My maltese eats his feces then throws up
I have a 6 year old male maltese who has a habit of eating his feces and occasionally throws it back up. We have had him since he was 6 weeks old and he started doing it then. I put Tabasco sauce on his feces once just to deter him from eating it. Well, it made no difference. He scarfed it down! I think I even tried Forbid and Deter or something along those lines. At the time that we got him we had no landscaped backyard, as it was just mud and dirt. Since I like to keep my house as clean as I can, I didn't want him going outside and getting dirty, then tracking in mud all over the place. Maltese's have that hair that everything sticks to. So, he is trained to go on a newspaper lined tray in the laundry room.
The problem is that if we aren't right there to pick up his waste he occasionally will scarf it down. He then throws it up any where he happens to be in the house hours or days later. There are no signs that this is coming either. He'll go for months without throwing up, then it starts all over again. I have kept him on one brand of premium dry food all of his life and he doesn't get table food at all. This keeps his feces predictable in consistency.
If we retrain him to go outside or take him to newspaper in the garage, and then take him back in the house, what do we do during the night, as he goes frequently during the night as well? That's when he eats it the most as no body is right there to stop him. I'm afraid without that newspaper lined tray indoors, he'll roam the house and just go.
This is very upsetting to me and my carpet has been soiled as well as my furniture. He's only 8 lbs so he roams all over the couch. I have new furniture on order and I just know he's going to throw up all over the new couch too.
I'm at a loss as to how to get him to quit eating his feces. His vet say's it's just one of those things some dogs do.
I can't take this anymore. Can anyone help?
