Not Eating

[Guest DanTheMan]

A little background: Winnie will be 13 on Friday. She's always been very healthy but a "weak eater". She will easily walk away from her food if she's disturbed or if I leave the room, or even if we tell the other dogs to get away from her food. Over the past few months it seems like it's harder and harder to get her to finish her meals. She gets a cup in the am and 1 1/2 in the pm. I was giving her more but it was just being wasted because she wasn't finishing it. For awhile I mixed in some sardines and then it was canned food to entice her.

 

Last Wednesday when she wouldn't eat breakfast I was concerned so I gave her a sample bag I had of Noutrish with canned food and she ate it right up (I normally feed Taste of the Wild Lamb). Later in the morning she got up off the couch and vomited a small amount with a little kibble. Later on in the day she vomited again a medium amount of brown, liquid. I started her on boiled chicken and rich, which she liked. Friday night she had three episodes of diarrhea and a small amount of vomit.

 

I got her to the vet Saturday am and the exam was benign and labs were fine. Got some meds for the nausea and diarrhea. Ate a small dinner of chicken and rice and baby food on Saturday night, no diarrhea or vomit. Sunday she seemed a little lethargic (I think from the antiemetic) and wouldn't eat but ate good later that night. Monday was great, ate 4 small meals. Today, nothing. I got her to eat a few bites of chicken and a few bites of sardines. She did eat a good amount of hamburger meat I made her and loved the pizza I was eating. And she won't turn down a dog treat. It's like she'll eat something and then all of a sudden she turns off and that's it, won't eat it anymore.

 

Meanwhile, she's happy as can be and is back to her old self. The vet won't return my calls, I've left two messages. I don't know if I should be concerned. My husband tends to think I have her spoiled now and my mom thinks she may be bored with her food and I need to keep mixing it up. The problem I have is I feel like I can't wait her out on this. She's very thin and I think if she doesn't eat she'll get weaker and weaker and then she won't be able to eat.

 

Any opinions or suggestions?

Forgot to add that the vet said her teeth looked ok for a 13 yo greyhound. I do have antibiotics on hand just in case but he wanted me to wait until she was eating good.

And she's been on Proin for some time now, which I stopped Wednesday night.

[greysmom]

I'm so sorry your having trouble. I haven't been blessed to have one of mine live into their teenage years, but I think I might be inclined to simply give her whatever she wants to eat, including pizza! At 13, she deserves to be a little spoiled!

 

FWIW, I have a 2 year old that's the same way. You might try smaller meals, made up of more canned food and less kibble, with a small amount of broth. I also like to use pasta or potatoes rather than rice in my homecooked meals. If the rice isn't cooked to mush, it doesn't digest as easily. Beneful Prepared Meals work for us, as well. Taste buds and preferences change as we age, so she might not find regular foods as tasty anymore.

[Remolacha]

I would tend to agree, at 13, give her what ever she wants Several small meals will probably be more appealing to her, and if she has always been a quirky eater, there are some other things you can try. Someone (Fiona?) posted in my thread on Molly's chemo a couple of excellent links on things to try to entice them to eat. Just changing the bowl she eats out of has helped Molly, although of course I know why she isn't eating as well as I would like.

[Fiona3]

I agree with the advice to give her whatever she will eat. If she had an upset stomach and threw up, she might associate the sick feeling with the food she ate (much like people do). This happened to Fiona during her chemo treatments.

 

You could try cooking and serving some bland food between meals to keep her weight up. Fiona (and one of our other senior dogs) likes scrambled eggs with some boiled ground turkey mixed in. Another good food that tempted her to eat was Merrick's Puppy food. You can purchase this is small size cans and it's just enough to fill her stomach. When Fiona lost her taste for kibble, I started serving it dry as a snack instead. She ate what she wanted and I could save the rest for another time. Perhaps just some boiled, shredded chicken in a bowl by itself will appeal to her. I discovered that too many flavors mixed together was not very appealing to Fiona.

 

Here is the link to a good article dealing with poor appetite in dogs.

 

http://www.dogaware....nappetence.html

 

Good luck with Winnie. It's hard and worrisome when they aren't eating.

[JohnF]

Sometimes at that age it can be Chronic Renal Failure just starting to make them feel off-color because the efficiency of the excretory mechanisms is not what it once was. I'd have renal function checked again and with a fresh morning catch dipped. There's not a lot you can do with that other than to ease the symptoms, but that alone can bring an appetite back for a while.

Or it may be psychological issues like very old people often get, and what works there is maintaining the routine without fuss even if they don't eat a lot.

[duncan41]

As long as the "labs" included a CBC, SuperChem Panel (adjusted to Greyhound idiosyncrasies) and a Urinalysis, I would feed her whatever she wants, whenever she wants it. There are so many options out there now in canned foods but only buy one can of everything you think she might like and rotate two or three cans at one time. Warm it up a little bit, mix it with unsalted chicken broth or a little Ensure. Mix in some people food. Lots of variety in mini-meals many times a day.

