Why Is My Dog Eating Grass?

So, a very common question that I’m asked in practice is why is my dog eating grass? Sometimes it comes from a place of curiosity, sometimes out of concern. In almost all cases however there is an aspect of “something is wrong”. Perhaps your dog is not acting himself, sometimes you notice he or she has skipped her meal or very commonly there is an episode of vomiting and/or diarrhea.

Invariably, eating grass in and of itself is not a problem. Regardless of where you live, almost all grass lawns are of no consequence. Of course one needs to be concerned about exposure to chemically treated lawns or certain weeds, vegetation but this turns out to almost never be the case.

So why do they tend to eat grass and could this be why your dog is not feeling well?

This question has almost always led me to the old familiar saying, “which came first, the chicken or the egg?”. Did they first eat the grass which caused them to be sick or were they sick and then decided to eat the grass? What I have found during my almost 30 years of practice is dogs will almost always eat the grass BECAUSE they are sick.

There is some natural or inherent ability of our canine population to instinctively know that if they eat grass it will either cause them to vomit whatever may or may not be “offending” or just settle their stomach in a way that we’re not accustomed to. We tend to take an antacid like Pepcid, maybe some pepto-bismol depending on what else may be going on. However dogs, just like their ancestors before them, are limited to what only nature can provide.

So the next question is what’s wrong with my dog that requires him to eat grass? Well,in truth, it’s not so simple to just diagnose a problem in just a few words, However, In most cases dogs will simply just have an upset stomach. Maybe they ate something that just didn’t settle? The most common cause of an upset stomach is some type of dietary indiscretion (ie. ate something they shouldn’t have). Of course there are a variety of other problems that can result in GI problems (gastro-intestinal) and it’s important to make sure that at some point early on you discuss this with the Veterinarian.

Some quick and at home remedies to try are initially resting the belly for about 6-8 hours. You can try to give an over the counter product called Famotidine (Pepcid AC) at approximately 5mg for every 10 pounds of weight every 24 hours as well as feeding a bland more digestible diet like boiled chicken and boiled rice for a few days.

Please be advised that if your dog’s symptoms persist for more than 1-2 days you
should seek proper Veterinary care.