Itchy Nose And The Loss Of Appetite

[Guest overjoyed]

Hi,

 

I need your help on my 12 y/o retired greyhound. She has fluctuating appetite. She has been on dry food for many years. As she tries to eat and brings her nose towards her food, her nose gets itchy and she needs to rub her nose which prevents her from eating. It gets very bad that her nose is bleeding sometimes. She is obviously hungry and wants food but something makes the actual act of eating uncomfortable. We asked our vet to check her teeth (she has only 16 left), her urine sample and other issues but the vet couldn’t find out anything aside from the fact that our dog is old. Our grey has been experiencing this issue for 2 weeks at a time, and then she may eat very well for few days, bounce back to the itchy nose state for another 2 weeks. The problem started about 16 months ago when she got auto immune disease. The disease is gone but her appetite and eating habit have not been fully recovered. We have found out that some frozen BARF/raw food can be consumed without any issue but it is not all kind of raw food at the shop. For instance fish based raw food bothers her more than animal base. Oddly the raw food has to be frozen. Once it’s thawed she has intention to eat but the discomfort in her nose keeps her from eating. Does anyone have seen this issue? Please share your suggestions/thoughts with us. We are afraid to see our grey getting weaker and weaker.

 

Thanks,

Ayumi

[macoduck]

Is the kibble moistened or served dry?

Is her bowl plastic or metal?

[GeorgeofNE]

I wasn't aware that autoimmune diseases went away?

 

Does she have lupus? That could make her nose painful.

[Guest overjoyed]

Hi Macoduck,

She gets plastic bowl.

Her kibble is presented dry, and is available 24/7 next to her water bowl. We used to moistened with broth but she experienced the same itchy nose.

 

Is the kibble moistened or served dry?

Is her bowl plastic or metal?

[Guest overjoyed]

GeorgeofNE,

I didn't know one can recover from autoimmune diseases actually. She had about 2 months of prednisone. She has been off the medication for about a year. I am not sure if she was suffering from Lupus. She never had any change externally during the period she was sick. She just lost blood (was detected by her urine, also blood cell count was 1/4 of healthy grey) and got weaker and weaker.

 

I wasn't aware that autoimmune diseases went away?

 

Does she have lupus? That could make her nose painful.

[Guest Swifthounds]

Lose the plastic bowl ASAP and replace with a stainless steel bowl. Plastic traps germs, breaks down over time, and can cause skin reactions.

[Guest overjoyed]

Swifthounds,

I will get stainless steel bowls tomorrow and see how it goes. However, our hound is getting itchy nose when we hand feed too. there may be something else causing the discomfort.

Thanks.

 

Lose the plastic bowl ASAP and replace with a stainless steel bowl. Plastic traps germs, breaks down over time, and can cause skin reactions.

[Guest Swifthounds]

Even if you hand feed sometimes , the dog eating or drinking from plastic is not a good idea. It may not be the source of the issue, but it will only aggravate an existing irritation. The plastic holds food particles and smells, which can be off putting as well.

[Hawthorn]

Just a thought, but are you sure her nose is actually itchy?

 

I recall that one of my greyhounds when he got to be elderly started to push his food bowl with his nose instead of eating the food and if I gave him the food on his bed he would rub his nose on the bed. In his case, it was just that he needed to have more palatable food (not kibble), and the nose-rubbing stopped completely when I changed his diet.

 

The behaviour you describe reminded me of my old boy and you said she is OK with some foods and not others .

[Guest overjoyed]

Hawthorn,

 

It is highly possible that Joy lost interests on kibble. Your story somewhat resemble what Joy is going through. She can't contain herself when we visit our relatives because she knows that she can get sausages. She seems to have endless appetite for certain types of food but not any type of dry food or few raw food packages we tried. In addition her liking changed in the past. First she had an issue with dry food, then we added broth which helped for only few weeks. We tried sardine but it losts its magic after no more than 7 weeks.

 

Did you have to continuously change diet for your picky eater? I am curious how much longer we have to play trial and error.

 

Just a thought, but are you sure her nose is actually itchy?

 

I recall that one of my greyhounds when he got to be elderly started to push his food bowl with his nose instead of eating the food and if I gave him the food on his bed he would rub his nose on the bed. In his case, it was just that he needed to have more palatable food (not kibble), and the nose-rubbing stopped completely when I changed his diet.

 

The behaviour you describe reminded me of my old boy and you said she is OK with some foods and not others .

[Hawthorn]

Did you have to continuously change diet for your picky eater?

 

I did have to change the way I fed him, but once we got into a new routine I didn't have to then keep changing it. I cut out the kibble completely, but I was able to find a few varieties of canned food he liked in different flavours and a few of the premium wet foods in trays. I also made him home-cooked meals a few times a week, which isn't as much trouble as it sounds once you get into the habit, and if you're really organised you can cook up a big batch and keep it in meal-sized portions in the freezer.

 

The secret with my boy was to not give him the same meal too often. My boy had three meals a day, but they would all be something different. You just have to make sure you keep a stock of the things you know they like and then keep rotating them so they don't get tired of anything. You might find that Joy will enjoy sardines maybe twice a week, but not every day. Same with broth on the kibble etc. If she likes sausages, she might enjoy a home-cooked meal of (low-fat, no onion) sausages with wholewheat pasta and broccoli, for example.

 

If you are going to try this, I'd suggest keeping a notebook and writing down all the things she likes, as I found it was easy to forget things.

 

Good luck with Joy. They are so precious when they get old and deserve a little (or a lot!) of spoiling.

[Batmom]

In addition to changing the bowls, you might want to try a stomach med such as Pepcid (famotidine; over the counter) or sucralfate from your vet. Sometimes a mildly upset tummy can keep a dog from eating and result in the pushing food around behavior.

 

If you can't get a steel bowl right away, a heavy glass or glazed ceramic serving bowl might be worth a try. Just be sure to put it where she can't knock it over and break it.

 

During @ the last year of his life, our whippet lost interest in hard food. There was nothing wrong with his teeth that we could find. He would eat some well-soaked kibble but we fed quite a bit of canned food and homecooked food (shredded chicken breast, gently cooked ground beef, scrambled egg, etc.). If a dog is ill or elderly, I'll try to get some reasonable nutrition in them but otherwise do my best to follow their whims.

 

Best luck with your sweet pup.

[Guest overjoyed]

Dear kind friends of greyhounds,

 

Today Joy had eaten 100 grams of dog food covered with plain yoghurt from my hands. When the food was presented on her dish, she kept rubbing her nose against pillow whenever she brought her nose to her food. The recommended amount according to the kibble package is 350g/d but 100 grams of kibble but it is far more than what she has been eating for last few days.

 

Her teeth are OK. All bad/semi-lose teeth are removed few years back. Her gum lines are tender but it has been tender as far as she has been with us (nearly 5 yrs). We brush her teeth every night.

 

Her dishes are changed from plastic to ceramic this morning as we took the advice from many of you. The dishes will be washed daily (in case some of you were wondering).

 

Whenever Joy gets sick, it appears that she lose her weight rather too quick. We would like to maintain her weight in the case she becomes ill again.

 

Twitter community suggested chicken from butcher as a part of her diet. I am going to try chicken breasts. I will be more mindful to add some variety on her diet from now on. I was hesitated to give anything but dog food assuming it may not be sufficient or it may be too much salt. However, Joy has been eating pretty much same food (various brands of kibble) for many years. In her geriatric age, I suppose few excitment of wet food may be suitable.

 

It is still mystery to me that Joy prefers frozen food. I would like to make some update in few days.

Cheers.