# How come my dog can eat poop and not get sick **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2012, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-my-dog-can-eat-poop-and-not-get-sick/643064 "2012-12-05T13:10:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-my-dog-can-eat-poop-and-not-get-sick/643064/22 "2012-12-06T10:41:01Z")
> [@pressbrakes](#): > > Along with these tools, we also produce and provide some other useful and related products that enjoy the same demand as the usual ones. Do you supply industrial-grade enema apparatus? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-my-dog-can-eat-poop-and-not-get-sick/643064/23 "2012-12-06T12:59:04Z")
> [@kbear](#): > > yet she spent 48 hours at the vet’s on a drip last weekend for eating 5 mince pies. Raisins are poisonous Yeah…the thing with raisins/grapes has not been adequately identified yet. Some dogs have eaten many grapes and/or raisins without ill effect, others have had their liver destroyed by a single one. Whether the variety of grape involved matters, or whether it could be some pesticide used in grape production, is not yet clear (or wasn’t, the last time I talked to my vet). But they’re considered hazardous. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-my-dog-can-eat-poop-and-not-get-sick/643064/24 "2012-12-06T14:58:48Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Well, there are all the warnings about the dangers of fecal bacteria. I’ve been thinking of starting a thread on this myself - why is it that human fecal bacteria are supposed to be so dangerous, when dogs and cats don’t seem to have any problems with ingesting theirs? What makes you think you’ll definitely get sick if you eat poop? You probably won’t. Probably. Unless the person who’s poop you ate had hepatitis, or a bad strain of e coli, or whatever, you’ll be fine. But in real life, some people really do have hepatitis and so on. So we have a, you know, blanket prohibition on food handlers wiping their own shit on the food. But most of the time you probably wouldn’t get sick if you ate the shit of a healthy person. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-my-dog-can-eat-poop-and-not-get-sick/643064/25 "2012-12-06T15:47:20Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > I’ll say no, it’s not. Unless someone proves otherwise. Not to say that it may be some sort of scat porn, for which I won’t google even at home. I googled it to find what I was referring to but that turned out to be bad. Very bad. I might try again later. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-my-dog-can-eat-poop-and-not-get-sick/643064/26 "2012-12-07T19:47:10Z")
My Yellow Lab is a “turd burglar”. She once got a “snack” from our Black Lab before it hit the ground. :eek: _Ew. Just ew._ ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-my-dog-can-eat-poop-and-not-get-sick/643064/27 "2012-12-09T17:55:15Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > I googled it to find what I was referring to but that turned out to be bad. Very bad. I might try again later. Yeah, I’m gonna have to ask for a cite on this one. Don’t believe it at all. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-my-dog-can-eat-poop-and-not-get-sick/643064/28 "2012-12-10T19:27:33Z")
Still no luck, so I take it back for now. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-my-dog-can-eat-poop-and-not-get-sick/643064/29 "2012-12-10T21:03:07Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > What makes you think you’ll definitely get sick if you eat poop? You probably won’t. And even if you did, strictly speaking to test the OP’s question one would need to have a human eat dog poop, not human poop. After all maybe the magic processing is an output filter, not an input filter. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-my-dog-can-eat-poop-and-not-get-sick/643064/30 "2012-12-10T21:07:49Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Hey, great post/username combo! 🙂 Heh…I think I’m putting in for a name change. Ah, the consequences of poorly contemplated user name. ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-my-dog-can-eat-poop-and-not-get-sick/643064/31 "2012-12-11T14:35:05Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > There’s a[straight dope column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2600/is-coprophagia-dangerous) on the topic. Great hilarious article by Cecil, in only the way he can educate and entertain so well! It’s perplexing to know that many of us go out of our way to wash our hands and stay clean, along with eating fresh proper foods that are prepared in such a way to keep us from getting sick, but yet we can still get violently ill, after we all thought we did all of the right steps. Then there are others that do some of the unhealthiest things and often seem to go unscathed. Fear Factor, survivalists and other reality shows have had people drinking their own pee, eating rancid meat, spoiled vegetables, road kill and other disgusting stuff. I remember one survivalist (Man vs Wild) drinking water from elephant dung he had squeezed out. My brother works at a State mental institution, where there are a few that eat their own feces on a regular basis. It brought him to wonder the same thing of why they didn’t get sick, or if they did, he wasn’t aware of it. Eventually, I suppose their luck runs out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-my-dog-can-eat-poop-and-not-get-sick/643064.md?page=1)