when a dog won't eat

[spiritdog6]

Hunter has been getting fussier and fussier in the AM about his food. He gets kibble with some strained chicken broth and bits of chicken. Lately he is less than enthusiastic. This morning was the worst. He FINALLY ate, but it was 10-15 minutes of dog vs human mind games to get him to eat.

What other things can he eat or tempt him to eat when he gets this fussy? I read someone tries white bread, do I need some of that? Should I give him some Kayo? But that is not food.

And if he doesn't eat, I know not to give him his shot, but what do we do then? Wait til his night time food and shot?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[ozzi]

Re: when a dog won't eat

Hi,

I'm going through the same thing with Abby not wanting to eat, and I sympathize with you. She was eating chicken/rice and then gave that up. I switched to boiled hamburg/rice, and she's been eating that but leaving more and more in the dish each time. Yesterday I went to the deli and got her some chopped ham, which she is loving...at the moment. I don't have any great advice on feeding except that for Abby it has been helpful to change things and keep trying to find something she will eat. When she stops eating the ham, I'll try scrambled eggs! Hopefully Hunter will come back to eating his dog food soon.

In the meantime, you should NOT skip insulin when a diabetic dog doesn't eat. They still have basal needs and you need to meet them to keep the glucose in balance, even in the case of not eating. If Ozzi didn't eat, I would give him 50% of his usual dose, and then return to the normal dose when he started eating regularly. If Hunter's sugar remains high with no insulin, it might make him not want to eat even more, and continue the vicious cycle.

Without insulin on board, I would definitely NOT give him Karo since that will only increase his sugar and complicate matters.
Do you home test? That way you can be sure of how his BG's are running, particularly prior to injection. If you don't home test (which I strongly recommend), you can at least get some urine ketone sticks to check for ketones. If there are more than a trace of ketones in his urine, his sugar is too high, and he should be seen. The worry is diabetic ketoacidosis.

Keep us updated,
Kevin

[cactusdr]

Re: when a dog won't eat

Spirit-

You are describing the most frustrating time for me with my little one. All I can do is relay what I went through, so please do not view this as THE only answer.
First and foremost, I would recommend discussing this with your vet because if Hunter begins to refuse all food, then the vet will have to be called in anyway. I think mine is extremely knowledgeable about canine diabetes and take his word as gospel. His belief is that getting insulin into the dog is the most important thing that needs to be done to avoid ketoacidosis. His recommendation to me was to permanently change the food she eats by purchasing a wide variety of dog foods until one is found that she has interest in. For me, it turned out to be Cesar's Gourmet Filets wet dog food. And after she was on it for about a week we began to fine tune the amount of insulin she was to receive. 6 months later she still eats the Cesar's and her BS is well controlled.
My vet was adamant that insulin had to be injected every 12 hours in order to avoid wild swings in the BS and whatever food it took for her to eat to get the BS up was the food she should eat. Until we landed on the Cesar's, I fed her cooked steak or fish mixed with rice and always had a second syringe loaded and ready to go with Karo syrup in the event hypoglycemic shock. It took two days to identify what she would eat without 'playing the games'.
As long as you are confident in your vet's ability to treat a diabetic, then get with him or her as soon as you can to come up with a plan.
I look forward as well to read some of the possible solutions from other members. It could be valuable information that you can share with your vet.
Good luck!!

[CoolGram]

Re: when a dog won't eat

I have gone through this same thing with Gretel in the last couple of months. I just couldn't figure out why, some mornings, she didn't seem interested in her food. Like you, I jumped through hoops to get her to eat, but really didn't want her to think that every time she turned her nose up at her breakfast I'd offer her some other yummy treat. I felt that could become a nasty habit to get started. The last straw for me was the day I found myself breaking up one of her treats into tiny pieces and throwing each piece one at a time into her dog food so that when she went to retrieve a piece she would hopefully get a mouthful of food too.

Every time she refused to eat, if I left the food down long enough, she would eventually eat at least half of it, but in the process the timing of her insulin being given got later and later.

After communicating with many here on the forum, I realized that the best idea was to give her only so long to eat, and if she didn't, then I would take the food up, give her half her insulin dosage and no more food till the evening feeding.

