Coprophagia

Hi, my 14 years old westie started to eat his feces a few weeks ago. The vet gave him probiotics ( Fortiflora) on his annual checkup because he was having very soft stool. He's on a raw diet and recently he started to having soft stool when we feed him raw beef. We stop giving him beef and give him probiotics for 6 weeks. A few days after we started probiotics, he started to eat his poops every now and then. We past the 6 weeks now and he still doing it. It's now 1 month after the end of the treatment. Nothing else change on his diet, no weird behavior, no environmental change...   All the bloodwork was normal.   Is there something that we can do for that behavior? Thanks

Hello - Eating stools tends to imply either fear, illness, or an unmet dietary need - so thats a pretty broad base to narrow down.   I suspect that you would be aware of changes within your dogs' 'pack,' or if for example they don't want to poo outside in the cold because their joints are getting old, so they poo in an inpppropriate place (from the dogs point of view eg nearer the house/ another dogs territory) and then try to hide it by eating it.  Dogs can start to eat their own faeces if they are told off for defeacating in an inappropriate place, or if there have been changes in their 'pack' dynamics (therefore poo site).  There are certain nutrients that may be better maintained by recycling the poo.  It is fairly rare for a healthy well-fed dog to resort to this, but it is sometimes seen in some kinds of liver problem, hyperthyroidism, diabetes or in cancer where dogs simply get hungry anyway.  I have not encountered many older RAW- food only dogs, so it may be worth asking your vet to check that all their dietary needs are being met.  Obviously I dont know what tests have been done or to what end - it may help to ask your vet to talk you through them.  Questions like, 'What is most likely to be causing this?'  'Do we know a good list of possible causes?'  'How can we rule the remaining differentials out?' are usually good ones, in order to get a handle on where a vet is up to with a case.    I hope something there helps.

However, if not - please do let us now what is found in he end!  Sometimes a vet will refer the case to a specialist, should they need further help to solve it.  As a vet, I always get a lot out of speaking to lab pathologists, who get to see cases the ldngth and bredth of the country and can offer a lot of support with the detective work.