My dog ate human poop

Question
I have a 15 month old springer mix. Up to date on all vaccinations and dewormed and just got his yearly checkup and everything is fine! He is on a prescription low residue diet kibble and does very well with it. Occasional rawhide and milk bones. Nothing else.

However, he eats anything and everything in site! Organic or not (rocks).

Today at the cabin my son needed to go to the bathroom so we took him out in the woods to go poop. When he was done I turned around to see my dog finishing off the pile of poop. Yuck. At least my kid thought it was funny.

That was about two hours ago. I called vet and they said to just watch him. Will probably cause him some GI upset but to bring him in for extreme diarrhea and vomiting (? Bacterial infection). He seems to be doing fine so far.

My question is 1) any other concerns about eating human poop and 2) any thoughts on how to make him stop eating everything in site? Particularly rocks?

I love him to bits but I'm afraid he is going to eat himself to death. Thanks for taking the time to answer questions!

Answer
My concern here Kelly is why is this pup on a "low residue diet?" Doesn't he have some issues with his digestive tract? Low residue diets are for dogs with gastritis, or IBD or some kind of gut issues where the food needs to be bland and exit quickly.

If he doesn't fit into that category, then he might not be getting the nutrients he needs, which will cause him to eat all kinds of crazy things. Some forms of this are called "pica."

You should stop the milkbones and rawhides as well. Milkbones are like snickers bars for us- taste good and are full of empty calories that serve no purpose other than to make us fat.
Rawhides are just plain dangerous. I have had way too many owners write to me in here in tears over dogs that they have lost to rawhide chews. Get him a kong and put peanut butter in it or kibble pieces. They love those and cannot swallow the toy. Nylabones are also good.

I would also think about getting him on a better, more high energy food, such as Science Diet Active dog formula. This food meets the nutritional needs of high energy dogs, but also provides them with optimal nutrition which helps prevent issues like rock eating.

As far as the stool eating episode, again, I have only known dogs that were being depleted nutritionally that would do such a thing. Since dogs are good at being scavengers, I wouldn't worry too much about anything other than the bacterial issue. Of course, they often come down with digestive problems from eating these things.

So let me know what kind of food he does eat and if he was diagnosed with some digestive problems. Maybe he needs some enzymes in his food. That will help him digest his own food and give him more nutrients.

Instead of a band aid approach, finding a diet that fulfills his energy needs is going to be the best way to help him.