Elder dog with no appetite *Update: to the Rainbow Bridge

[Kyrabee]

My Mom’s elderly cocker spaniel (13 1/2 y.o.) has lost her appetite. We are not sure what the cause is but think kidney issues. She is peeing out a lot of protein. Mom still lives alone in her house and this is her buddy. We took her in to possibly put her down yesterday but damned…her eyes are bright, her color is good but of course she is lethargic and weak because she hasn’t been eating. No vomiting or diarrhea. Labs, except for her BUN and the urine protein are not horrible at all. We are using Entyce and it does work to get her eating some. She had been on enalapril for her heart murmur but we had weaned that off because she has never been in heart failure. Surprise…since she is peeing out protein, we started that back up yesterday.

Any ideas of what to try for food? I have a list of bland foods from the Vet ER we visited a little over a week ago and none of those things floats her boat. We have a local business that makes it’s own dog food and they put out a baked treat. So far that is ALL she is consistently interested in. Looking at the ingredient list, I guess they are basically dog food that is rolled, cut into paw shaped biscuits and baked so we have been giving her a lot of those. I don’t know what is so good about them but they have been a life saver so far.

She has for a period, eaten cooked hamburger and cooked ground chicken but after 3 or 4 feedings has quit eating those. Sometimes she will eat wet dog food.
Just looking for some suggestions. We are giving her this week then, if no improvement, she will be euthanized.

TIA
Susan

[SonnysMom]

I haven’t tried it with dogs but I have fed meat based first stage baby food to rescue cats and kittens. But the later stages meat with pasta or rice might work for a dog.

I sometimes find that they are more inclined to eat things they think are coming from their human’s plate. I had one 18 year old cat that got finicky. If I gave him his own plate he wouldn’t eat it. If I hand fed the same exact thing from my plate he would eat it. Not sure if it was the hand feeding or the coming from my plate. Mind you he was on the kitchen table either way. Yes at age 18 he could eat on the kitchen table if he darn well wanted to.

Too bad his protein is so high. Cat food tends to be pretty darn tempting for most dogs but I think it tends to having much higher protein. Maybe use a little bit of wet cat food to top off something else.

Maybe some low lactose/lactose free yogurt or cottage cheese.

One cat we mixed clam juice in with his wet food.

Have you tried something like Beneful wet food?

I found by warming the food a little in the microwave or adding hot water to the food can help with the appetite. I think that many older animals including people lose their sense of taste so food is not as appealing. I think by warming the food it makes it smell better so triggers a bit of an appetite.

My vet tended to figure for late in life pets whatever they will eat is better than nothing.

[Kyrabee]

So far, baby food has been a no go. I brought over some stinky cat food but no on that too.She h&as eaten some Beneful wet food. She hasn’t hardly touched any kibble in about 3 weeks. It gets expensive to try so many things, most being a no go. Oh well. I have to get something down her. It will be short term if things don’t turn around.

She is pretty bright again today and following Mom around everywhere which is back toward baseline for behavior…if she would just eat:sigh:.

I have a super finicky hyperthyroid cat that has been a super challenge to get enough calories into. These animals are driving me crazy :grief:.

Susan

[Jarpur]

For my oldster, Fresh Pet (refrigerated food at Target and grocery stores) would temp the appetite at times. Sometimes, scrambled eggs were a hit.

The vet would occasionally prescribe a/d, but said it couldn’t be fed long-term (mousse consistency, so easy to offer on a finger, but stinks to high heaven – probably part of the appeal, lol); she also suggested i/d stress canned food, had noticed it really helped some dogs, such as those with cancer.

[Mango20]

When my older dog went off kibble, I cooked chicken legs in the crockpot, which also yielded some good chicken broth. I added some shredded carrots, and rice. With the chicken on sale for 69 cents/pound, it was far cheaper than any sort of commercial dog food for a picky eater. I also cooked some beef, and bought freeze dried liver treats. I made her some eggs a few mornings. My neighbor’s old dog got sardines as a dog food topper, on the advice of her vet. I’m pet sitting that dog now, and she’s back to eating kibble as long as there is a little tray of Ceasar’s filet wet food on top.

I think when they’re at this stage, it’s best to just let them eat anything they’re willing to eat.

[Saskatoonian]

Is she on any meds that might bother her stomach? My little old lady lived on nexium and couldn’t have any nsaids or she’d stop eating. Good luck.

[XXS]

At some point and if ok from the vet, I try everything if my old dogs don’t eat. Very successful with semolina. Some like sweet yoghurt or sandwiches. As long as they eat I don’t care anymore if this is the healthy dog food I fed them for years or not. If dog is on meds I’d also consider Sucralfate or something similar.

[lilitiger2]

when my dog wasnt’ eating any thing, I boiled up some rice and then fried an egg in about a cup of the rice. He snarfed it right down - easy on the stomach. Might be worth a try anyway!

[hb]

My dogs love kefir poured over their food. I think it tastes disgusting but all the dogs love it.

[Kyrabee]

Thanks all for the suggestions. I wondered about CBD but don’t know what I can find around here…not even hemp is legal in Idaho :).

This morning she ate her treat biscuits. For the love of pete, I don’t know what makes those special. Her teeth are pretty bad but she happily crunches those down. She was scheduled for a dental when she quit eating and we didn’t think she would handle anesthesia. The way she crunches those biscuits, they can’t hurt too bad. If we could get her eating and improve her protein status (albumin), we might be able to get her teeth done.

Poor little pup. It’s hell to get old.

Susan

[turner4554]

Did the vet give her fluids, or anything for nausea (Cerenia)? Quite often dogs with kidney disease only quit eating because they’re nauseous. Other than that, some “kidney friendly” (low phosphorus) foods that you can try would be scrambled egg whites, cottage cheese, dark meat chicken, white pasta, white/sushi rice, canned pumpkin, sweet potato or green tripe.

