Perhaps it is so common that no one wants to categorize as “abnormal”? (But see below for a discussion of why we might include grass eating as an example of pica.) The definition of pica might be a bit fuzzy, but it usually refers both to the item (is it dangerous for the dog or beyond anyone’s definition of food?) and/or to whether the individual behaves as if it were a compulsion, and seeks non-food items out c0mpulsively. On the other hand, I couldn’t find any references that included grass eating as pica, although clearly it’s not food, at least to a dog. However, eating feces (coprophagia) is not considered by most to be an example of pica, no doubt in acknowledgement that most dogs love the stuff, sometimes including their own, and that is often might have some food value in it. Dogs have also been known to eat marbles, pencils, linoleum, jewelry and, of course, underwear. (Also true for cats– see wool sucking.) Rocks are one example, as is metal, plastic, and cloth. But there are a lot of substances that dogs can become fixated on that can cause them harm. Animals whose name in Navajo is “eater of horse poop” can hardly be diagnosed with a serious behavioral or medical problem if they inherently define much of the world as food, including sunflower seed shells, cat poop and vomit. This isn’t too difficult to diagnose in people, but gets a bit trickier in dogs. Pica refers to the ingestion of non-food items, often with an assumed compulsive component to it. The vet had already done three surgeries to remove them, and said there was too much scar tissue to attempt another. I saw one dog who lived by a rocky outcropping, and ate rocks compulsively.
It’s not often that a photograph motivates a topic for the blog, but when friend and colleague Melissa McCue-McGrath sent me this image of her dog Captain, along with a suggestion to write a post on pica, how could I resist? In spite of the amusing photo (no, Captain didn’t really drink any booze), pica can be a serious problem.
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