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Dog still won't eat, vets can't figure it out either.

32K views 68 replies 39 participants last post by  Jeannie Greenlee 
#1 · (Edited)
Dog still won't eat, vets can't figure it out either. **Update - he's eating!**

i had originally posted about this last fall

http://www.retrievertraining.net/forums/showthread.php?t=78032


well, the problem still continues, unless i change his food every couple days, or change up what kind of soft food i mix in, he will not eat. and i'm talking, he has gone up to 6 days without touching his food. yet he still will run and act normal outside, gets excited for people over, etc.

hes now down to about 69 pounds(always maintained at 79-81 lbs) and starting to lose muscle mass.

i've had him to two different vets, both well recommended, and have had every test run on him that i can, they cannot find anything medically wrong with him. the last vet said it may be a psychologic disorder of some point, since we have our first child in the house, even though its been a year now.

he will sometimes eat ok for a couple days on his own, and then the only way i can get him to eat is by hand feeding him 1 kernel at a time, otherwise he will turn his nose away.

i've done the feeding pattern someone recommended on here, with giving him a short time to eat, and if he does not finish it, cut the next meal in half, etc. he simply just won't eat, and will go 6-7 days without eating.

exercise does not change anything either. last sunday, i had him out on the river with me, it was 8+ hours of him running on the islands, swimming, retrieving, chasing critters etc. I figured for sure he would eat that night - Nope, didn't touch his food at all, wouldn't even eat one piece.

he literally is wasting away before my eyes, and nobody can figure out whats wrong with him. it is embarrassing to take him on walks in the neighborhood because of all the looks and comments from people. you can see his entire rib cage, most of his spine, shoulders and hip bones, etc. he is actually getting "gross" and looks like something you see on those humane society commercials.

why would he starve himself like this?
 
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#2 ·
Will he eat table scraps? If he has, then try a raw diet, buy some chicken necks and thighs. Uncooked chicken will not harm him they can have bones and all give it a try. If he eats then this will be his diet and its better for him. Good luck.
 
#3 ·
Have you tried a stomach coating medicine? Have you tried a round of amoxi in case he has an ulcer?
Dogs are like people, if it hurts they won't eat.
Carbon got down to 70 pounds. I put him on Amoxi, used pepcid Ac and a stomach coating medicine, all carefully times. I mixed baby cereal in there for calories.
Other than that I would head for a specialist.
 
#6 ·
You wrote in your original post



Have u been feeding him this??
Go back to what he would eat. Obviously the best food or what YOU think is best does him no good if he won't eat it. If he is on the Diamond, he probably doesn't like it for some reason. My dogs didn't like Diamond. Have you had his anal glands checked? I had a dog that wasted away and was bred and she wouldn't eat. Oddly enough it turned out she had anal glands that hurt and as soon as they were evacuated, she started eating again. She did associate the pain with food, very unusual, but it happened.
 
#8 · (Edited)
I'm sorry, it's terribly frustrating, isn't it? You care for your dog, are willing to give them the best, and want to be proud of them. And it isn't enough, and they go around looking like abused orphans. Been there, still not far from it.

Jake, our dog that I mentioned in your previous post, got so bad last winter after 7-8 months of "tough love" with his food (put it down, give him 15 minutes, then take it away) that he was down to 65 pounds. And this is a 26+ inch male chessie, he ought to weigh 75-80 pounds at least. He also never grew a winter coat. Then he had an episode of pooping blood while out hunting, scared us to death.

Vet has us put him back on bland food (boiled chicken and rice) for a couple of days. At least he ate that, LOL. She wondered if he had a food allergy, so we gradually put him on raw roughly ground elk and Sojos. On my own, I researched the internet and found an intestinal support supplement called Gastriplex. He seemed to finally get turned around, was eating up to 12 cups a DAY for a couple of weeks. After a month or so the processor ran out of elk and we had to switch to beef, but he seemed to tolerate that o.k. He's tapered off to 6 cups a day of the beef/Sojos mixture and has gained 10 pounds. He's still fairly lean looking at 75 pounds, but you can't see any bones and he's actually getting his coat back. He also has muscles, energy, and looks happy again.

