|
Welcome to the YorkieTalk.com Forums Community - the community for Yorkshire Terriers. You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. You will be able to chat with over 35,000 YorkieTalk members, read over 2,000,000 posted discussions, and view more than 15,000 Yorkie photos in the YorkieTalk Photo Gallery after you register. We would love to have you as a member! Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please click here to contact us. |
|
| LinkBack | Thread Tools |
10-11-2013, 09:12 PM | #1 |
YT Addict | Lolli is eating stuff off the ground! She's not a young doggie as most of ya know so it's a bit strange. Never have done this before until we switched her to a new low fat food because she's a bit overweight by a few lbs. We were instructed by our vet and also on the food packaging to feed 3/4 cup (per her body weight) while losing and then 1 cup when she's at ideal weight. So we feed her the food, which is only 1/4 cup less than normal but she seems like she begs a lot for food and then all the sudden she's eating WORMS off the ground, dried worms... Why is she doing that? Is she really hungry? I should mention she had been given a steroid recently for a back problem, but she had this steroid a couple months ago and didn't seem to do this. We changed her food after that first steroid so I'm not sure if that's the problem or something else... any thoughts?
__________________ Lollipop my Pretty Little Princess |
Welcome Guest! | |
10-12-2013, 10:06 AM | #4 |
Don't Litter Spay&Neuter Donating Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: So Cal
Posts: 9,874
| IDK, I guess it would depend on your dog...18% is pretty low & that's including protein coming from veggies, if there's potato, peas, etc if it's in the food. How about some plain boiled chicken breast as treats, if vet ok's it?
__________________ |
10-12-2013, 10:14 AM | #5 |
YT Addict | I do give her some treats for joint supplement, I'll see what kind of protein is in that too. I just started giving them so I'm wondering if it might help stop the worm eating. She's NEVER done this before but I checked with the kind of food we were feeding prior to the switch and that was crude protein min 26%. So there's 8% missing and she was fine on that, so 8% would make her eat worms (haha this makes me laugh because of that old saying)? Just seems strange. I'll try to get some more protein in and see what happens!
__________________ Lollipop my Pretty Little Princess |
10-12-2013, 10:27 AM | #6 |
Don't Litter Spay&Neuter Donating Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: So Cal
Posts: 9,874
| I don't want to scare you, but stop her from eating worms: Capillaria plica Infection in Small Animals: Infectious Diseases of the Urinary System in Small Animals: Merck Veterinary Manual Capillaria plica may infect the urinary bladder, and occasionally the ureters and renal pelvises, of dogs and cats. Distribution is worldwide, and wild animals appear to be the primary hosts. A similar but less common organism, C felis cati, is also found in cats. Dogs and cats become infected by eating earthworms that contain the first-stage larvae. Mature Capillaria are threadlike, yellowish, and 13–60 mm long. The eggs are colorless, operculated, have a slightly pitted shell, and are 63–68 × 24–27 μm in size. Most dogs and cats are asymptomatic. Some animals show signs of pollakiuria, urinary incontinence, and urinating in abnormal places. The eggs are shed in the urine and may be found in the urine sediment. Microscopic hematuria and increased numbers of epithelial cells may also be present. Reported treatments include levamisole, fenbendazole, albendazole, and ivermectin. The treatment of choice is unknown, but a single dose of ivermectin at 0.2 mg/kg, SC, is likely to be effective. It is not FDA-approved for this use and is contraindicated in Collie breeds. The parasite may be self-limiting in the absence of reinfection.
__________________ |
10-12-2013, 12:28 PM | #7 |
YT Addict | We don't want her to eat worms nor do we promote it. We look on the ground everywhere ahead of her but somehow she finds them where we can't see them. It's possible she's eating grass or dirt or other bugs sometimes I don't know. She'll suddenly have a few chews and we don't know where it came from because we looked and hadn't seen anything before she walked in that spot. I have NO idea how to stop her from doing it. We never see her eating live ones that's for sure. She's small so live ones would be too big and we'd certainly know what she's eating at that point, not just a few chomps and that's it. But when they are dead and dried up they are not very big at all. This is what she seems to be doing is eating the dried dead ones :/
__________________ Lollipop my Pretty Little Princess |
10-12-2013, 01:40 PM | #8 |
Don't Litter Spay&Neuter Donating Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: So Cal
Posts: 9,874
| I know, it's hard...luckily we live in a condo w/ no yard, but when we go to my aunt's house, I have to watch them like a hawk. Repeatedly tell them not to eat anything & chase them down & pry their mouth open to see what they have in their mouth! lolll Does she know the drop it or leave it command?
__________________ |
10-12-2013, 02:24 PM | #9 |
Resident Yorkie Nut Donating YT 20K Club Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Texas
Posts: 27,451
| Dogs eat worms! I have one that will dig for them! I never knew this was common until I saw someone post about it on a yahoo list and then everyone was talking about their dogs tearing up their lawns digging for worms. I did put a fence up around my banana trees because it was a constant battle to keep Adina out of there...must be fertile soil for earthworms. Anyway....the only concern that I found is the soil could hold bacteria. So...I did stop her from it. As for why....I never found the reason. Just like they guess about why dogs eat grass, why they eat worms is just a guess.
__________________ |
10-12-2013, 06:58 PM | #10 |
And Rylee Finnegan Donating Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Metro Detroit, MI
Posts: 17,928
| Because it started after a food change, it is probably dietary. She should do fine on 18% protein. The actual requirement is lower. Are you sure she isn't just really hungry? Is this an rx fiod?
__________________ Crystal, Ellie May (RIP), Rylee Finnegan, and Gracie Boo🐶 |
10-12-2013, 10:09 PM | #11 |
YT Addict | I dunno if its "Rx" specifically, I mean iVet is vet distributed only but I don't know why, it's just a reduced fat diet food. It's not got anything special in it that would indicate it needing to be sold by a vet. I thought it was odd. But yes, I get it at the vet only. I feed her a chunk of wet food 2x a day, one on morning and one at night. Just like a tablespoon full. We also switched this to a lower fat but I'm not sure the protein on it. I think it's by Hill's. I just found the lowest fat one that didn't have a crapload of filler and one that had meat first on the list and not a bunch of "by product" etc. So she's probbaly getting more than 18% with that plus her joint supplement which doubles as a multi vitamin. I think she's hungry, because she's always begging. SHE NEVER USED TO BEG EVER, even when we've gone through periods where she's needed pill medication that she'd get in a treat or whatever, she'd never beg. So normally we were feeding about 1 cup of food. Now we are at 3/4 per instruction for losing weight. She was 10 lbs and some oz I forget how many, but wanted her down to like 7 since her patella, he said it could help her greatly to reduce weight a bit. I didn't know she was overweight until we shaved all of her hair off. She was a bit chunky!
__________________ Lollipop my Pretty Little Princess |
Bookmarks |
|
|
| |
|
|
SHOP NOW: Amazon :: eBay :: Buy.com :: Newegg :: PetStore :: Petco :: PetSmart