If you can get Answers raw frozen food, their goats milk is healthy and a dog could live on it if needed. Their kefir is high in fat and most dogs love the taste. They also have soft goats milk cheese treats that could be tempting.
Raw liver or bacon bits might be enticing mixed with food.
Mirtazapine worked better for my dog than Entyce. Two vets separately told me that it was okay for the dog to be on both but, of course, see what this dog’s vet recommends.
One vet prescribed CBD pills, then a water-based liquid (he didn’t want small dogs on the oil), for several months, but more for old-dog arthritis; other vet was not a believer in it. Think it helped – until it didn’t – with aches, but didn’t see an increase in appetite that could be attributed to it.
Other than that, rotisserie chicken (skin removed) was sometimes scarfed down.
Don’t know if you want to do this, but we were most successful getting our old boy to eat through hand-feeding, either morsels or, if the food was of a mousse or pate consistency (most popular with him late in life, even though no dental issues), from a fingertip or one of those rubbery spoons designed for toddlers (use the back of the spoon to pick up a bit of the food, then smear it into the mouth).
Once he had some food in him, he’d brighten up and sometimes eat on his own. We kept up with this because, other than the loss of appetite, he was his same self – same personality, attitude, desire to go for walks, engagement in life, a lap dog par excellence.
Like your dog, he’d never been a morning type; he never had a great appetite even with excellent lab work results, and advancing age exacerbated that.
First thing I was going to ask is what do her teeth look like. Bad teeth and bad skin are 2 of the major causes of heart and kidney disease in dogs (people too) Bad teeth will often present as ‘kidney disease’, it’s the infection that is causing the problem, that infection will also cause lack of appetite. I would ask your vet about doing a round of ABX, get the infection under control, get the kidney’s/values, back on line, then you can go back and address the teeth. Giving things like Entyce or trying to find something they’ll eat, isn’t fixing or addressing the problem. Just my 2 cents…
You asked about the bars we used to make for Tia. Honestly, there wasn’t much of a recipe. A big can of pumpkin, a few sweet potatoes (I bought fresh, you could use a big can instead), probably 3 or 4 cups of oatmeal and eggs. We got cheap eggs from a friend with chickens, so I used a lot of them, but do what makes sense. I baked the sweet potatoes in the microwave and tossed them in the big kitchenaid mixer with the pumpkin. Added the eggs, then added the oatmeal a cup at a time until the texture seemed right. The eggs will help hold it together when you cook it, and the pumpkin and sweet potatoes add a lot of moisture, so watch out for them getting moldy if you don’t cook them long enough and/or leave them unfrozen/unrefrigerated.
I have a friend with a 17 yo dachsie with pancreatic issues. When Tulsa goes off food she gives her canned chicken, apple sauce and sweet potato. She also uses a product call Dogsure, it’s like Ensure for dogs. I used it when I was rehabbing my old, emaciated bluetick hound. It’s very palatable and comes in a liquid or powder. A little pricey. You can get it from Chewy. There is also the Nutrical gel you can just squirt in their mouth.
My Saluki male would go off feed for a few days whenever he had his chemo treatments (thyroid cancer). Sighthounds don’t have much body fat to begin with, and they can start looking emaciated pretty darned fast when they aren’t eating. I would boil up chicken livers with white or brown rice and he found that pretty enticing. It kept him going until his appetite returned to normal and he was always a bit disappointed that he didn’t get it every day.
Yes, teeth are bad and she has been on antibiotics.
Pup not too happy today. She vomited once sometime during the night so even with the Entyce, she wasn’t much interested in food today. I gave her some Pepcid to at least cut down the acid. She is drinking well. She readily goes outside to do her duty.
I don’t know, I think we are near the end. I have to go over to Mom’s twice a day so in other words, I am nearly living there trying to keep the old dog alive. We have been in fairly ‘intensive’ care (at home) for nearly 3 weeks. She just never quite gets completely ‘around the corner’. Mom has to live with her and I think she is getting tired and depressed seeing her like that. We have given it the old college try. Something has to improve big time in the next couple days.
Susan
Just have to chime in to comment on how wonderful you are to this dog. All the hearts to you, and more importantly good luck.
