When we got our newest little girl, she has decided to eat her poop if we don’t pick it up immediately. Many people think that dogs eat their own poop because of a medical issue or because they are lacking some essential vitamin or mineral. This is usually not the case. It is almost always because of a behavioral, habitual, compulsive problem. Many Shih Tzu puppies will eat there own poop because they don’t know. In fact, many puppies are surprised many months in that something foreign came out of their butt, LOL. It does not mean that your Shih Tzu is mentally challenged or has other issues. The slim possibility that it could be a medical issue shouldn’t be overlooked. In fact, treating medical issues is often easier than treating behavioral issues.
In some cases A diet that is lacking certain nutrients or has a high filler/grain count. Unfortunately, both of these issues are seen with quite a few dog foods.
In regard to fillers – Fillers are essential cheap ingredients that provide little to no nutritional value.
They are added to foods to ‘plump’ them up, taking the place of ‘real’ food seen with better brands.
This includes but is not limited to corn, soy, brans, hulls, and cereal by-products.
A Shih Tzu will eat his food and seem full. The problem is that the fillers pass right through the body, offering no nutrition. When you think that your dog ate a 1/2 cup of food, he really only received perhaps 1/4 cup of actual food that his body can use.>
The body, lacking what it needs, will cause a Shih Tzu to seek out other food sources; and many times, this will be feces.
Since certain fillers pass through the body partially or completely undigested, the stools contain these food ingredients, which makes eating the poop all that more tempting.
With this, or alternatively to this, though the Shih Tzu ate his whole meal, only some of the food was used for fuel. Soon afterward, the dog is hungry again… and if feces are there to eat, they may be ingested due to hunger.
Treatment for Shih Tzu Eating Poop
If your Shih Tzu has any gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea (even if it’s intermittent), vomiting (even if it’s occasional) or unexplained weight loss, you should start out at your veterinarians with a good physical exam, multiple fecal samples and possibly some bloodwork. The primary medical issues we will look for are intestinal parasites (relatively common and usually very easy to treat), diseases affecting the absorption of nutrients like inflammatory bowel disease (not very common) and pancreatic disorders (primarily exocrine pancreatic insufficiency which is thankfully rare in the Shih Tzu).
If your Shih Tzu has no gastrointestinal problems, it’s still really easy to drop off some fecal samples for your veterinarian to analyze. Our vet is really good about ding this with no appointment and for very little cost. You do want to bring in many samples because dogs shed intestinal parasites intermittently so your chances of catching the offending parasite increase dramatically if you bring in multiple samples. Also bringing in a fresh sample is always better for two important reasons. It gives us a larger sample which is much more representative than the tiny sample we get when we shove that uncomfortable fecal loop up your poor Shih Tzu’s bum. And that is the second reason: save your sweet Shih Tzu the discomfort of having to go through that. (Keep in mind that many veterinary hospitals only have one size fecal loop and one size does not fit all, especially our little Shih Tzu which average about 10-16 pounds!)
Over 90% of Shih Tzus that eat there own poop because of behavioral issues. So what can you do about it?
- Discourage bad behavior but only if you catch them in the act. Make sure that “No means NO!” (say it boldly, loudly and with authority). If your Shih Tzu is entirely ignoring you, you may have to do something more noxious like a citronella collar that you can remotely trigger when he first opens his mouth or a fog horn may work nicely as well.
- Limit their access. This sounds like a no-brainer, but it very important. It is gross for us to think of, but they get very positively reinforced when they ingest the poop, so if they continue to routinely do it, it will become harder and harder to counter this with a negative and to solve their problem. Yes, you may have to walk them on a leash instead of just letting them out in the back yard.
- Lots of healthy exercises. Some behavior specialists feel like there is a boredom component to coprophagia (the medical term for “poop eating”). Exercise also helps with mental illnesses such as obsessive-compulsive behaviors. (Don’t go too crazy with your Shih Tzu in the summer heat. With their short noses, they aren’t the most efficient breed at staying cool while exercising.)
- “Set them up for failure.” Get some cheap latex gloves (and a syringe if you can) and inject Tabasco sauce or crushed hot pepper or commercially prepared “Bitter Apple” into feces.
- Sprinkle commercially available products like “Deter” or “For-bid” onto their food before they eat it (the food this time, not the feces). Meat tenderizer sprinkled onto food and pineapple seem to work for some. It’s probably safer to stick with the products made for animals but check with your veterinarian if your Shih Tzu has any underlying issues. Example = some products have a good bit of MSG which would be bad for a dog with heart problems.
Many of these rules at the same time will usually cure your Shih Tzu of the bad habit of poop eating. “How long will it take?” is everyone’s next question. In general, however long they have been practicing “coprophagia” = that’s how long you will need to stay at it. Some people totally give up and that’s not the end of the world, because poop-eating actually rarely even upsets their stomach. But if you stick with it, you should be kissing your Shih Tzu again rather than gagging and screaming at them in no time.
Proper Diet For Your Shih Tzu
There is a lot of competition in dog food right now from natural to organic. There are so many good foods, I’m not going to try to list them. A good general rule is to try to avoid buying dog food at the grocery store, these are typically the low-grade foods. Most pet stores and veterinarians only carry the premium brands of food that will ensure that your Shih Tzu is getting all the vitamins and minerals he or she needs.
Puppies often dabble in poop-eating and most will outgrow it. Some owners hear me say that and tend to not worry about it too much. That isn’t a great idea. You really want to nip the behavior in the bud, so to speak, because the longer the puppy engages in the behavior, the harder it is to stop it. I will occasionally take a poop-eating puppy off of puppy food sooner than the generalized one-year-old mark. Why? Puppy food is chock full of vitamins, nutrients, and calories, so if the puppy doesn’t need all of them, they are potentially coming out in the poop, making it more palatable to the puppy. I usually wait until after 6-8 months and the puppy will need to be well-fleshed or a little chubby and I will be certain the adult food is very high quality. (The 6-8 month age range is only for Shih Tzu or other similar-sized breeds, not larger breed dogs that are still growing quickly at this age.)
Supplements, That May Work
This method is a coin toss; it works very well for some dogs, but not so much for others. If you’ve followed every tip on this page to a tee, and are still looking for something to work, it may be worth trying Naturvet Coprophagia Deterrent Soft Chew
