Newly adopted hound eats everything (Is this pica?)

[DoeEyeDog]

We adopted our boy about 3 months ago and he’s been pretty easygoing and sweet. However in the past month he started eating random things. So far he had chewed/swallowed small plastic parts, ketchup packets, whole banana peels, pebbles/acorns/who-knows-what in our yard. We have been more careful with leaving things on places he can reach now, but it’s almost impossible to pick up all the inedible things in the yard, let alone on any given day birds or raccoons or cats can drop new things off. 

We’ve also started to put his muzzle on him when he goes to the yard, but today he managed to eat a small pebble even with muzzle on. He also has resource guarding and would growl and snap or bite if we try to take take things away from him. We feel extremely awful because he might get sick from eating inedible things, and in fact once he vomited after gobbling up a ketchup packet from our dining table (poor guy).  We start to feel like we are two really crappy dog parents.

Is this pica? Does anyone have experience dealing with this or have any advice?  We haven’t taken him to see a vet yet because this is pretty recent but at this point it looks like a visit is unavoidable. Thank you everyone in advance! 

Some additional info: he is a 75lbs two and half year old. We feed him 4 cups of kibble with obedience training and treats throughout the day. He regularly freezes on the walk so although we try to walk him 30 minutes to an hour per day, he may or may not get that amount depending on whether he freezes. We live in a relatively big house with a medium sized yard.

[1Moregrey]

Do you have a stool guard on the muzzle?  It will keep him from being able to pickup things with his muzzle on but still and drink. 
Might be worth a try while you figure out what is going on.

[GreytNanaimo]

Hello!

I adopted my grey (also a large male) just over a year ago when he was 2 years old and had the same troubles, he would just eat anything he could (including trash, an entire corn husk, a remote, etc.) so much so that he ended up needing surgery! He was (and still does to a much smaller extent) resource guard so I understand the struggle of feeling powerless. I initially started by putting his muzzle on him every time we went outside no matter how long we were going to be out for, but this only kept him from getting large pieces of "contraband". On top of his obsession with eating just about anything he was also gobbling up his food as fast as he could and guarding it from anyone who may "take it away". Additionally, similar to as you say, he was getting sick with a poorly stomach at least once a week in which he was absolutely miserable. I'm not sure if your grey is having issues to this extent, but leading up to his stomach surgery it was many-a trips to the vet for anti-nausea, dehydration, etc. Thant being said here is what I did which helped him! (bear with me its a rollercoaster)

1. I immediately made him wear his muzzle every time he went outside (as you mentioned you do this); however, I took it a step further by only letting him outside while on a short leash (4-5ft.) so that he would be close to me and I could easily redirect him from contraband. (this was a short term solution)

2. I also went ahead and dog proofed the section of house he was allowed to roam freely in (to limit him from getting into anything).

3. I split his total food intake (4 cups of food) into 4 separate meal times of one cup each to see if it could keep him "fuller for longer", it wasn't super helpful for me, but it is something simple to try.

4. Next I started to talk to my vet (who specialized in greyhounds) about potential intestinal parasites. We initially tested for the typical hook worm (and derivates) that tend to ail retired racers; however, he tested negative, but just to be sure we went through a round of deworming. Not super helpful, but it was a good starting point because my vet noticed that his microbiome was not in great shape.

5. After not seeing much progress, I took him back for a detailed blood work test (more expensive but IT WAS WORTH IT). The detailed blood work revealed that he had cryptosporidium a relatively rare parasite that is virtually undetectable and is commonly found in cattle which disrupts the whole digestive tract. After a week long treatment with medicine (it was not a fun week) he bounced back. Not only was he no longer eating every little thing he could find, but his resource guarding had improved tremendously as well.

6. As I have continued working with him, I have found that adding little things to his food (i.e. kefir, bone broth, sardines, fish stock, goats milk, etc.) helps keep him more interested in his food as opposed to the less appealing contraband ( training him with a little reward for eating what he should). It also helped regulate his stomach which has become pretty sensitive following surgery and a parasite clean out.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas on where to start. I hope it is helpful and keep up the greyt work! (if you have any questions let me know!)

Edited January 22, 2021 by GreytNanaimo

[DoeEyeDog]

21 hours ago, 1Moregrey said:

Do you have a stool guard on the muzzle?  It will keep him from being able to pickup things with his muzzle on but still and drink. 
Might be worth a try while you figure out what is going on.

Thank you for the suggestion! I was trying to avoid the poop guard because he doesn't seem to like breathing with the poop guard but I guess you are right I should insert it back.

[DoeEyeDog]

1 hour ago, GreytNanaimo said:

Hello!

I adopted my grey (also a large male) just over a year ago when he was 2 years old and had the same troubles, he would just eat anything he could (including trash, an entire corn husk, a remote, etc.) so much so that he ended up needing surgery! He was (and still does to a much smaller extent) resource guard so I understand the struggle of feeling powerless. I initially started by putting his muzzle on him every time we went outside no matter how long we were going to be out for, but this only kept him from getting large pieces of "contraband". On top of his obsession with eating just about anything he was also gobbling up his food as fast as he could and guarding it from anyone who may "take it away". Additionally, similar to as you say, he was getting sick with a poorly stomach at least once a week in which he was absolutely miserable. I'm not sure if your grey is having issues to this extent, but leading up to his stomach surgery it was many-a trips to the vet for anti-nausea, dehydration, etc. Thant being said here is what I did which helped him! (bear with me its a rollercoaster)

1. I immediately made him wear his muzzle every time he went outside (as you mentioned you do this); however, I took it a step further by only letting him outside while on a short leash (4-5ft.) so that he would be close to me and I could easily redirect him from contraband. (this was a short term solution)

2. I also went ahead and dog proofed the section of house he was allowed to roam freely in (to limit him from getting into anything).

3. I split his total food intake (4 cups of food) into 4 separate meal times of one cup each to see if it could keep him "fuller for longer", it wasn't super helpful for me, but it is something simple to try.

4. Next I started to talk to my vet (who specialized in greyhounds) about potential intestinal parasites. We initially tested for the typical hook worm (and derivates) that tend to ail retired racers; however, he tested negative, but just to be sure we went through a round of deworming. Not super helpful, but it was a good starting point because my vet noticed that his microbiome was not in great shape.

5. After not seeing much progress, I took him back for a detailed blood work test (more expensive but IT WAS WORTH IT). The detailed blood work revealed that he had cryptosporidium a relatively rare parasite that is virtually undetectable and is commonly found in cattle which disrupts the whole digestive tract. After a week long treatment with medicine (it was not a fun week) he bounced back. Not only was he no longer eating every little thing he could find, but his resource guarding had improved tremendously as well.

6. As I have continued working with him, I have found that adding little things to his food (i.e. kefir, bone broth, sardines, fish stock, goats milk, etc.) helps keep him more interested in his food as opposed to the less appealing contraband ( training him with a little reward for eating what he should). It also helped regulate his stomach which has become pretty sensitive following surgery and a parasite clean out.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas on where to start. I hope it is helpful and keep up the greyt work! (if you have any questions let me know!)

Wow! I'm so glad I asked here. Thank you so much for sharing this! Ours has not eaten a remote yet but I fear we are indeed progressing to that point.

I definitely will take him to vet for a thorough blood work.

Also I'm so glad your hound got so much better after the treatment. He is a lucky boy :)