By Sue Ely
Do you remember the kid in your third grade class who ate chalk? Or the little girl in the back row who ate the paste you used in arts and craft projects? Somewhere in your later education, you learned that this was called pica, which is defined as “a craving for substances that are not foods.”
Recently, on a snowy afternoon, I was on the phone with Peggy Metcalf, who reminded me that I had once planned to write an article on pica in Norfolks. I had been complaining that my dogs were eating huge chunks of ice in the yard, and then coming in and vomiting the resultant water in random spots all over the house.
She had just heard of a puppy swallowing a wire staple found in its yard, an object that was still sitting in its stomach awaiting safe, probably surgical, removal. Given that impetus, the rest of our time on the phone was devoted to creating a list of things which our Norfolks had eaten over the years, or which we had heard of other Norfolks swallowing. It included all of the following items:
Earthworms, dead or alive
Scat of all kinds
Underwear
Socks, stockings
Wood of all sorts
Mushrooms
Small toys
Tags from toys
Berries on trees & vines
String/thread
Stones and pebbles
Tree Bark
Walnut hulls
Dirt
Grass Clumps from lawn mowers
Moss between the bricks on a patio
While I do not think that any veterinarian has connected pica with dogs I think we could make a case for Norfolks who seem remarkably capable of ingesting a myriad of inappropriate things, who are almost uniformly food-driven, and who repeatedly insult their digestive tracts with inappropriate “food,” despite the watchful eyes of their owners.
Not only do Peggy and I hope you will share your experiences with your Norfolks and add to the list we generated, but also warn all your puppy buyers that they have just purchased an equal opportunity eater, aka a Norfolk Terrier! When I was a high school teacher, I often got the “my dog ate my term paper” excuse. Had all those kids owned Norfolks, I might have believed them!
(Published in ANTIC March, 2011)