My old kidney dog would only eat scrambled eggs toward the end
hope you find something that works. Just wanted to second the egg/rice idea - I cook up rice, then fry and egg in it and mix it up. Pup found that very enticing. And you really are awesome for this sweet dog!
With my dog in kidney failure, he had Royal Canin canned food. We’d also give him noodles, or chicken. Sometimes scrambled eggs. We gave him sub q fluids daily though, and that really perked him up for a good 2 years.
I’ve gone thru this with my dog recently. We tried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese, topping everything with whipped cream, cooking liver, hamburger patties, CBD, ulcer meds, and I’m sure I’m forgetting other things. His anorexia lasted for a year (he’s about the same age as your dog).
When he first went anorexic, the vets found a mass in his spleen so he had a splenectomy. The mass was benign and we all expected him to rebound after the surgery and he did not. I took him to specialists, got second opinions, sent test results out to more experts, but drew the line at anything invasive. He lost over 10lbs (normally around 45lbs) and his body ate all of his muscle. We were just dotting "i"s and crossing "t"s before we put him down.
Prednisone has been a miracle for him. The vets had given him an injection of another steroid about a month after the splenectomy but it made no difference. Within two months of being on the pred, he gained 8lbs and is back on dog food. Yes, it is only buying us some time and the inevitable is around the corner but the change has been amazing and the time he has left seems to be lengthening.
I hope the Prednisone does the same thing for your dog. We have now backed off from twice-a-day, to once-a-day, and now to one every-other-day and his appetite is remaining good.
Fingers crossed for you!
I am so sorry about your dog and commend you on doing so much for him. When one of my GSDs (my heart dog) was reaching the end and not feeling well, hurting, we tried canned green mussel dog food - which is hard to find! It was suggested by one of the better dog food companies and he did eat it for awhile. It was stinky but very healthy. Good luck and God Bless!
Pup is still with us. God, it would be easy if she acted miserable or showed some sign of significant pain but she isn’t/doesn’t. She is acting ‘perfectly normal’ (i.e. she keeps her usual routine albeit at a much slower pace) and is still bright eyed. Yes, she sleeps a lot because she has no energy because she has lost so much weight but no panting, restlessness, whining, etc. She did vomit once on Wednesday but nothing since. We (Mom, the dog and me) went for a nice car ride today out to take supplement to my horse and she seemed to thoroughly enjoy that.
I have been supplementing her with some Nutrical and this evening she ate a teaspoonful of peanut butter…along with her ration of dog treats. She comes out in the kitchen and expectantly looks at you for food but when offered usually refuses or eats a couple bites then that is it. She seems to like chicken McNuggets…she will eat a couple a day. I am a little miffed as I called the vet’s office early Saturday AM to see if we could try mirtazapine and I never got a return call and of course they closed at 12 noon. I wasn’t going to the ER vet and get charged $300:no:. I will call again in the AM. The CBD oil hasn’t showed up yet…hopefully tomorrow. The prednisone seems to be helping with fluid intake but doesn’t seem to make much difference on appetite.
:sigh:
Susan
Godspeed Coco. We sent her across the bridge today.
There was never ANY food…dog or people that she would eat consistently. She might like it once or twice then refuse it the next time. The mirtazapine didn’t seem to do much by itself but with CBD oil it stimulated her appetite some. When she did eat, she would only do maybe 2 spoonfuls of whatever then abruptly quit eating. I tried Rebound and some Dog Sure. Yesterday she quit drinking and just looked damned sad, the spark was gone. I syringed some water into her but tried some soupy food and she spit it out immediately. She still didn’t act like she was in pain but she had melted away and was just a skeleton, down 3 lbs in the last 2 months. She spent most of her time either under the kitchen table or in the bedroom away from us. I felt like I was just torturing her to get anything (water, food or pills) down her. Time to do the right thing which we did.
Thanks for all the suggestions. It kept her reasonable happy for another couple weeks. I think one of my cats will be making visits to my Mom. He always wants more attention so he might get it.
Susan
So sorry for your loss. Hugs to you.
so sorry
So sorry, you guys tried everything. I’m sure she knew she was surrounded by love. I hope your mom is dealing with it alright. Hugs
You did the right thing. Hugs to you and your mom. It’s never easy.
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