It was my understanding that many animals with pica have an underlying
physical problem. Sort of the old clay eating to get certain nutrients type
thing. From reading another thread I'm seeing where for many people here it
is more of an ocd thing in their dogs. Would this be correct and have those
of you with pica dogs tried different nutritional supplements?

Thanks.

Beth

On Sat, 30 Dec 2006 00:33:42 GMT, "bethgsd"
wrote:

It was my understanding that many animals with pica have an underlying
physical problem. Sort of the old clay eating to get certain nutrients type
thing. From reading another thread I'm seeing where for many people here it
is more of an ocd thing in their dogs. Would this be correct and have those
of you with pica dogs tried different nutritional supplements?

I don't have a dog with Pica and don't know a lot about it, but I
think it can be nutrient related but isn't always. Actually, I think
maybe the term was coined to describe a system more than a disease
back when people didn't really know why people or animals ate strange
substances. As different underlying "diseases" that may cause someone
to eat what is normally not eaten, I'm not sure if the term Pica has
been narrowed to officially designate one disease process or is pretty
much used as a generic term for any eating of strange substances. Some
of that is going on with bipolar right now. It started out as trying
to put a name to people whose moods went up and down in various ways,
expanded as it was realized that the types of moods and the up and
down patterns varied, and now is used by a lot of people to describe
what is actually a different problem from what causes bipolar disorder
but just also makes people seem emotionally volatile while other
emotional volatility that most people would not think of as bipolar
appears to be more related to the underlying brain chemistry of the
historical bipolar.

If you think your dog is eating things because of a nutritional
deficiency, probably the first step I'd recommend is making sure the
dog is getting good overall nutrition rather than start with
supplements. I'd give supplements only with vet advice since
sometimes too much of a necessary nutrient is as bad as too little.

--
Paula
"Anyway, other people are weird, but sometimes they have candy,
so it's best to try to get along with them." Joe Bay