Very Sick Grey...advice Needed Not Sure How To Proceed Or If To Procee

[greysandmollie]

Cooked chicken usually is a winner with some pasta and rice..scrambled eggs and hotdogs are often hard to turn down. Bread is also a big hit usually.

 

Best wishes on a speedy recovery...such a scary time for you.

[Remolacha]

Scrambled eggs, green tripe (the canned is easier to find & feed, and stinkier), sardines, bread, canned cat food, meat baby food. These are all things I have tried and had some success with over the years.

[tbhounds]

Do they want him started on a novel food---venison, duck, quail, ....... Or a prescription hypoallergenic food like Z/D,???

[Guest alannamac]

Right now they just want him to eat ANYTHING because he's anorexic and then we'll go to elimination diets etc in case it's a food allergy.

I had a little success just now with canned Nutro puppy Lamb and Rice...he ate about 1/4 cup voluntarily and that's something!

Basically syringe feeding clinicare and A/D tinned food at the moment...as much as he'll tolerate

Over the weekend he's rejected bread, scrambled eggs, and chicken....I'm leery of trying cat food, that stuff's pretty rich and used to give him the big D when he'd get into it in the past.

Sliced turkey and ham are also getting a big thumbs down as well as cheese

[Batmom]

Oddball, not-too-rich things that some dogs really like: Gingersnaps, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, spaghettios.

[NeylasMom]

I was going to suggest the canned Nutro.

 

Also, if he seems less interested in meat, what about a fruit baby food that would have a little sweetness? If he likes it straight up, try mixing it with a bit of boiled chicken?

[MaryJane]

Try Challah bread - it's an egg bread, toast and then spread with butter or peanut butter. You can also try oatmeal with some honey and almond milk. Fry some steak and give pieces of that. You could also try white fish (that is what I have my IBD Lucy on). Cook some potatoes and mash with some cheese - my dogs go crazy over this.

 

edited to add --- applesauce with yogurt

Edited June 2, 2014 by MaryJane

[Guest alannamac]

Oddball, not-too-rich things that some dogs really like: Gingersnaps, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, spaghettios.

ooooh I bet he'd go for the wafers and graham crackers! thanks!

I was going to suggest the canned Nutro.

 

Also, if he seems less interested in meat, what about a fruit baby food that would have a little sweetness? If he likes it straight up, try mixing it with a bit of boiled chicken?

Ok I'll pick up some baby food and see if he's interested, I had meat (chicken and turkey) beechnut baby food leftover from when my cat was sick just a month ago (UTI) and tried that, but it's not tempting him, maybe fruit would thanks!

Try Challah bread - it's an egg bread, toast and then spread with butter or peanut butter. You can also try oatmeal with some honey and almond milk. Fry some steak and give pieces of that. You could also try white fish (that is what I have my IBD Lucy on). Cook some potatoes and mash with some cheese - my dogs go crazy over this.

 

edited to add --- applesauce with yogurt

Hmmm....perhaps steak or fish would do the trick.!..I have tilapia in the freezer...steak I can pick up ....he used to act like such a fool just from the smell of cooking steak!

[kudzu]

Goats milk is very wholesome & appealing to many sick dogs. If you don't have a local supply you could probably find some in in a whole food store or even canned in many grocery stores.

[deboosh]

Oh, I forgot ginger snaps. And ginger is a natural tummy tamer.

[Guest alannamac]

Ok I went to the store on my way home from work and picked up all suggestions that were available....no goat's milk but a lot of the other things!

So I have tried two of the most bland and easiest the graham crackers and vanilla wafers (low fat) and low and behold he wolfed down a dozen of those nilla wafers....so there's hope.

 

Thank you all. If you have more suggestions, please keep them coming...it's possible he will turn off of this as well so I'd like to have the pantry stocked!

[NeylasMom]

I would try to make those things work to your advantage by mixing them in or putting them on top of bland home cooked food. Obv chicken breast is the easiest on the stomach, but I know you said he turned his nose up so maybe you could try ground turkey with the fat rinsed off when it's done, or even ground beef if you do the same thing, mixed with a bit of cooked/mashed potato or sweet potato and then sprinkle crushed nilla wafers on top. Keeping the nilla wafer to food ratio high at first of course.

