Scrounger

[Treener]

Ok, some of you may know but for those of you who don't here goes.

Skadi is a BAD scrounger!!! She will pick anything and everything off the ground and eat it. While on a walk I have to keep her in a heal with her head up as she will pick anything off of ground and swollow it. I have to watch her ALL the time. Erik is not so good with watching her and if she does pick something up, I run over and open her mouth and literally pull stuff out of her throat, Erik on the other hand once its in there then he doesn't try.

Skadi loves stuffies but she cannot have them, she will tear them apart and eat it and if she rips it and she sees you coming she will swollow the toy WHOLE!!! We have woken up many a moring to her puking up a whole in tact stuffie.

So to make a long story longer. When Skadi as eatern anything bad she has always thrown it up at 6:00am in the morning BUT it may not be the next morning it has been weeks later sometimes. But I always know when she has gotten something bad as her poop gets a bit soft and she starts to fart a lot and that is my signal that she has eaten soemthing bad and she will throw it up.

So this morning at 6:00am she started to gag, I got up and did my usual where i rub her on the back to southe her while she is getting sick and sure enough she through up a big ball of junk. It usually comes up in a wade as the objects get tangled up in her fur that she licks off the floor!!! The lists of this mornings contents were: intact ketchup package (Erik and I don't eat ketchup, so i have to assume she picked it up on a walk??), three tar/rock balls, an acron, broken sticks, string and lots of hair.

She was also trying to eat grass this week, so maybe the idea of eating of grass to help throw up is true???

[Angeleyes]

I'm so sorry Treener. Have you spoken to your vet about Skadi possibly having Pica? It seems like this happens far too often and I'm nervous that one day she won't be able to gag up the nonedible contents.

[Angeleyes]

Here is an article regarding Pica http://www.pet-tails.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=327

I don't remember if you've tested her for the medical aspect of it, but if not it's worth a shot. Right?

[Treener]

thansk for the info, I have never heard of it before. I will read up on it. I had never even though that it might be a condition so i have never mentioned it to the vet. I will do that. As there may be sometime that i don't catch her eat something and it could have very bad consequences!!!! your right

[Angeleyes]

It's a very real condition. I can't believe I never mentioned it to you before.

It was fresh in my head because just yesterday my sister and I were talking about how our poodle Suzy had it until she was about 2 years old. Finally after puking up rocks from our garden a few times the vet gave us supplements and some kind of meds (I believe meds as well, but supplements I am sure of- I was young, my memory of it is a bit fuzzy) for her... and then it went away!

[Treener]

Skadi just had a full blood, urine and poo test and all came back within normal range, so I dought that it is medical, but I will still talk to the vet about it as you just never know.

As for the behavioral, i think that may be more of what it is. In the house she doesn't chew on anything that she isn't suppose to like shoes or furniture etc. She only plays with her toys but unless it is a stuffie she loses interest fast IF the toy can make it past the first hour of her in destruction mode. i really think the picking up garbage/ tar outside is an attention getting behaviour because when she does it i go in to hyper mode to get it out of her mouth, BUT at the same time she does it more with Erik then with me you ignores the behavior as he just isn'g quick enough. so maybe she is doing it to get HIS attention. One of the things she does is she will "plam" the item sometimes in her mouth hoping that you don't see her grab it (and sometimes we really don't see her and then when we get her back in the house she runs for her tent where she takes all her treasures she doesn't want you to have)

[Treener]

Oh and sometimes, I really wonder if she would eat it, if i didn't freak out so bad!! She has gotten considerable better but not over it by far. Sometimes on a walk i'm so focused and if i see garbage coming I will say leave it and she will jsut smell it and keep going but other times (usually when Erik is holding the leash) she will longe for it even if I have said leave it and swollow it!!! the ketchup package for example, i bet she picked up when we were down town last week and Erik had the leash and i though i cought in my eye a flicker of white she grabed off the ground and when i stoped her and opened her mouth it was empty, but i bet she just swollowed it cause she saw me coming!!!

[Melinda]

treener if you want to know anything about it, ask me *L* thats what my Moocher had, only the vets here call it, "for short" glutten gut, we rushed her in one day because she was vomiting up blood only to discover she'd eaten brick pieces, the metal stuff that flies off when hubby would weld, she had a couple screws, a picture hanger, bits of wool etc.....oh and her favorite of all time, if she got a hold of the fraying edge of a carpet, she'd run along the carpet as she gobbled down the yarn, we caught her once, (she would slurp it down like noodles) and hubs slowly pulled it out and pulled and pulled, there was at least 8 feet of yarn. the only thing at the time, remember, we got her 19 yrs ago, that was recommended was once a day for the rest of her life we had to give her pepto bismal......

[Treener]

Now you know why i was so anal at watching her when i came to visit you. I didn't want her eating anything off the ground at shannons or any shells/plants in your entrance.

It is almost like she gets off, running from object to object just to freak me out!!!

[Angeleyes]

I think it's most likely that it's behavioral too, but with Suzy she needed a supplement... I call my mom to find out which one- maybe she'll remember. Her organs and everything were working fine.