# Eating dead animals?



## mutley66 (Oct 25, 2014)

Hi, my 10 month old Vizsla has a habit of trying to eat parts of dead animals she comes across when we are out in the countryside. When she is off her lead at a distance I have managed to stop her eating a dead bird, rabbit and whole mouse. It's very difficult to stop this as it would mean keeping her on the lead. I am concerned if she did manage to eat something, would it cause serious problems? Should I take her straight to my vets or wait and see what happens?
She also has a terrible habit of eating rabbit droppings and sometimes sheep droppings, are they harmful?


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## Darcy1311 (May 27, 2012)

Hi there, Just beware with your little girl eating dead animals, where we are in North Yorkshire there are some unscrupulous game keepers and farmers laying poison in dead animals to kill birds of prey...several have been prosecuted.


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## ZekieBoysMom (Jul 10, 2014)

The only thing I'd be worried about was if the animals had died as a result of poisoning, like Darcy mentions. Otherwise, having the vet do an occasional fecal exam to make sure she hasn't contracted parasites is a good practice. 

As for the rabbit droppings... our boy Zeke *LOVED* those so much we called them "puppy Skittles". ;D He seems to have outgrown that craving and doesn't indulge as much any more. LOL


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## miru (Sep 9, 2014)

Hi

Cause we are in for some" sheety confessions",Leo is an addict to horse sheet that is more important to him then any treat!
We also hope he will grow out of it,LOL

Miru


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## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

my old black lab Rex was a bugger for picking dead kelts (spawned salmon) out of the river and dragging them into his kennel, used to make me baulk, he enjoyed them though, and lived to be 14 year old,


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

The only one my dogs have still not outgrown is bird poo. Now I don't mean small birds, it the goose and crane poo they go after. They can be at a run, and take a lick without ever slowing down. Then they come running up to me with it on top of their noses, and I know exactly what it is.

Some of you have heard my cat story.
When Cash was young, he was running on the opposite side of the creek from me. He found something in the brush, that he thought was really cool. I called him to me, and he came back swimming across the creek with something in his mouth. He did the perfect heel, and then released a dead cat head into my hand. So now I'm standing with a dogs so proud of himself, and I have a rotten cat head. I can't just throw it, or he will retrieve it again to me. The whole time I thinking, why on earth did I not use the Leave It command when he was across the creek. I told my daughter to go further down the creek and call the dogs, so I can hide the cat head.

I had a outfitter top my story.
He was guiding a bird hunt, and a rancher failed to tell him a dead cow was in one corner of the pasture. The cow had been there a while and was ripe. When he didn't see one his dog for a little while, he whistled her up. He said he could tell she looked different before she ever made it to him. She had crawled in the cows stomach and rolled around in it.


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## ZekieBoysMom (Jul 10, 2014)

EWWW!  ;D


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## Canadian Expy (Feb 27, 2013)

Aspen has never been a poo eater, but my foster girl who is not a V took the first opportunity to roll in a nice soft pile of horse poop when we went down to the farm over Christmas - what a mess! She would also pick it up and run around with it in her mouth like a toy. After getting her bathed and stink free I then focused on working on "off" with the check cord. We have had great success so far.

Corrections for poop eating or rolling can only be done with repetitive leash work. I sure sympathize with those dealing on it. 

When I started doing research on canoe tripping/backcountry camping with a dog when we first got Aspen, I came across a story of a guy whose story was meant as a warning. He was backcountry camping and while sitting by the fire realized his dog had wandered off. He called the dog, and there was no response. He went looking and found the dog digging in the privvy/thunderbox/outhouse, whatever you want to call it. The dog was completely covered in human poop. I have been very careful with Aspen on our canoe trips, and teaching him "off" at the privvy


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## Darcy1311 (May 27, 2012)

I remember just 18 months or so ago Darcy was walking about 50 metres ahead of me when I noticed she was munching away on something, I shouted at her to stop eating whatever it was, when I got up to her there was a piece of toilet tissue to one side and what was left of what she had been eating.
Now we must have some extremely hygienic foxes in Yorkshire or Darcy is taking the term mans best friend to far......disgusting..


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## Bob Engelhardt (Feb 14, 2012)

Darcy1311 said:


> ... or Darcy is taking the term man's best friend too far......disgusting..


Oh, yes ... my guys have done some disgusting things, but this is far and away the ultimate in disgusting behavior.


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## Darcy1311 (May 27, 2012)

Bob said:


> Darcy1311 said:
> 
> 
> > ... or Darcy is taking the term man's best friend too far......disgusting..
> ...



Maybe so my friend but I love her all the same..


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Darcy1311 said:


> I remember just 18 months or so ago Darcy was walking about 50 metres ahead of me when I noticed she was munching away on something, I shouted at her to stop eating whatever it was, when I got up to her there was a piece of toilet tissue to one side and what was left of what she had been eating.
> Now we must have some extremely hygienic foxes in Yorkshire or Darcy is taking the term mans best friend to far......disgusting..


You win.


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## Suliko (Sep 17, 2011)

My oldest V Sophie once almost made me throw up in the woods... We were on our usual daily hike, and all of a sudden Sophie ran real quick by me with something in her mouth. I didn't think much of it at first, but then the odd shape of whatever it was made me wonder. I called her to back me, and she was very hesitant to come... so, I walked up to her and told her to "leave it" whatever it was in her mouth she was chewing on. Being a good girl she spit it out right in front of my feet. And then I saw it - a half of a dead bird with tons of worms and maggots coming out of it! It happened in summer, and the gross images are still haunting me! 

My youngest V. Pacsi loves human poop more than anything! We have lots of mountainbikers in the woods ( that's my only explanation), and Pacsi has had several LONG swims in the pond after unfortunate encounters with human poop before I can even put her in the car to bathe her. Nothing can trump that smell!

With that said, no matter what they've eaten (except once with bunny droppings), all the test results have come back negative for any kind of illnesses.


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## Vizsla_Luka (Sep 8, 2015)

Darcy1311 said:


> I remember just 18 months or so ago Darcy was walking about 50 metres ahead of me when I noticed she was munching away on something, I shouted at her to stop eating whatever it was, when I got up to her there was a piece of toilet tissue to one side and what was left of what she had been eating.
> Now we must have some extremely hygienic foxes in Yorkshire or Darcy is taking the term mans best friend to far......disgusting..


Uuurgh Luka has done the same! I can only assume it was human poo because he has no interest in dog poo and we were in an urban area so was not horse poo (which he also loves, but he normally can control himself enough to leave that on command) but the way he was laying into it made me think it wasn't animal poo....thank goodness he was on a lead and I pulled him away (which I try not to do in order to get him loose leash walking) 

Recently he also got a dead mouse complete with maggots and on another occasion fish bones. I didn't succeed in getting the fish off him as he ran off with it, but he has been fine so not too worried about any after effects. 

I was told by our dog trainer that it is normal for them to want to eat droppings, the only thing to be careful of is if the animals are given some chemicals / medicine that then the dogs ingest by eating the droppings. So far Luka has not had any ill effects apart from a slightly runny poo every now and again


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