I had also talked to the vet about this and between us we decided that perhaps, just like people, as you get older your calorie requirements change and also your eating habits. Since Gretel is still just a wee bit overweight, the vet told me to cut back her calories by just a little, so that hopefully she would be more hungry in the morning. I did that, and also began mixing in a spoonful of canned plain pumpkin with her meals. I have not had a problem with her not eating since then. She eagerly waits at my feet while I'm preparing her meal and practically inhales it as soon as I put it down.

As others can tell you, pumpkin is rather hard to find right now as there was a pumpkin shortage last year. I finally found it in a tiny little Mom & Pop grocery store close to home, however they only carry it in gallon cans! I bought two cans, then opened one and spooned the pumpkin into quart freezer bags and froze them. Then as I need more I'll just thaw them out one at a time. More work, but hey, if Gretel will eat then it's well worth it!

I wish you luck with Hunter. Hopefully you'll be able to hit on just the thing to get him interested in his food again.

Carolyn

[spiritdog6]

Re: when a dog won't eat

Thanks everybody! You all had good ideas and advice. Neither Hunter and I are very fond of testing, so we don't do it much. I'll get the ketone strips. I would have tested Hunter this AM, but right now I am also "loading" my Cushing dog with Lyso, so there is much going on here in the AM right now.

I hope others will chime in and tell what they have done.

I'll be sure to do a 1/2 dose if he won't eat.

He doesn't have this problem in the evening, just mornings.

I subscribed to this thread but it won't send me any emails.

[CoolGram]

Re: when a dog won't eat

I don't know what it is about the morning feeding, because that's the only meal that Gretel refused too, and others seem to be saying the same thing. Kind of like my kids - when they were young they ate breakfast every day but by the time they were teens it was a thing of the past, no matter how much I tried to get them to eat it. Not cool anymore I guess!

[k9diabetes]

Re: when a dog won't eat

If your email has a spam folder, check there. Emails from the forum sometimes get caught up in spam filters.

[spiritdog6]

Re: when a dog won't eat

I always check my spam. It is not there. I had another thread I was subscribed to here, and that one did not send me any notices either. I get them on the Cushing site, but not this one.

[k9diabetes]

Re: when a dog won't eat

Only other thing I can figure is the forum's email address may be blocked. I sent a test message to see if you can receive mail from the forum's address.

[k9diabetes]

Re: when a dog won't eat

The only other thing I can suggest is resetting the Email preference for your subscription. It can be set to No Email, Email Immediately, or one other, maybe once a day. Try setting it to something else and then resetting it to instant email a day later. I can't find any reason why subscription wouldn't work otherwise.

[spiritdog6]

Re: when a dog won't eat

I got the ketone strips tonight, as far as I could tell he is not. It was basically a tan color and that's it.

He was fussy about food tonight too, sigh. But at least it wasn't a forever struggle like this AM.

Between cushings and diabetes, do I have any hair or sense left on or in my head now?

[ozzi]

Re: when a dog won't eat

That's really good news that he's not spilling ketones! How is Hunter doing with eating? It sounds like you have your hands full with a diabetic and a cushing's dog...WOW! That is a handful! Let us know how Hunter is doing when you have a chance.
Kevin

[Joan]

Re: when a dog won't eat

Everyone here has such good advice, and while some tricks may work for some, if you get enough ideas, something should work.

With my diabetic pug, I ended up sitting on the floor with her, surrounded by the other 8 pugs, all 10 of us eating at once, and as noisily as possible. She is blind so I thought the noise would induce her to eat. She did eventually start eating, probably just wanted to stop all the noise LOL

But take heart, they sometimes go through these stages, and then begin having a great appetite again. Bella has not missed a meal in 18 months.

Prayers and hugs Joan

[spiritdog6]

Re: when a dog won't eat

Thanks for the support Joan and Kevin. I appreciate it.

He's not getting any treats now during the day. Ziltch nada. Which has helped a bit. Though I am still sitting on the kitchen floor in the AM, or playing the game of "see I am feeding Sidekick all your food, if you don't start eating he will get it all!" One piece at a time that is. And I stopped putting fish oil on his food thinking maybe he didn't like it? Who knows huh...

Hunter seems pretty stable at the dose he is at, clinically that is. With the focus on the other dog right now as we try to get him on the correct dosage of meds. Hunter curves and such are on the back burner. I hope he understands.

[spiritdog6]

Re: when a dog won't eat

Joan....PS.......OMG all those Pugs!!! Wow, you must be entertained day and night!