Poor Maggie has lost her appetite! At this stage of her pregnancy she should be eating about 3 to 4 small meals a day. She is not normally a fussy eater so when she startred to turn away from food I knew something was wrong. I decided to tempt her with all her favourite foods first, like mince beef and chicken. Sadly not even her favourite treats were tempting enough. So a visit to the vet was arranged and off we went. The vet examined her but could not find any fever or major discomforts. He decided more testing was required and asked for a stool sample. That was going to be a problem, as Maggie wasnt eating, she wasnt "pooping" either. The vet suggested a course of antibiotics which seemed to help as she started eating small hand fed portions by the end of the first day. I then became vigilant watching her every move hoping to catch the all elusive sample.
It was then I noticed that Maggie was chewing/eating garbage she found in the garden, sticks, leaves and poop! YUK! I know right? She was eating all kinds of poop too, bird poop, frog poop and even gheko poop. When I saw her eyeing and sniffing at the other dog poop I picked it up as quickly as possible then rang the vet with my findings. He told me sometimes dogs eat poop because they are lacking some vitamins or minerals and that it was natural for them to ingest their own waste matter to enhance the bacteria in their gut so as to aid their digestion. However, it was unusual for them to eat bird poop and other types of poop. I felt terrible that I had let Maggies health tumble to a stage where she needed to eat poop for her nutrients. (I did a bit of research on the subject after that and will publish my findings in the next blog.) My vet suggested a worming regime which I carried out immediately. Not only did I treat the pets, I treated the family too!
When Maggie eventually passed some poop of her own two days later, I collected it and sent it off for testing but no bacteria or worms were found, thank goodness! She is back to eating 3 small meals a day and gaining weight, but I have made my own dog food up for her which has all the nutrients and minerals she needs for her and her puppies. I havent seen her eating poop again but I am still very observant.