here is what I found.
I do not consider dogs eating grass to be a bad thing. I do not know what
nutritional benefits there might be in eating grass but I have only seen
two serious problems from eating grass and they both were cases in which a
pet (one dog and one cat) ate grass and subsequently vomited it up, at
least we think that was what happened. In each case a blade of grass ended
up in the nasal passages and led to a strong foreign body reaction and
infection. The positioning of the grass in the nasal passages is what I am
basing the theory of it being vomited into the nasal passages rather than
inhaled into them on. This is obviously not a common problem.
Whether or not eating grass indicates that there is some underlying problem
is a much harder question to answer. If it does, no one that I am aware of
has been able to make a consistently reliable connection between the grass
eating and a particular medical condition. There do seem to be some dogs
and cats that eat grass when they feel nauseous or have gastro-intestinal
problems but there are so many dogs and cats that eat grass with no
problems at all that it is hard to make a strong connection between grass
eating and gastrointestinal discomfort in pets. It is even harder to make a
case for nutritional deficiencies or other things that people have worried
about based on this behavior.
My personal opinion is that most dogs and cats that eat grass do so because
they get some satisfaction from it and that it isn't an indication of a
problem of any kind most of the time.
Mike Richards, DVM
5/12/2001 |