I know there are many posts here about dogs who won't eat, but I think mine takes the cake. I have an 8 year old Kerry Blue Terrier who has always been a picky eater. About 2 weeks ago he started refusing his normal meal of dry food w/ some raw kangaroo and warm water. He has done this many times before, and he just seems to get bored with the kibble.

In the past we have "coerced" him into eating again with a strong "EAT" command, and we were doing this again. I know it isn't the best thing to do, but when you have a dog with chronic eating problems, you get desperate and do what seems to work, and it has gotten him going again up until now.

I was about out of what I had been feeding him (ProPlan Lamb and Rice), so got a new bag of Eagle Pack. He wouldn't touch it. After a couple of days he ate part of a bowl, but continued to largely refuse it. I have tried a number of "additives" that he normally likes (rice, carrots, ground pork), and sniffs them briefly, and then turns away.

Wednesday morning I finally took him to the vet, and a clinical exam came up completely normal. We agreed the "hold out with the normal food and he'll eat" approach wasn't working, so I tried to coax him with goodies. He ate probably 1/2c of leftover rice-veggie-sausage mix, and then some cooked chicken willingly Wednesday evening.

This is pretty much the last thing he has eaten. He didn't eat one bite of anything Thursday or Friday, and nothing today except a few licks of yogurt that my husband coaxed him into. I have offered him the same chicken he ate Wednesday, and he won't take even one bite in his mouth. He sniffs it briefly and then turns away almost as if repulsed.

As of Wednesday we completely stopped berating him to get him to eat, and have only presented food quietly but enthusiastically, and praised him quietly when he does anything positive, like moving towards it.

We took him back to the vet last night, and they did blood work which came back completely normal, except for low cholesterol, which the Vet said is from not eating. He does not seem to be drinking very much water, and his urine is dark, but his skin bounces back well and his mucous membrane tissue is OK according to the vet.

He has been really droopy around the house, but last night at the vet he was really perky. Here at home for the last few days he has been moping around, and sleeping curled up a lot.

He has gone from over 26kg since the last time he was at the vet in late May to 22 yesterday. He should be at about 24 (he's a big Kerry), so he's getting pretty bony at this point.

He is not the brightest star in the sky, and does not have a manipulative personality (I just don't think he's smart enough for it), so I am pretty certain this is not a war of the wills.

The Vet keeps saying he won't starve, that the drive to eat will take over, but I am getting desperate and panicky here because he just keeps not eating. I'm going overseas as of Tuesday morning, so will leave my husband to deal with this for two weeks. I can't help but worry that my dog is dying, but we cant' find anything wrong to treat.

I've tried to be complete and totally honest about what we've been doing. HELP, please.

Thanks,

Dorothy

Although your case is somewhat the result of giving the dog rich food, it sounds to me like there may be a medical problem your vet isn't finding. You really need to get him on a dry chow, and cut out all the other junk. The surest route to a healthy dog is a complete and balanced diet most easily achieved by feeding a dog chow and as little else as possible. The chows available in the 50's may have needed this and that added, but today, doing so just upsets the careful formulation.

Dorothy, if your dog is getting plenty of exercise and stimulation, I agree with labman in that I think your vet is missing something here. For a normally active dog to not want to eat suggests something is wrong. Is he active? Is he challenged on a daily basis? If not, I would suggest, if he gets along with other dogs, you might want to give him a couple of hours of intense play time with a dog he likes. He may just need to work up an appetite. I am assuming you are in Australia and I know it is not hot there during this time of year, so my usual suggestion of possibly being overheated doesn't apply here. There isn' t much more that I can think of other than possibly bringing him in for an examination by another vet. I don't like the idea of tempting him with rich foods. It won't resolve the basic problem you have been experiencing with him and it isn't good for his system to use this as a fallback plan and make this part of a regular diet.

HI Labman, he has been on a good dry kibble all his life. I only add a little bit of something like raw kangaroo, or a wet food (they come in refrigerated rolls in Australia), and in the past he often hasn't liked those. So mostly he has gotten kibble.

RubyPitbull, he has been normally active in the past, and played readily with our other dog. I religiously walk them twice a day, one short walk in the morning, and one longer when I get home from work. Yes, it is winter here, so it's chilly.

I'm with both of you on not feeding him goodies - I've just been trying to get something down him since he's lost so much weight. He's pretty listless now, and I guess I would be too if I hadn't eaten for two weeks. He does still come out for walks willingly.

