Friday 25 March 2011

dogs eating duck poo

When I heard the doggy door click-clacking yesterday, I rolled over in bed and blearily ascertained that it was indeed the middle of the night - well, 5:30 am is the middle of the night to me. So what was Penny doing going out at that hour, given that she is 'off-duty' at night and doesn't stir?

I threw on a layer of clothing and staggered out with a torch, to find her eating grass. And eating grass. And eating grass. Uh, oh! I remembered the ducks on the banks of the Yarra.



And I recalled how Penny had grazed that area, refusing to come when called - which is unusual. At the time it took me ages to realise she was eating the ducks' poo.

I met a local walking with his dog and he warned me not to let Penny eat duck poo, because it can spread botulism, and he said at all costs to avoid wombat poo because the wombats have a type of blood-borne mange that is incurable. Apart from comcern about Penny getting this mange, I feel sad if he's correct that most of the wombats around the Yarra Ranges have this mange.

I had a look on the net and came across an article that says even in wombats mange can be dealt with. Interestingly, it said that humans too are afflicted by one of the mange mites - but in humans we call it 'scabies'. It's not the same mite that affects dogs.

At any rate, Penny's night-time grass grazing worked its magic, and out came a nice greenish poo. There's no definite information around about why dogs eat grass, but this is one time when I feel sure the grass eating was because of an uncomfortable bowel.

Thank goodness she seemed fine in the morning!

12 comments:

Molly the Airedale said...

Duck poo is so yummy but our mean old mom watches us like a hawk and yells at us if we snag any of it!

Love ya lots
Maggie and Mitch

Amber-Mae said...

BOL! Sounds like somedog needs her teeth brushed...

parlance said...

Maggie and Mitch, I'll have to become as eagle-eyed as your human!

parlance said...

Amber-Mae, I sure didn't want to go near her mouth for quite a while.

JD and Max said...

We LOVE duck poo but we get shoo-ed away from it - sigh.....! It's the time of year when ducks are around in our nature reserve so FH is trying to avoid those fields. She's SUCH a spoilsport - humph!

Schnauzer snuggles - JD and Max.

parlance said...

JD and Max, I wish I had known to shoo Penny away. Next time I'll be more alert - I hope.

Molly the Airedale said...

Hi Penny,
We're not sure what 1 serving is seeing as this is our Nonna's recipe from a longgggggggg time ago. Maybe you could get an idea at allrecipes.com?
Hope this helps.

Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch

Slavenka said...

My dogs loved ferret poo. Every time when my son is cleaned out the cage of ferret ,Obi and Niki were out of control.

Unknown said...

Yeah, Honey loves to eat duck poo too - she used to get really excited (for her!) whenever we went to the parks in Auckland with duck ponds and despite all her training, would still always try to grab a sneaky bite! I usually tended to avoid walking her through the areas where the ducks grazed & roosted - just too much temptation! And if she wasn't eating them, she'd want to roll in them! :-)

Honey also eats grass when her tummy is a bit upset and sometimes it helps her to bring stuff up. Sometimes, though, she seems to just eat it with no corresponding diarrhoea or vomiting - maybe it just helps general digestion!

Hsin-Yi

parlance said...

Maggie and Mitch, thanks for coming over to tell me more about your yummy recipe! I'll have a look at the recipe site.

parlance said...

Slavenka, I think ferret poo might be a bit like possum poo here. Penny adores it.

parlance said...

Hsin-Yi, Honey excited?? The poo must taste DELICIOUS. Penny's the same about grass. I think she too eats for a variety of reasons.