Not sure if this will work for you, and I still don't know how much is the diet change, how much is the supplement, and how much is coincidence, but we're all a lot happier. If you're reluctant to try raw, the Sojos approach is based on ground instead of whole raw pieces, so it's a little easier to deal with (and you don't have to worry about the eating of bones, which bothered me a lot.) I also think there was a psychological component to the problem. I still put the food down and pretend to ignore him, as hovering seems to make him quit eating sooner. Just have to make sure the other dog doesn't get his food, LOL. Oh yeah, having another dog in the house has also helped, sometimes I think he eats it just so she can't have it :)
 
#12 ·
How awful to go through! I think I would be trying the raw suggestion right now. A quick trip to the grocery to buy one of those giant packs of frozen chicken pieces.
 
#25 ·
What is the answer to Dr. Ed's question/suggestion?

Has the dog had an Adrenal gland function test?
 
#15 ·
I cooked up some chicken breast for him, he eats that fine, and also put some leftover chicken noodle soup over his dry food, and then he ate his dry food. So its not like he wont eat any food at all, just his plain dog food.
 
#18 ·
i had originally posted about this last fall

http://www.retrievertraining.net/forums/showthread.php?t=78032


well, the problem still continues, unless i change his food every couple days, or change up what kind of soft food i mix in, he will not eat. and i'm talking, he has gone up to 6 days without touching his food. yet he still will run and act normal outside, gets excited for people over, etc.

hes now down to about 69 pounds(always maintained at 79-81 lbs) and starting to lose muscle mass.

i've had him to two different vets, both well recommended, and have had every test run on him that i can, they cannot find anything medically wrong with him. the last vet said it may be a psychologic disorder of some point, since we have our first child in the house, even though its been a year now.

he will sometimes eat ok for a couple days on his own, and then the only way i can get him to eat is by hand feeding him 1 kernel at a time, otherwise he will turn his nose away.

i've done the feeding pattern someone recommended on here, with giving him a short time to eat, and if he does not finish it, cut the next meal in half, etc. he simply just won't eat, and will go 6-7 days without eating.

exercise does not change anything either. last sunday, i had him out on the river with me, it was 8+ hours of him running on the islands, swimming, retrieving, chasing critters etc. I figured for sure he would eat that night - Nope, didn't touch his food at all, wouldn't even eat one piece.

he literally is wasting away before my eyes, and nobody can figure out whats wrong with him. it is embarrassing to take him on walks in the neighborhood because of all the looks and comments from people. you can see his entire rib cage, most of his spine, shoulders and hip bones, etc. he is actually getting "gross" and looks like something you see on those humane society commercials.

why would he starve himself like this?
OK this is gonna sound a bit crazy however it worked for us.
Start with some scrambled eggs (use water not milk) and add low fat cottage cheese, hand fed.
After a bit get rid of the eggs and slowly mix the lowfat cottage cheese with kibble increasing the kibble at each meal and reducing the cottage cheese.
I spent thousands trying to figure out why one of my labs suddenly would not eat. All we ever came up with was that he got an upset tummy, and then ended up with an empty stomach issue where there was just bile and everything turned his stomach. Some how low fat cottage cheese settled ok.
Of course he was the one out of 4 labs that did not need to loose even a pound.
 
#20 ·
Oh, and he eats milk bones just fine.

I'm convinced my dog needs to be put on meds for his head...

Is it possible that the kibble you are giving him is just too rich for his system and he knows it?

When we tried to switch one of ours to a higher protien/ fat food because he was hard to keep weight on, no matter what brand we tried to switch him to by the time we reached the 50/50 mix in switch over he would refuse to eat the higher protien/fat food. He would grab a mouthful of the food, and spit it out on the floor. Then he would pick out the lower protien/fat food and eat that only. NOthing wrong with the other kibble as our other 3 labs would all eat it. I finally gave up and whenever he starts getting too thin I just have to give him a lunch as well as breakfast and dinner.
 
