Coprophagia is a behavioral disorder in the dog that prompts him to ingest feces and that can be solved with natural remedies. Let’s find out better what it is.

What is coprophagy

Coprophagia is the ingestion of feces , either one’s own or that of other animals or people. It is common in dogs and rare in cats.

In many cases this pathology corresponds to normal behavior in the canine species, females, for example, ingest the feces and urine of their puppies. There are adult dogs that eat the feces of a person or other animal species due to their high concentration of undigested proteins.

Therefore, coprophagia is not always a pathological behavior , but a normal and ecological use of a food source rich in proteins and micronutrients or simply obeys an atavistic instinct. However, there are dogs that look for nutrients or micronutrients (vitamins or minerals) in their faeces, so they must be followed up by a veterinarian .

Sometimes, a dog’s coprophagia can be related to the number of daily meals. If you only feed him once, he may be trying to make up for the lack of food with this unpleasant behavior during the day. Sometimes by feeding him twice a day, the problem gets better.

There are three types of coprophagia:

• autocoprophagia, when the dog eats its own excrement;
• intraspecific coprophagia, when the dog ingests the fecal matter of another of its own species;
• interspecific coprophagia, when the dog eats the feces of another species.

If an animal ingests its own feces, it will usually not suffer physical harm, but if it eats the feces of other animals it may contract intestinal parasites or viral diseases such as hepatitis, parvovirus and toxoplasmosis (if the excrement belongs to a cat infected with the Toxoplasma gondii parasite ).

A dog may have a similar behavior to overcome boredom or to imitate other nearby animals . Sometimes, this behavior begins when the dog sees the owner collecting excrement during the walk and imitates him by picking up part of it and eating it. The dog, at the beginning of coprophagia, discovers that he likes that taste, especially if it is the feces of a cat. 

Dog coprophagia: natural cures and remedies

Coprophagia can be resolved with a Bach flower treatment . The composition of the essences must substantially resolve the following aspects: anxiety, boredom and request for attention.

The Bach flowers indicated to treat this behavioral disorder are the following:

• Agrimony (anxiety)
• Heather (request for attention)
• Impatens (anxiety)
• Rescue Remedy (for its soothing action).

The floral formula should be administered with a dosage of 4 drops, 4 times a day , possibly with direct application.