Pica

Does anybody out there know anything about Pica in dogs? I am in need of some advice, firsthand if possible.

Zoie has always been one to eat things she shouldn't but in the last few months she'd gotten better about it (attempt at eating the ant bait excluded). It seems, though, that the Pica is back with a vengeance. Other than eating through a plastic bag, she's resumed her habit of eating sticks, squirrel/ rabbit poo, dirty tissues (which she gets off the bed stand in the middle of the night) and God only knows what else. Less than an hour ago I caught her up to her eyeballs eating dirt out of one of my potted plants. She was gorging herself like it was prime rib.

I love Zoie, I do, but this has got to stop. Apart from being completely vile, it's also dangerous (what if a stick gets lodged in her throat?) and more of a headache than I can manage.

Help, bloggers!

Gross day

Yucky thing #1
This morning the kids were outside playing and JP found a snake. He was playing with a huge, heavy pipe* on a pile of rocks at the back of our yard and when the Garter snake slithered out, JP got excited and dropped the aforementioned pipe. Right on the poor snake's head. Unfortunately, the pipe crushed the snake's skull but didn't entirely kill it. Mr. Tonks got the shovel and finished the poor guy off. I used the same shovel to dig a hole and carry the snake to his final resting place**. A brick is on top of the snake's grave and JP has been given extremely specific instructions not to dig it up.

Yucky thing #2
This afternoon, while my in-laws were over, I caught the dog outside with something in her mouth and looking particularly pleased with herself. Zoie has a tendency to eat sticks (she has pica so she'll actually eat just about anything) and that's what I expected to find- a half-eaten stick. Imagine my surprise when I pulled out what we presume to be the lower jaw bone of a cat. Any bets on what skeletal remain we find next?


*Our house was built in the 1940's and, for reasons I don't understand, there are two huge pipes (each around eight-feet long) in our yard and other smaller pipes buried in the ground behind our fence row. We'd throw it away but the trash guys won't take anything over four-feet long and we don't own a tool that will cut through 1/4" thick galvanized pipe.

**While carrying the snake to his grave, JP requested to hold it. I said no (it was fairly bloody). Then he said, "How 'bout I just hold its little head? I'll be gentle."