#22 ·
sounds like me with a stomach ache. sounds like he will only eat something he thinks is special, A friend of mine had a lab pup that ate rocks, his intestines where plugged and gangrene started to set in, vet had to remove part of his intestines. in another episode, I saw it on tv they took out 2 1/2 bowls of rocks out of a dog. owner poored some grease from the bbq out on the rocks, dog thot it was dinner. xrays solved these
too problems
good luck
 
#23 ·
Did you see Post #13 from Dr. Ed? He asked about a specific test.

Janet
 
#24 ·
Have you tried putting him into his crate with his food and leaving him alone for 1/2 hour? He might pick up you worrying about him eating and it might be making him uneasy....
 
#41 ·
currently feeding Pro Plan Shredded Chicken blend.

up to 1 year old - Nutrisource puppy chicken and rice.

1 year old until fall of 2011 - Nutrisource Performance 30/20, chicken and rice blend. I had to keep him on performance food year round or he would lose weight.

fall of 2011 - after first vet visit due to illness and weight loss - pro plan shredded

then Diamond Extreme Athlete

quit eating that, back to pro plan shredded.

quite eating that, back to Diamond Extreme athlete

quit eating that, now back to Pro Plan Shredded again, and i've kept him on this for about a month, trying to get him to eat it steady.
 
#27 ·
I've been dealing with this in my 1 year old as since about 10 months. When he stopped eating his Purina One Puppy I figured it was time to move onto PPP but the eating didn't improve. I can get him to eat if I compound the dry food with canned food or yogurt. I don't let him go more than a day and a half without eating. I will be trying to raw egg tonight. Other foods I've also tried at BillJack so he could put some weight on. His last puppy visit he weighed in at 74 lbs, and I went back for a possible ear infection two weeks ago and he was 73.
 
#28 ·
Sorry to hear, I know how frustrating this is. I went through this all last summer during the warm months. I was on PPP and during that time switched to Diamond Extreme Athlete which she is still on. After all the tests were done and $ spent with nothing found, I kept switching the different additives (chicken, rice, yogurt, etc) getting her only to eat a little or pick out what she wanted. I used to get so upset and just like during training sometimes, it is very hard to not show emotion even when you know you shouldn't. We fought and fought and I chose to sit there every meal and force feed her every meal one spoonful at a time followed by closing her mouth shut and having her swallow it. It was that or watch her wither away like you have. Around September, it went away and she ate fine on her own again...

The reason I write this now is in anxiety and fear that it is starting all over again! It has been very warm here the past couple days getting close to 80 and yesterday I noticed she ate her breakfast really slow. Today she left half of it and slowly finished it after I dumped the scraps of my sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich on top of it. I am a little scared right now and do not want to go through what I did last year, but it may be coming. I saw one post that suggested trying a less rich food - something with less protein/fat and possibly making up by adding extra chicken, etc. Have you tried this yet?

Good luck
 
#29 ·
Have you considered taking him to the Univ. of Minn veterinary teaching hospital? The vets at the schools are usually excellent at diagnosing the harder cases. You really owe it to your dog to get an answer. Sometimes regular vets are great at the normal stuff, but not on top of diagnosing the less common issues.

Meanwhile, if he'll eat chicken and such, maybe he needs a cooked diet for him to get some weight on. Chicken breasts or ground turkey (Costco has this really cheap) cooked up with rice can be made in big batches and frozen into individual portions. It's really not difficult to do until you get it figured out. Long term, you'd want to research a proper, nutritional mix if you go this route.
 
#31 ·
Try a little goat's milk over the food. Not the replacer stuff but the real thing. Powdered can be bought at health food stores or odered, canned can be bought in the grocery store and the dairy case will sometimes have it in some stores. Also some of our picky eaters would not eat it after it got cold ( or had set for a while ). They liked it luke warm or just a little above. I should probably add that it does not soak into dry dog food very well. Some dogs prefer their dry feed softened so if you need to soak the feed some do so with warm water before you add the goat's milk to the mix. Good luck.
 
#35 ·
By chance have you recently moved the dog food dish??? I did so I moved it back tonight (plus I also switched flavors of food) and he started eating again with no supplemental food on top. The egg on his old flavor food didn't work but he did eat when I put cottage cheese on top. Tonight it was just dry food and he ate. fingers crossed!
 
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