Appetite Problems

[LBass]

Piper turned 10 in May. Other than his epilepsy, he has always been in good health. He takes Phenobarbital and Potassium Bromide for his seizures and takes Soloxin as well for low thyroid. With that background...

 

Beginning in March of this year Piper, who has always eagerly wolfed down whatever food was put in his bowl, has begun to skip meals or eat only part his meal several time a week. He's always been feed twice a day. Of course, I took him to the vet when I first noticed the change in appetite. He needed a dental and had one--lost 4 teeth. Three were just loose lower front teeth but one was an pretty grungy infected back tooth. The vet and I were both optimistic that the tooth and its infection were at the root of Piper's loss of appetite. Indeed, for a week or so after the dental he seemed to have his normal enthusiastic appetite back. However, now he is back to skipping meals. In addition to the dental, Piper has had a thorough physical exam and extensive blood work and testing his medication levels--everything looks quite normal.

 

Through all this I've experimented with add ins to his kibble (sometimes they encourage him to eat and sometimes they don't). I've soaked his kibble in water so it was nice and soft with no consistent results. I'm looking for suggestions about what the vet and I might be missing. What else should be done by way of tests? I have a clutching fear that something physical is wrong but I don't know what direction to take next in trying to ferret out what.

 

I can't successfully free feed because I have two other hounds and a cat who would help themselves to Piper's food leaving none for him. I'm going to try a complete change in food today but I'm not optimistic that a new food will make a difference. Still, it's worth a try. I may try cooking for him. I'm wracking my brain for anything that might help.

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Piper The Perfect is precious to me and I am really very worried about my boy.

 

--Lucy

[buddibear]

I am sitting a healthy 13yo greyhound. I have known him for 2 years. When he comes visiting for a week,he stops eating his Inova. He will nibble on my guys food,(Natural Balance-Venison)sprinkled with parmesan cheese. After his 3rd day of no eating (treats only) I gave him a hot dog. No problem. 4th day He HAD to have a tuna salad sandwich...a whole wheat with tuna and chopped egg. Now I get a happy old man ,dancing around the yard with explosive mustard poop! His mom is not going to be happy. I guess breakfast will be scrampled egg and Canadian Bacon with a bucket hanging on his butt.4 days to go

[Guest BiancasMom]

Was Piper on any pain meds or antibiotics during that time post dental when his appetite was better? Maybe he has underlying pain? Otherwise I would start with a basic blood profile and UA. If you want to go hunting for something, you could also try and abdominal ultrasound. I hope he feels better soon.

[Guest HoundyGirl]

Is he loosing weight?

 

I have a coonhound that only eats about half her meals once it turns warm. She only gets 2 cups a day, so she averages 1 cup a day during the warm months. Anyway, I've had her to vet several times. They couldn't find anything wrong with her. It's apparently normal for her to do this. She maintains her weight throughout it all.

[LBass]

BiancasMom, you know he was on both antibiotic and about 5 days worth of pain meds right after the dental and the improved appetite lasted for about 9 days. The notion of underlying discomfort is an idea I'll certainly take to the vet. Thank you.

 

I don't think its the heat because this decreased appetite has been going on since March when things were still nice a pleasant weather-wise.

 

Abdominal ultrasound. That too sounds like something that might be worth looking into...with the fervent hope that it provide peace of mind rather than bad news.

 

--Lucy

[greysmom]

I'm soooooooo hoping this is just nothing! Piper the Perfect is precious to us too!

 

I'm just going to throw this out there - when my first greyhound started getting older at around 10 or so, she also started not wanting to each as much as she had been, much like Piper is doing. She would eat for a ocuple days and then not and then a meal or two and then not again. We did every test, explored a lot, tried different foods, tried cooking. We finally just decided that she didn't want or need as much food as a senior as she had been eatng and was self-regulating her intake.

 

Libby was holding her weight, still had a ton of energy, and had a good attitude. She usually didn't want to eat breakfast, so we just consolidated her food into a snack mid-morning and then a good dinner. That seemed to suit her just fine and she did very well on this schedule for many months. When she did start to decline it was due to kidney failure.

 

Have you tried giving him a pepcid 30 minutes before meals?

[LBass]

Chris, I've not tried giving Pepcid though I've wondered about it. I'll talk to the vet to make sure it's OK with his other meds.

 

It has occurred to me that I may be fretting about what is just a rather normal change in his needs and preferences, as your Libby's appetite change was. I think that I could go with that theory if he can pretty much hold at a healthy weight. Piper is down about 6 pounds from his highest but about 4 of that was probably not needed. He weighed about 70.8 pounds last time he was at the vet's and that is lower than in the past but is still a perfectly healthy weight for him.

 

Thank you for the encouraging possibility.

 

He has had a very recent and very thorough blood profile and everything looks fine according to both of the vets who reviewed it. I'm sorry to ask but what is a UA?

 

 

--Lucy

[Guest Stripeyfan]

Is it possible the meds Piper's on are irritating his stomach? If so, it might be worth trying slippery elm bark. We give this to Kelly to help with his IBD and he's also been getting it recently to help with excess acid/bile which has been affecting his appetite. It coats and soothes the stomach and GI tract, and really does work wonders.

 

I hope you find a solution to this soon and that it is nothing serious!

Edited July 12, 2011 by Stripeyfan

[GeorgeofNE]

Lucy? I believe "UA" is urinalysis.

 

I expect that Piper's blood and urine tests are run frequently for his other issues, and that bloodwork was taken before his dental.

 

Any chance he's snacking on too much of the garden when you're not home?

[TheFullHouse]

You can always try some Nutritional Yeast to stimulate his appetite. I hope you find something that works. Piper is pretty special to me.