[Kyrabee]

Yes, she had 5 days of Cerenia and it didn’t seem to do much. She would not eat at all until I would give her the Entyce. Within about an hour of that, she would start showing some interest in food. We might get about a 1/2 cup of food over the rest of the day…which is certainly not enough. I have been doing subq fluids for the last week and got a new bag Monday but she is drinking better also.

Last night was the best she has been. She ate almost 1/2 small sweet potato for my Mom and ate another almost 1/2 cup of Beneful wet food (I know about the quality but at this point she needs food) for me. Even had some tail wags and her eyes were very bright. She is back on the enalapril so I hope that helps her protein stores soon, providing we can get her eating again.

Again, thank you all. Seems like I go to the store daily for the dog:).

[GoodTimes]

It seems like you’ve pretty well tried everything. Fingers crossed she comes around.
The only other things I can think of a smelly training treats (ie liver flavoured, etc). Canned food like tuna, salmon, chicken.
Eggs are another cheap option, and they can be fed in a variety of ways. Scrambled with other food, boiled, raw.

Have you tried pepto? A friend had more success with pepto bismol for her older dog than anything the vet prescribed.

[betsyk]

We went through this a couple years ago with my old fluffy dog. The best turkey I’ve ever cooked in my life was the one I cooked for her when she decided she would only eat real turkey, not from the deli. She went through a burger phase - cheapo gross burger that cooked off tons of fat - but woudn’t touch eggs, which had been her favorite.

We made dog cookies or bars with oatmeal, sweet potatoes, canned pumpkin, and eggs - mixed them all up in the stand mixer, pressed it into a cake pan and baked it at a low temp until it dried out enough to be like tough brownies. She loved those right up to the end.

When I made something for her, I would make a batch and then freeze it in small baggies, so I could take out a little at a time and waste less of it. I found little bags of mystery meat at the back of the freezer for about a year.

[jherold]

Steriods can also increase the appetite. A little low dose prednisone may be helpful if all else fails.

[pony4me]

My very old lab mix was successfully tempted by BBQ chicken breasts from the Kroger deli. This was when she refused absolutely everything else. She enjoyed those for a couple of weeks and then began to eat regular dog food again. She lived for another year or so until other insurmountable problems took over.

We had a cat which was refusing food, and the vet prescribed Mirataz transdermal, which is a gel that gets smeared inside the ear. It stimulates appetite and it worked quite well. The cat was suddenly very hungry again. Might there be a similar medication for dogs?

[Kyrabee]

@pony4me

My very old lab mix was successfully tempted by BBQ chicken breasts from the Kroger deli. This was when she refused absolutely everything else. She enjoyed those for a couple of weeks and then began to eat regular dog food again. She lived for another year or so until other insurmountable problems took over.

Yes apparently you can use mirtazapine for dogs too. The vet was going to research if you could use it with the Encyte.
I will report to her tomorrow. We did start her on a low dose of prednisone and that has seemed to stimulate her drinking at least so I don’t have to poke her so often for fluids.

We haven’t hit on anything she will consistently eat except for those dry, hard little dog treats:rolleyes:. I don’t know. Her poor little butt has lost all it muscle. We will give the enalapril a little bit of time to work and see if she quits peeing out so much protein. Her blood values are not that remarkable. Her BUN is the only blood value that is way off and that has been that way since at least October of last year (when she had labs done for the first time in a couple years). Her creatinine is high normal to slightly high but she doesn’t have much muscle mass right now so that may be artificially low.

Just boils down to old dog that is wearing out…as we all do.

Thanks again for the suggestions. The doggie bars sound pretty good…what is the recipe?

Susan

[Townsend]

I am an expert at tempting older or ill dogs to eat and keep weight on LOL…Rotisserie chicken from the supermarket. Chicken thighs baked in unsalted chicken broth, skim the fat from the broth after it cools and mix kibble with the cut-up thighs and broth. London Broil simmered in unsalted beef broth, slice and mix steak with kibble and broth (I buy the London Broil in bulk when my supermarket has it on sale for $2.49 lb., cook and keep sliced in the freezer - it’s cheaper than chopmeat and the dogs like it better). I make “pupcakes” - 3 lbs. of ground turkey, couple eggs, wheat germ, rolled oats, grated parmesan, drained can of unsalted french cut string beans. Mix all up, makes 24 “pupcakes” in muffin pans. Bake at 350 for 20-25 mins. Scrambled eggs mixed with some sliced ham and riced broccoli/cauliflower…Calf’s liver simmered in unsalted beef broth, minced really fine and mixed in with other food…All foregoing assumes there is nothing the dog can’t have due to other health issues, but most of these have worked for me…

[Countrygirl18]

I’ve had success with wet dog food and dry cat food mixed together for our 14 year old dog. It’s not the healthiest thing for her but at this point I’ll give her whatever she will eat. My sister had luck with the packets of little Caesar dog food.

other things you could try is boiled chicken and rice. Low salt chicken broth poured over the dog food. Maybe mixing plain yogurt into the dog food.

[Kyrabee]

Her appetite was better this afternoon and she actually ate some food without us having to hand feed it.
She just isn’t a morning dog. She is definitely is drinking better. That is probably the prednisone but at this point, hydration is good.

I was able to order some CBD oil. What the hell? She is my 90 y.o. Mom’s buddy and if we can get her eating again, Mom would be happy.

I have tried rice with other things and she doesn’t seem to like it. Yesterday and today she is actually eating real dog food.

Again thanks for the suggestions. We will get this dog fed up yet:encouragement:.

Susan