Pica in an adult dog
My 6 year old sharpei has developed a taste for non food items! She's always eaten paper, tissues, plastic anything, even has eaten cloth and a teatowel, but This year things have escalated to the point where I think she needs to go to the vet before she eats something that needs surgical removal. In the past few months she ate the plug off the iron chord, numerous head phones, even pooped an iPhone 5 headphone out whole, seeks out my elastic hair bands and eats those, and ate the chords off 2 phone chargers. It's gone back to like having a puppy that needs constant supervision, and everything away in drawers as she will get up on counters, desks etc to seek out items. She has skin allergies and is bullied by my other dog, so she is insecure and shy by nature. I don't believe it's attention seeking but maybe something to occupy her mind with? Or worse an underlying medical condition making her feel sick? I'm asking because I think there's a good chance the vet will just brush off this behaviour and I'm worried I won't get any answers. I need to stop this as it's getting worse and I can't be here to supervise her 24/7. In fact she's learnt to only eat things when we're not looking, and will swallow items to prevent us taking them off her. So a small thing has become a huge issue! Hopefully someone can help!