Why Your Pet Eats Poop?

Your dog eats poop , has aggressive behavior or has episodes of extreme hunger, could be dealing with Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency 

It is a pathology that we see especially in German shepherds and in young subjects (2-3Years).

It consists of an alteration of pancreatic function with an initially compensatory phase.
To then arrive at a serious insufficiency that causes the lack of digestion of food and Consequence a lack of absorption of nutrients. The animals will therefore present themselves a lot thin up to cachexia. The stools are creamy and yellowish. Not absorbing the fats the stool will be greasy.
The aspect that allows us to diagnose this problem is the fact that in the course of pancreatic insufficiency the dog is voracious to the point of becoming even aggressive because he doesn't assimilate and therefore he's always hungry.

Signs of Pancreatic Insufficiency 

It only develop when more than 85 -90% of the

secretory capacity of exocrine acinus cells has been lost.

It has been seen that such insufficiency can be caused by pancreatic inflammation and  secondary by tumors.
We can classify them as 
idiopathic when we don't know a very specific cause and this is conditioned by predisposing genetic factors; 
despite being a pathology that presents at a young age, within a year and a few months the animals lose their function of the pancreas but not suddenly.
Clinical signs are manifested when there is a functional loss of about 80% of the pancreas;

Is There a Difference Between Males and Females

There is no difference between males and females , even if it is more frequent in males and this pathology mainly affects animals of big size (German shepherd most of all ) in the cat this pathology is very rare ,particularly in older animals but in young animals it is unknown.

Your dog is eating like crazy 

When your pet is eating a lot and it’s still very thin (cachexia) you should call your vet to make a measure of blood sugar level  . Diabetes is medical condition in which there is not always weight loss, in fact sometimes the animal can be obese in addition

When your pet go to pee a lot  and drink a lot of water  we can still think about hyperthyroidism.

Process by Which a Disease or Disorder Develops

The lack of digestive enzymes also leads to a poor secretion of bicarbonates so the  buffer system at the gastric level fails with consequent hyperacidity, still the bacterial growth does not come to be inhibited by acid acinus. Because the malabsorption of  lipase .The animal emits yellowish, soft and oily poop.

You Can See That Your Pet Licks itself Continuously At the Expense of the Perianal Region .

Sometimes the poop can appear normal when there is still no complete loss of pancreatic function. Also stool can appear normal when the animal follows a low-fat diet for  which is not very affected by the problem related to lipases;
- Vitamin b12 is absorbed at the level of the ileum therefore when there is pancreatic insufficiency it also develops a deficiency of this vitamin with consequent anemia .Vitamin  b12 deficiency is considered a negative prognostic factor in diseases to chronic trend.

Conditions to Witch You Should Pay Spacial Attention

If you find your dog’s poop smelling like foul , it’s voluminous and fatty, borborigms ,flutulence when your dog  eats poop ,or your dog is feeling of extreme insatiable hunger ,pee a lot , has greasy aspect of the mantle especially in the perianal and caudal regions, hair loss and appearance of eczematous lesions, nervous and aggressive behavior.

You better call your veterinarian because it’s probably pretty urgent to do appropriate diagnostic tests.

Written By Imrana Sljivo DVM 🐾