 

Either way, glad you found some things that he likes!

[Guest alannamac]

Ok thanks yes, good idea so he doesn't burn out on straight nilla wafers. I just tried dipping one in Wellness salmon & potato tinned and he ate about a tbsp. will wait a while and try again

[cleptogrey]

as i read thru the post the symptoms sounded all too familiar to my scottie's onset of addison's disease. he was fine, a tad tired after a week of camping then he crashed. but your vet said he doesn't have it...mmmmm

 

lethargic, no appetite, no drinking, licking the air since he was so nauseous. poor velcro couldn't get up to go out- i carried him out for potty and he nearly fell over every time. basically he was shutting down. then one aspect of the test looked like addisons. my vet was hydrating him daily- 7am visits for his sub-q hydrations and then he gave him a shot- this is going back to the early 90s. steroid?? maybe. but it was as if a light switch was turned on.

 

food wise, we tried everything to get him interested....saute` steak w/ soy,ginger,garlic, pasta w/ olive oil and garlic, graham crackers, pepperidge farm cookies- you name it he didn't eat it. and this is the dog who used to break into the food bag and bing.

 

can you possibly send his blood work out for a second opinion? it's a hard one to diagnose. btw- if it is, predisone and florienff worked much better than the precorten shots. easier to adjust the dosages, but a PITA since they need to be administered daily.

[Guest alannamac]

as i read thru the post the symptoms sounded all too familiar to my scottie's onset of addison's disease. he was fine, a tad tired after a week of camping then he crashed. but your vet said he doesn't have it...mmmmm

 

lethargic, no appetite, no drinking, licking the air since he was so nauseous. poor velcro couldn't get up to go out- i carried him out for potty and he nearly fell over every time. basically he was shutting down. then one aspect of the test looked like addisons. my vet was hydrating him daily- 7am visits for his sub-q hydrations and then he gave him a shot- this is going back to the early 90s. steroid?? maybe. but it was as if a light switch was turned on.

 

food wise, we tried everything to get him interested....saute` steak w/ soy,ginger,garlic, pasta w/ olive oil and garlic, graham crackers, pepperidge farm cookies- you name it he didn't eat it. and this is the dog who used to break into the food bag and bing.

 

can you possibly send his blood work out for a second opinion? it's a hard one to diagnose. btw- if it is, predisone and florienff worked much better than the precorten shots. easier to adjust the dosages, but a PITA since they need to be administered daily.

Thanks for your advice. Yes I've read about addisonian crises and they sound terrifying. I hope your pup made it through successfully. What a nightmare.

Red is already on prednisone now and he was treated for the first several days as if it was an addisonian crisis medwise so pretty sure it's not, or it would've turned around by now.

He's on so many meds now I don't know if his inappetance is due to his illness or all of the meds. I'll list them in case anyone is experienced in this area:

Pepcid, Cerenia, Metronidazole, Cefpod, Azthioprene, Prednisone, Baytril, Sucralfate and Enalapril.

I think they're a bunch of antibiotics (in case bacterial flora of the gut have caused the IBD), antinausea,, antacids and stomach coating agents.

Many cause inappetance and dizzyness so I'm not surprised Red is not eating but holy cow he's wasting away before my eyes and this has got to turn around soon........

[greyhead]

Metronidazole can make everything taste bad, so we put ours in capsules. And, sure, the sheer quantity of meds can mess with appetite.

 

We also used budesonide for IBD because prednisone causes weight loss in that condition, and he didn't have it to spare. That's because he also had a SIBO infection to start with; a culture and sensitivity test of his poop revealed exactly the bacterium involved (Clostridium perfringens, kind of unusual), so we knew which antibiotics to use; it took 3 a/b's, but we gave them one after the other, not all at once. It's also not a great idea to be giving pred and azathioprine or any other immunosuppressant if there's an intestinal infection that hasn't been cured yet.

