thing for them to be eating grass (obviously as long as it has not been treated with pesticides or such)

I hope that helps out a little bit.

angelamarie

Posted : 6/6/2006 9:06:07 PM

Thanks for the info Jessie's Mom and Sasha. I think I will look into the digestive enzymes, although I am shy of changing his food. We've got him to the point where his bowels are normal, not exploding at 3:00 a.m. and not urgent. I hate to mess with that formula.

I'm fairly certain he eats grass because his stomach is upset, because he only goes on these forages after having ingested something outside his normal, strict diet. It takes so little to set him off. He never vomits after eating the grass, it just seems to go through. Since we don't use pesticides or anything on our lawn, he's free to chomp away.

jessies_mom

Posted : 6/6/2006 9:46:54 PM

oor little guy; I think adding digestive enzymes to his food would help but you could add a very small amount and work up to the recommended amount and see how he does. For Prozyme you only add one quarter teaspoon for a cup of dog food; that's the enzymes we added to Jessie's food before changing her to Eagle Pack. Jessie used to go running to the door and start eating grass as soon as she got outside; usually she didn't vomit the grass back up but she would once in a while. She doesn't tolerate kibble with corn, venison, or a lot of grain very well but other than that does pretty good. Has the vet suggested anything to help?

angelamarie

Posted : 6/7/2006 9:12:42 AM

The vet has been helpful and first he directed me to have him on the Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice kibble and canned--he felt it was very well tolerated by dogs with sensitive stomachs. It has helped alot. The vet told me if that wasn't helping, then to slowly transition him to Purina Pro Plan for Sensitive Stomachs. I have a sample bag of that in the closet, and it's #1 ingredient is salmon, I guess that is considered highly digestible.

Since we seem to have things normalized at the moment, I'm going to stay with the nutro and probably add the enzyme you suggested so as to give him a more comfortable tummy. Poor little guy can't have much other than his kibble and a bit of the canned, and if he's over fed just a bit, KABOOM. It's a very delicate balance, perhaps the enzymes would help with that.

Thanks for your advice.

jessies_mom

Posted : 6/7/2006 8:27:44 PM

You're welcome; I hope it helps. Could he have irritable bowel syndrome? Lori's dog Willow has it and she has to be very careful about what she feeds her.

angelamarie

Posted : 6/7/2006 9:34:48 PM

He may very well have irritable bowel, as his problems never include vomiting, just bowels, sudden and urgent. What ever we name it, we seem to have the right formula for control at this point, and so I'll go along with that.

His previous owner reported that at their home they had to be sure to let him out within 5 minutes of eating or the results would be disastrous. We have greatly improved from that baseline, as he is having regular bowel movements at the same time every day and is able to wait to be let out if necessary (that is unless he eats something off his strict diet.)