Appetite stimulants for old dogs UPDATED went to the vet

[Horsegal984]

Personally? I wouldn’t worry too much about kennel cough. I only vaccinate for the “life threatening” sort of things. My dogs spend a decent amount of time at the clinic where I work and I’m horrible about keeping their vaccines up to date. So far so good

Blood panels can run anywhere from $60-100 for basic type things and $120-200 for a full panel. It does vary a lot but talk to the vet and be honest about your financial limitations. A good vet will be willing to come up with ways to work with you.

[Jhein12]

[QUOTE=Horsegal984;7463823]
Personally? I wouldn’t worry too much about kennel cough. I only vaccinate for the “life threatening” sort of things. My dogs spend a decent amount of time at the clinic where I work and I’m horrible about keeping their vaccines up to date. So far so good

Blood panels can run anywhere from $60-100 for basic type things and $120-200 for a full panel. It does vary a lot but talk to the vet and be honest about your financial limitations. A good vet will be willing to come up with ways to work with you.[/QUOTE]

Thanks. I don’t bother with vaccines that much either, but I thought maybe he was more at risk for harm because of his age?

[GotSpots]

You may have already tried it, but we’ve had good luck with warm chicken broth poured over our older dog’s food when he gets picky. He’s always been a bit of a fussy eater, and though he’ll generally eat ok now that he’s on the Blue Buffalo Wilderness food, some days he turns his nose up even at that. On those occasions, a couple of tablespoons of warm broth will convince him that dinner really is awesome after all.

[SquishTheBunny]

Can you skip a few grooming visits and do a blood panel/radiographs instead? It will really give you a good idea if there is something serious going on or not. A normally good eater should not turn picky unless they are not feeling right.

Generally a CBC/Superchemistry should run you around $75-100 give or take. Radiographs will vary, but can be a very useful tool for diagnosing what could be wrong. Many things can be treated symptomatically very cheaply.

[Jhein12]

[QUOTE=SquishTheBunny;7465334]
Can you skip a few grooming visits and do a blood panel/radiographs instead? It will really give you a good idea if there is something serious going on or not. A normally good eater should not turn picky unless they are not feeling right.

Generally a CBC/Superchemistry should run you around $75-100 give or take. Radiographs will vary, but can be a very useful tool for diagnosing what could be wrong. Many things can be treated symptomatically very cheaply.[/QUOTE]

I groom him, like I said “at the salon where I work” so it is free. I also get discounts on all of the food I feed him since I get the food where I work. Hopefully the prices aren’t crazy at the vet, I want to get as many tests as he needs done.

[Guin]

Cod liver oil (available at the fish counter of the grocery store) or the oil that sardines come in. They love it. A little drizzle over his normal food. Or roast a chicken or a roast beef and save the drippings to put on his food.

Personally, I would just start cooking for him. I buy the cheapest meat that’s on sale, stick it in the crockpot with a cup of rice and veggies, and cook it til it’s mush consistency. You need to add calcium, a multi-vitamin and enzyme powder, but it ends up costing about the same as buying commercial food.

[Jhein12]

[QUOTE=Guin;7467921]
Cod liver oil (available at the fish counter of the grocery store) or the oil that sardines come in. They love it. A little drizzle over his normal food. Or roast a chicken or a roast beef and save the drippings to put on his food.

Personally, I would just start cooking for him. I buy the cheapest meat that’s on sale, stick it in the crockpot with a cup of rice and veggies, and cook it til it’s mush consistency. You need to add calcium, a multi-vitamin and enzyme powder, but it ends up costing about the same as buying commercial food.[/QUOTE]

I’m not much for cooked food for dogs and cats. I do prey model raw for my cats. But alas, I did try this for him, and he did the same crap. So I won’t do it again, so if I’m going to home prepare his food it will be raw food so that the taurine isn’t all cooked out. But he even does the same thing with the raw food. I have tried fish oil, but the one for people that has a lemon flavoring. He didn’t care for it. Maybe I’ll try the one without flavoring.

