Over about the past year, I have been having trouble keeping weight on my 15 year old boxer/retriever/boarder collie mix. She seems to have lost her appetite, and the dog that would once eat everything in front of her sometimes doesn’t eat at all.
Some of it may be depression; we lost the dog she grew up with about a year ago. However she has two other canine companions so she isn’t alone.
I had a work-up done back in October, which showed some mildly elevated liver enzymes but nothing specific. She was retested in January or February and all was normal. The vet thought the earlier elevation in enzymes were because she had eaten that morning.
Her weight hadn’t dropped significantly at that point (she may have actually gained), though it appears that she has lost weight due to loss of muscle mass. However, we’ve moved from the south to the north, and I’m worried about this winter. I’d like to try to put some weight on her in the next few months so that she will be prepared.
She looks to me as though she has lost more weight, though that is what I always think and hasn’t proven to be the case. She looks like a (too) ribby TB and her spine is starting to be visible.
She’s inside at night, and mostly outside during the day, so cold nights aren’t an issue. I can keep her inside more as the weather gets colder, though I think she would prefer to be outside if she could.
I’m planning on ordering all of them some sort of winter coat to help them adjust to the colder temperatures. (Well, maybe not the catahoula since she has a rock-solid winter coat. But definitely for the boarder collie mix and the great dane mix). Any suggestions on what kind of winter coat would be very welcome. I am leaning towards the type that are similar to horse blankets, (like this or this) but would love pros/cons and suggestions.
Her teeth are crap – beyond-a-dental-level of crap. Meaning that she has worn them down over the years and there aren’t many left.
I’ve tried a variety of foods, from blue buffalo to iams to various canned foods to crappy (but possibly tasty?) foods like dog chow. I’ve wet her food with hot water or broth. Nothing seems to stimulate her appetite.
Having noticed that she is always interested in taking her rimadyl in the peanut butter pill pocket, I did an online search to try to determine if feeding quantities of peanut butter is safe for dogs, and I ended up finding out about satin balls.
It turns out that she gobbled that up (as advertized). And I’ve found that if I put it on the bottom of her bowl and cover it with a layer of dog food, she eats most of the dog food.
I read that satin balls were somewhat controversial, though I didn’t find the “con” argument anywhere. Can anyone enlighten me? There were many recipes, and I ended up using a mixture of ground beef, whole eggs, total cereal, oats, evaporated milk, molasses, gelatin and peanut butter.
I spent some quality time googling today, looking for some high-calorie dog foods. I ended up ordering Canidae chicken meal and rice, which is 475 calories per cup. I’m hoping this is palatable, since she has shown that she will eat if she is interested.
She definitely has had a dulling of her sense – her hearing and eyesight aren’t all that great anymore. I’m guessing that her sense of smell is declining as well.
So if anyone has made it though my mini-novel, do you have any other suggestions? Any opinions on satin balls and/or which satin ball recipe is best? Any opinions on highly-palatable dog food? Any opinion on the Caindae chicken meal and rice food (I know, it is a lot of rice … )? Any opinions on the best winter coat for dogs in snowy climates?