 

I hope to have the privilege of having one of mine make it to 13 one day. Gentle hugs for Winnie.

[Guest DanTheMan]

Thank you for the great advice. The article was particularly helpful and I will bring in a urine sample tomorrow. I'm going to follow the feeding suggestions in the article as well.

 

It's just so frustrating because she's so happy and peppy but won't eat. She'll take a few bites and just walk away. I know I'm very lucky to have her at 13 but I want her around for a lot longer too.

[MP_the4pack]

My Onyx lived to 15.5. When younger she wasn't picky but as she got older she'd walk away from her dinner. She'd go for a couple of days without eating much but maybe treats. Just when I was about to call the vets, her appetite picked up and she ate like there was no tomorrow. She did this a lot for the last 2 years of her life. I am generous with the types of food, so boredom wasn't the cause. Her weight seems to be stable so that wasn't a concern. But if I worried she was not getting enough nutrients I'd give her an Ensure for weight gain. LOVED it.

[3DogNite]

You could try the very popular (in my house anyway) - FAT BALLS

raw hamburger concoction that my boy Lazer LIVED on for several months after a serious health crisis.

hmm,, sorry I don't have a link to the recipe, I think if you search on GT for it you will find all kinds of information from past threads.

 

Good Luck!

all mine that lived past 13 were very picky - every day was a guessing game and some days nothing worked at all.. it is very worrisome!

but they each handled it differently and we managed to keep enough nutrition for at least one of mine up to 15yrs old!

[Guest DanTheMan]

I thought I'd give a little update on Winnie. She didn't much of anything Tuesday and nothing Wednesday. Yesterday she ate an entire container of Beneful, then some cooked ground turkey. Last night she ate about half a container of Beneful and two hot dogs and about a cup of the turkey. I did give her the antibiotics after feeding her the vet prescribed just in case there is an issue with her teeth. Last night she vomited three times, the first I've seen since last week. It's the same as before, brown liquid. I was so hopeful but now I feel like I'm back to square one with her.

 

I took her to the vet yesterday afternoon and he is completely out of ideas. Chest x-ray is fine and she is pooping and I haven't seen any more diarrhea since last Saturday. I gave her the nausea medication I still had this morning and I gave her 1/2 a can of the a/d food the vet sent me home with. She turned down the turkey. I didn't offer her anything else to make sure she keeps it down.

 

Otherwise she's acting fine and even gained almost a pound from Saturday to yesterday and she turned 13 today. I'm just so frustrated and stressed and she's just snoozing on the couch.

[Guest OPointyDog]

Have you tried Mirtazapine? That made a HUGE difference in the dog we had who was ill and would not eat. It's an anti-depressant/appetite stimulant. Seems to work for some dogs very well.

[Remolacha]

Molly was switched from metroclopramide to ondansetron in part because it was supposedly better for vomiting, although she has had nausea, she's never actually thrown up. It has worked so well, that she comes into the kitchen expecting to be fed every time I go in there! It is so frustrating when the eat something one day, then walk away from it the next

[Guest Giselle]

As others mentioned, this pickiness and erratic eating behavior is pretty common in older dogs. I personally suspect that it has to do with 1) probable cognitive deficits 2) decreased sense of smell. Dogs have phenomenal senses of smell, and taste + smell are inextricably linked (at least, we know this is true for people. I'm willing to bet that it's the same for dogs). While you are doing a great job keeping in touch with your dog's tendencies and feeding her whatever she needs, I think you should take it easy on yourself and just accept her appetite as is There's not much we can change about the aging process. After going through a lot of worries and stress myself, I've erred on the side of letting old dogs be old dogs. They've lived great lives, and it's clear your dog is still receiving the best of care. A skipped meal or two is not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things with an otherwise healthy animal. I wouldn't worry about it until she starts skipping multiple meals, starts to lose weight, and her stamina starts to drop. Other than that, though, it sounds like she's doing well and you need a break from stress!

[Guest DanTheMan]

As others mentioned, this pickiness and erratic eating behavior is pretty common in older dogs. I personally suspect that it has to do with 1) probable cognitive deficits 2) decreased sense of smell. Dogs have phenomenal senses of smell, and taste + smell are inextricably linked (at least, we know this is true for people. I'm willing to bet that it's the same for dogs). While you are doing a great job keeping in touch with your dog's tendencies and feeding her whatever she needs, I think you should take it easy on yourself and just accept her appetite as is There's not much we can change about the aging process. After going through a lot of worries and stress myself, I've erred on the side of letting old dogs be old dogs. They've lived great lives, and it's clear your dog is still receiving the best of care. A skipped meal or two is not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things with an otherwise healthy animal. I wouldn't worry about it until she starts skipping multiple meals, starts to lose weight, and her stamina starts to drop. Other than that, though, it sounds like she's doing well and you need a break from stress!

 

Thank you, I needed that.

 

BTW I started her on the mirtazapine and she's doing well. She's perky and appears to feel well, pooping, drinking, and eating when and what she wants. Turned down ground turkey but ate Cheeze Its and cake last night.