Canine coprophagia is an event that does not seem to happen too rarely to our four-legged friends. For those who do not know the term coprophagia, it means that the animal eats his own excrement. Surely, the subject is not pleasant to deal with, but we can assure you that it is very common for many animals. The only exception are female dogs and cats who have had their puppies and deliberately ingest their feces.
Coprophagia is also common in other animals such as rabbits, rodents, pigs, horses and even primates. However, the issue is more significant in dogs as they lick (kiss) our face! Puppies regularly eat poop because they like to chew and will eat anything. The problem arises with the development of an habit. In some dogs it is a sign of a nutritional deficiency.
The reasons
There are actually many reasons explaining why dogs eat their own excrement. Sometimes there is an underlying medical condition such as enzyme deficiency or pancreatic insufficiency that can be of a genetic nature.
In the majority of cases it is caused by poor nutrition (we will cover this later in the article).
Even intestinal malabsorption or parasites are among the most common medical causes of coprophagia. The advice is, in these cases, to check your four-legged friend every six months in order to find out if there are any parasites in the intestine. Fecal examination twice a year can determine whether there are parasites in your dog's body and thus become a very useful tool to overcome this problem.
