My 2 year old dalmatian has started eating stones, is there a reason for this or is she just being a dog?

The only safe way to see this is that it is VERY dangerous, it can cause blockage and the dog could go down very quickley, unless you have seen blockage sympons and can indentify possible blockage it could be to late by the time you got to a vet.

I don't know if Dalmations are prone to Gastric Torsion but if they are eating stones is a very high risk, at least for the dogs welfare should be seen that way. Deep chested dogs are susceptible to it and its safe to say VERY few ever survive an onset, Dalmations look to me to be deep chested.

More info at the link below, he needs to be stopped.

http://www.eclipse.net/~bobaloo/bloat.htm

I only noticed that there was a problem with our Cocker when she brought her food up immediately after eating.  Thinking she was just being piggy I encouraged her to drink some water which she immediately brought up, so I realised something a bit more sinister was the cause.  We took her straight to the vets who x-rayed her and found a stone.  She had an operation and was in the vets for 3 days.  Vet says we were lucky as she could have died very quickly.

To be on the safe side, take her to the vet. Even if the stones haven't caused any physical damage to her (which the vet can check), hopefully they can tell you why she might be behaving this way. The behaviour might be an indicator of some underlying problem. My dog used to eat earth when she was a very sickly puppy, but stopped when she became well. I'm not suggesting that this is the case with your girl, but well worth getting it checked out. Good luck and hope all is OK!

I've no idea why she's started doing this, but it's very important to stop her immediately. It's extremely dangerous and could lead to her requiring life-saving surgery to remove them.

Hi,

my dog used to eat stones when she was a puppy....but then she would eat everything! We took her to the vets but he said she has passed them through....we had to spend the whole day removing all the stones and gravel from our garden to prevent her and she has stopped now thank goodness!

Good luck x

Our pup started eating stones and we had to spray every pebble in the garden with a chew deterrent so when he picked one up he hated the taste and spat it out again, it took a while but he rarely does it now. He does pick a stone up now and again but then he just rolls it around his mouth and then spits it out, are you sure your dog is actually swallowing them? It is very scary but if stones are swallowed the vast majority just get passed through.

Sarah

I'm obviously not allowing this, I'm having to keep a close eye on her when she goes outside as there are hundreds of pebbles/stones in the garden.

ooh while i remember another I got told was to put some chilli powder in a watering can with some water and sprinkle it over the stones and pebbles in your garden and this puts them off,  I didn't need to try this but apparently it works.

Sarah

Is it just doing this in an unpredictable pattern or pretty much predictably frequent? I ask purely out of interest.

She has just started doing this, never done it before.

Our little puppy is eating stones also. We did not know till she started bring them up so far 18. 15 within two days. She is 14 weeks old now and we had had her since 10 weeks.
As soon as we found out she was doing this we have her on a lead out side, with us inside or in her kennel run. She is an Australia cattle dog and as they really like to run is a real pain. What can we do other then this?

She will pick them up on the lead so quick I am forever putting my finger in her mouth.
We have tried to teach her leave it which she does sometimes others we have to pull her away.
Peppered the stones but as we have a property there is stones everywhere.
She is good and does not mind the lead or being with us but is not good long term to have her like this. Our vet did not offer any solution just she should grow out of it.
Delia

one  0f our beardies used to eat stones and it can be quite a worry one of the first thing we taught her was "drop it" it got to the point where our neighbours though that was her name!!! but it worked as she would spit them out quickly and she gradually stopped.
wedid mention it to our vet and she said the little ones pass through but be very careful as the  largercan cause a blockage.

Sam had an operation for a blockage because of stone eating well actually it was terracota stone crocks that he got a taste for as well as gravel and they weren't very big pieces.This was 6 months ago when he was 10 months old and he was very poorly. I am only just beginning to trust him now alone in the garden it has taken a long time to train him but hopefully he won't have to go through that again. We did consider a muzzle but it would have been so restrictive and the vet was not keen. So it was just a case of watching him like a hawk and not leaving him unattended.

Gosh! Molly's always eating stones, mainly small gravel type but she does get hold of pebbles sometimes. If I see her she will not always drop and I never know whether she has eaten gravel or pebbles!! Can't let her in the garden unattended as she will always find something to munch on, and she has toys and kongs and things out there, its just that when she goes 'mooching' after doing her business she's so bloomin' quick! Her recall is still being worked on but she is sooo stubborn in the garden but fine in training or if we are in someone elses' garden :) Like ange I have to watch her like a hawk!

Dee

My 4 month old pup won't stop eating stones. I've tried everything apart from muzzling her. Any tips please.

If your pup gets a blockage it will almost certainly die unless you get to an open vet by helicopter & he/she has the 'available' facilities to open her up (operate) there & then, it's your choice if you take that chance so if the only alternative for you is a muzzle then you understand your options.
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Puppies are like babies - testing everything in their mouths - especially when teething.  Cold things help such as a screwed up wetted and frozen tea towel - get some cheap ones to put outside.
Eating stones is really dangerous - I recently got a new pup and keep my eyes on him as he loves picking all sorts up (I don't know how he finds things). My older 14 month pup must have followed his example as, a couple of days ago, he sicked up a pebble. Very scary! I wouldn't mind but he never used to do it & thought I'd got rid of them!