Old Dog Eating Dirt

[woodbyne]

Hi

I have just adopted an old girl dalmatian shes had a large number of puppies going by her saggy under carriage and is quite old she will stay here to live her last days/months and hopefully years.... I was wondering why her poo was so dark compared to my other dogs then this morning i have discovered she eats dirt and also charcoal from our outdoor open BBQ thats not used often. Is this a problem. She eats a combination of Eukanuba, mince and vegies and rice. I'm wondering if shes lacking something in her diet or its just something she has always done

Thanks

[MolassesLass]

It can be a sign of missing minerals in the diet.

Is the mince you are feeding all meat (no bone)? If so, then I would be feeding more edible bones to balance the phosphorus and calcium she's getting. Things like chicken frames, lamb ribs, chicken/turkey wings etc.

[Nekhbet]

you can also try adding the Vets All Natural canine nutritional powder to her diet when you give her mince. It will balance out her diet and give her any minerals she is lacking

[woodbyne]

We rotate between chicken mince its a pet one that is basically grinded bones and meat and the mince one is that same she also gets a chicken frame every 2nd night and the alternate night a lamb bone of some discription left overs from the abbatoir from our lambs. So i'll try the powder see if it makes nany difference

Thanks

[KitKat]

Good chance she's been missing the minerals etc for a long period of time - so it can take time to rebuild such to normal amounts. Also it could have become a habit for her as well as much as anything else.

[matilda1]

Hi, firstly THANK YOU for adopting

I would suggest running some bloods and that way you know exactly what she is lacking. It could be quite costly and time consuming trying to get to the bottom of the problem, and most regular Vets charge about $60 or so for a blood profile.

Then you know what you are dealing with and can address the problem correctly from the start.