[Burpdog]

Try some pepcid and see if that helps.

 

During his recent checkup, were his teeth examined? Mizzy cracked more than one molar at different times.

 

I believe they eat what they need. Try some boiled or roasted beef and chicken and see if he eats well.

[silverfish]

BiancasMom, you know he was on both antibiotic and about 5 days worth of pain meds right after the dental and the improved appetite lasted for about 9 days. The notion of underlying discomfort is an idea I'll certainly take to the vet. Thank you.

 

 

--Lucy

 

When I read the original post I was thinking - get the vet to take another look in his mouth. If he improved right after his dental and then relapsed, he may have something not healed quite right.

 

I've just taken on an old guy who had had a dental and appeared to just be finicky. He's very difficult about having his mouth looked at, but when I got a glimpse I saw a horrible, deep ulcer with what appeared to be a fistula at the bottom. And so it turned out. He'd developed a fistula through to the root of a canine which had been removed at the dental, poor guy. He's on antibiotics and painkillers now and he's eating for England! Had three meals today and wants more.

 

Has the vet checked that Piper's mouth has healed OK? He may need a longer course of antibiotics - or a different antibiotic - if he has a deep seated infection where the grungy tooth was.

[Hubcitypam]

When Rex was bad it seemed to work better than add ins if I could just prime his pump.

 

I'd try something he loved, chicken, liverwurst, cheese, sardines, tuna, roast beef, etc. Of course what would tempt him would change daily so sometimes it took several tries to get him to nibble. But once he took those few bites I'd give him some more of whatever struck his fancy, then some canned, then he'd go on and eat kibble.

[Remolacha]

I just went through something very similar with one of my cats. She started getting picky (she is normally a very good eater!) and loosing weight. Blood work, x-rays were good, so at the end of April, we did a dental. She lost several teeth, but quickly started eating well again. For about a week. Then her appetite fell off, and she developed an abscess under her chin. More antibiotics, another dental, where she lost more teeth, more antibiotics, and finally, after two months, she is back to eating well and putting on some of the weight she lost. The vet said her remaining teeth looked good after the first dental, but when she went back in, there were some pockets forming around some of the remaining teeth

 

I hope you figure out what it is

[LBass]

The vet did a good recheck of Piper's mouth 10 days after the dental to make sure the site of the nasty molar removal was healing properly. Piper, bless his sweet heart, was very cooperative about letting the vet get a good look and his mouth was fine at that point.

 

Because of his other health issues Piper does get really good thorough blood work 2-3 times a year and full thyroid testing as well. All that was done in the last 6 weeks. I'm not sure we've actually done a urinalysis though. I'd remember trying to collect pee. So I'll follow up with the vet ASAP about doing a urinalysis.

 

 

I fixed Piper a stew of 3 pounds of hamburger, 3 bags of various frozen veggies, and rice. I've been giving him about a cup and a half of that mixed in with a cup of kibble twice a day and he has been eating all of that up with gusto! I'll stick to feeding that for a while and see how that goes. I think that the good stew does sort of "prime the pump", so to speak, of his appetite.

 

I'm also going to watch him closely in the yard. When he was on the pain meds after his dental I saw him doing a lot of his happy dancing and cavorting and realized that I hadn't seen him that frisky in a while. I'll watch him a bit to see if he is still frisky now that the bad teeth are gone or if he's subdued again. That will help me sort out whether he may be having some underlying pain that the post-surgery pain meds helped relieve. If so, I'll talk with the vet about getting him something regularly for pain.

 

Susan, I don't think he's eating out of my vegetable garden because I'm not finding flattened plants, broken branches, or seeing missing veggies that I was expecting to harvest myself.

 

Thank you all for the advice and sympathy. Along with all the other things I'm going to check and watch, I'm to drop by the vet's office to weigh him about once a month. If his weight is pretty steady, I will try to relax and have faith that he'll eat what he needs.

 

--Lucy

[GeorgeofNE]

Lucy, check your receipts. Sometimes they just draw urine out with a needle. Since Piper spends the day for his blood work, it's not unlikely they did that, rather than ask you to bring it in a cup. Or just ask the vet's staff to look in his records.

[4My2Greys]

Lucy, when Nadir has gut problems he walks with his stomach drawn up and when he lies down he pulls his back legs up into his belly . Is Piper maybe lying or walking in a way that would indicate his belly is bothering him?

[Guest BillF]

My two greys (Olive age 7 & Tip age 5) have been eating less for the last 4 to 6 weeks. Tip has always been a little nervous or cautious, and he was more so lately. I finally wrote that off to the fireworks and thunder storms after having him checked out at the vet (blood and urine tests).

 

They both used to really dig into the Kirklands chicken and rice. Then Kirklands must have changed the formula - both of mine just wouldn't eat it anymore. I tried add-ins but they just picked through the bowl and fished them out - leaving the kibble. We've changed to Purina One chicken and rice, and they are eating that - just less of it.

 

But they are maintaining their weight. In fact Olive is gaining weight. She goes after whatever Tip leaves in the bowl. So free feeding is out for us. I'm even starting to think about keeping them apart when feeding so I can manage who gets what.

 

I asked several folks (The vet, the adoption kennel, and other grey owners). They all say it's common during the summer.

 

They both act healthy, run like bandits, and jump around when I get home. They aren't acting like a sick, starving dog.

 

I've decided to not worry about it for a while and continue to monitor their weight.

 

I don't know what add-ins you tried. I haven't tried them, but I tried a simple mix of boiled ground beef and brown rice. Mine loved that. And it's easy to mix through the kibble making it harder for them to pick it out.

 

Good Luck

Bill

[TheFullHouse]

Glad to see he's eating again! Prayers he keep eating with gusto!