[Sobriska]

I have 2 dogs at the moment.
One is a golden doodle that would eat anything that didn’t eat him first! Seems labs are like that.

The other is a chow/Shepard mix. He was an odd eater from the time I found him as a small puppy. He would nibble and guard his dish from the other adult dogs, yet allow any baby animal, new puppy or kittens to eat with him.
He seldom finished his food. And has always been lean.

He also has other oddities, such as wanting to sleep in a den of sorts, like a laundry basket in the closet, under furniture, in the laundry room.

As he aged, his odd feeding behaviors got worse. We made a few vet visits, because he was and is alarmingly thin. Many tests run, and we talked about an appetite stimulant. Like the OP, we tried MANY different foods. He eats something well for a few days, then won’t eat. And no, dogs like this won’t get hungry enough to eat what’s in front of them. Literally, if anyone saw this dog, they would turn me in for starving him!

On our last vet visit, vet said at this point, feed whatever he will eat. And that’s what we do. I TRY to get some actual high calorieDOG food into him, usually canned. But if he won’t eat that, I will scramble eggs with ham and cheese, cook chicken, hamburger, anything to get him to eat.

Is it a pain in the ass? Well, yeah, but being a Mom is not always easy:). He’s 15 now, and though he is thin he is still lively and happy. So we will keep babying him.

[Jhein12]

Just got back from the vet and am pleased to say that they were reasonably priced. Visit with blood work was $140. He has something wrong with his retinas that is common in poodles and he has luxating patellas. The vet didn’t see anything physically wrong other than those things and didn’t know what could be causing the picky eating habits so we will see what the blood work shows soon. I got a sample bag of Stella & Chewy’s frozen raw and he ate it really fast this morning so I think he likes it… maybe he was just bored with the same Nature’s Variety for awhile? Who knows.

[SkipHiLad4me]

FWIW, I have a 15.5 yr old Boston Terrier who has tried to eat me out of house and home for as long as I’ve had her. She does have a faulty liver and possibly some kidney issues but her recent bloodwork looked essentially the same as it did 2 yrs ago. However she’s become really picky about her food lately. I’m having a hard time figuring out what she wants. She still has a good appetite but I’m starting to suspect something is up with her sense of smell that might be affecting her taste. She cant see well either. When I sit her food down, she’s excited to eat but then goes oh after she checks it out. Most of the time I can eventually convince her to eat some combination of the wet and dry dog food we have in our house but it seems like I have to change it again after a couple of meals. Sometimes just warm water or soaking the food suits her. I haven’t come up with a good solution yet but just thought I’d let you know you’re not alone!

[Guin]

Does anyone remember that old Saran Wrap tv ad? Where they wrapped a roast beef in Saran and threw it to a tiger? “Tigers won’t eat what they can’t smell!” So definitely, if your dog’s sense of smell is going, that may be an issue.

[Jhein12]

[QUOTE=SkipHiLad4me;7473937]
FWIW, I have a 15.5 yr old Boston Terrier who has tried to eat me out of house and home for as long as I’ve had her. She does have a faulty liver and possibly some kidney issues but her recent bloodwork looked essentially the same as it did 2 yrs ago. However she’s become really picky about her food lately. I’m having a hard time figuring out what she wants. She still has a good appetite but I’m starting to suspect something is up with her sense of smell that might be affecting her taste. She cant see well either. When I sit her food down, she’s excited to eat but then goes oh after she checks it out. Most of the time I can eventually convince her to eat some combination of the wet and dry dog food we have in our house but it seems like I have to change it again after a couple of meals. Sometimes just warm water or soaking the food suits her. I haven’t come up with a good solution yet but just thought I’d let you know you’re not alone![/QUOTE]

Thanks. Still waiting on the results but he does this sometimes too and I’ll put some of the food in his mouth and after he tastes it he is more likely to eat more, but not always.