[Hawthorn]

Azathioprine and Metronidazole both made my boy feel very bad. With the Azathioprine I gave him one dose at bedtime and he was restless and clearly nauseous all night and didn't eat again until the following evening, so I didn't give him any more and we managed his autoimmune issues just on prednisolone. With the Metronidazole I suspected this was affecting my boy's appetite (I have taken this myself and know how sick it made me feel) and his appetite did improve once this was stopped.

 

Our situations are not identical, but I was in a similar situation to you a couple of years ago with the dog mentioned above who had returned from two weeks in hospital looking like a walking skeleton, with little appetite and bloody, liquid diarrhoea. His appetite was so poor that he would only eat a tiny bit of any one thing at a time, so what I found worked best for him was to offer him ten course meals. I kept a list of any food he showed any interest in (about 20 items) and at each meal (5 times a day) I would start at the top of the list and keep offering him different things until he'd eaten enough. I'd start with the healthiest things and let him eat as much as he wanted of those first, so a typical meal might have been: a mouthful of kibble, a spoonful of wet dog food, some chicken breast, a few mini cocktail sausages, a squirt of cream cheese, a tripe stick, a strawberry probiotic yoghurt drink etc etc. I avoided anything too fatty, as prednisolone does increase the risk of pancreatitis, but apart from that I gave him anything he'd eat. I was also giving him a probiotic paste (Pro-Kolin) and a concentrated vitamin/mineral paste (Nutrigel). It was a long slog, but over the course of a few weeks his appetite gradually returned to normal. We never really knew what caused this state of affairs, but I suspect it was the huge number of drugs they gave him whilst he was in hospital.

[robinw]

Pizza

[cleptogrey]

Thanks for your advice. Yes I've read about addisonian crises and they sound terrifying. I hope your pup made it through successfully. What a nightmare.

Red is already on prednisone now and he was treated for the first several days as if it was an addisonian crisis medwise so pretty sure it's not, or it would've turned around by now.

He's on so many meds now I don't know if his inappetance is due to his illness or all of the meds. I'll list them in case anyone is experienced in this area:

Pepcid, Cerenia, Metronidazole, Cefpod, Azthioprene, Prednisone, Baytril, Sucralfate and Enalapril.

I think they're a bunch of antibiotics (in case bacterial flora of the gut have caused the IBD), antinausea,, antacids and stomach coating agents.

Many cause inappetance and dizzyness so I'm not surprised Red is not eating but holy cow he's wasting away before my eyes and this has got to turn around soon........

he was diagnosed at 2.5 and lived to 12.5! pretty remarkable, just couldn't tolerate the heat or cold.....

honestly your dog's episode sounds like what velcro went thru. hope things work their way to a successful conclusion.

[Guest alannamac]

Ok I'm going to speak with my vet on Thursday and see what we can discontinue to see if his appetite improves. Edema looks better today and he's got a bit more spirit. He let me spoon feed him 1/2 can total of Wellness simple diet Salmon and Potato, licked up any bits that spilled, but wouldn't dig his head in and eat it himself.....it really does seem like nausea...

 

Had a perfect poo this morning thanks to those Vanilla wafers!

 

Pizza...yes! I forgot how much he likes the crust edge! Starch and bread don't seem to bother his stomach at all...in fact he seems to prefer them so perhaps this is what I will try tonight for his free feed.

 

He ran to the window this morning to watch me go to work, hasn't done that in over a week, so I think he's getting better : )

[NeylasMom]

Sounds like great progress!

[a_daerr]

I'm so glad that he's making a slow, but steady turnaround. Big hugs to you for not giving up on him.

[Batmom]

Fingers crossed for continued improvement!

[deboosh]

Great News! Sounds like he's really turned a corner.

[carronstar]

This morning's update sounds like a turn for the better.

 

You said you have tilapia in the freezer. Try that, I remember when Robin went through hideous bouts of IBD with her Beau, tilapia is what she finally found out he enjoyed eating and it worked for him. Then again, a life of actual cookies and pizza sounds kind of fun for a little bit.