One thing I forgot in my original post is that over several weeks in June when I got up in the morning to get ready for work, he would sound like he had a stuffed up nose, that wet, snotty sound you get when you have a "wet" cold. He had no other symptoms, and I didn't see anything coming out of his nose. I told the vet this, and we're trying a around of antibiotics.

I would appreciate any other ideas you may have, and will get back to my vet straight away. Thanks for your input.

Dorothy

I wonder if your dog may be depressed.The fact that he perked up at the vet,leads me to believe he is suffering some sort of emotional problem.You may try letting the vet keep your dog for the day,and he may be able to coax it into eating.He may also give fluids,perhaps just beneath the skin rather than in the vein.Fluids have done miracles for animals,that I never imagined.There is also a drug called winstrol,which we have given to animals with no appetite.It stimulates the dog /cat to eat.Talk to your vet about some of the options to see if he thinks these might work.Let us know how things are going,good luck.:)

Let's hope the antibotics work. Nothing fits except that it is some kind of a physical problem.

Thanks everyone for your input on this. We're taking him in for x-rays tomorrow, and if those come back clear, the vet is happy to try a steroid shot to jump start his appetite.

We go back and forth between thinking it's something medical, and something emotional, as he's a pretty sensitive dog. He ate part of a pear core this afternoon that my husband offered him. I know, I know! But this is a "regular" treat for them - he eats most of the pear, and then cuts the core in half and gives it to each dog. They don't get them very often, but they LUV them normally.

Anyway, that was the first thing he had eaten since Wednesday night. I'll try to get back here for updates, but I'm leaving for the US on Tuesday.

Thanks again.

We had the same problem, so we got a dog for a companion (although I wouldent recommend it- since you should never get a dog simply for a companion, we were thinking of getting another dog for a while for enirely different reasons). We found out it was a stomach problem or something...

HI Anna,

How did you and your vet figure this out? What was the exact problem and how did you treat it? I'm eager to hear the details.

Cheers,


Dorothy

He ran some tests and he ( Casey our dog) had other signs as well such as diariah throwing up. The doctor then ran some tests on the stomach and found out- I don't remember what the exact problem was (He wasn't really my dog- actually my sisters whom I was living with at the time and took partial care of) but it was a stomach infection of some sorts... We were lucky to have a vet that we trusted and knew for years that had saved many of our pets of different ailments over the years.

Bloodwork is usually how a vet finds problems with the stomach,and you said all bloodwork was normal.I agree with your vet about the x-ray,lots of dogs swallow things,and x-rays will find these when nothing else can.We treated a young lab at the clinic I worked at,who swallowed a whole bath cloth,and a cat that swallowed a needle with thread.I am anxious to hear about your dog,so stay in touch.Good luck.;)

Thanks for the info Anna, and thanks for your encouragement and concern Pompano. We don't know a great deal more after $1000 at the vet, but we're still hoping to sort this out.

The x-rays showed that Kingston's spleen is quite enlarged. He had a mast cell tumour (stage 2) removed from his foot last January, and then radiation treatment since they couldn't get good margins around his toes. They biopsied his lymph nodes in his shoulder and neck and didn't find mast cells, but some could already have spread. The vet gave him a 70-80% survival shot, but it's not looking too good.

His current symptoms (anorexia, lethargy, dark stools, vomiting) are consistent with a mast tumour in his spleen, which is apparently the most common organ to be hit.

Today they did a fine needle aspirate on his spleen and liver to determine if there are mast cells present. The liver looked fine, and the spleen had some abnormal cells, but not obviously mast cells. So, a bunch of tissue samples went off to the lab, and we will hear tomorrow or Thursday.

The vet decided it would be good at this point to treat his symptoms, so she put him on Periactin which is an appetite stimulant and antihistamine (mast cells release histamines and other things), Losec to decrease his stomach acid in case he has an ulcer or some other stomach problem that is preventing him from eating, and Metomide to ease his vomiting and nausea.

Anyway, we still really have no idea what is causing his problems. The specialist who did the ultrasound to support the needle aspirate said he didn't think an enlarged spleen would likely cause complete refusal to eat. I'm hoping the lab results will give us some insight.

If we don't figure out something soon, the poor guy is just going to starve to death. He's lost almost 20% of his body weight. Thank god he was a bit porky when this started. I usually keep my dogs really lean, but I got a bit carried away when I was fattening him back up after the radiation treatment.

Dorothy

Let's hope the new medications will help his appetite. My Aster almost starved to death when the vet her partner was using then failed to find her colitus. Fortunately as a working dog then, we were able to leave her at the dog guide school's clinic where they found the problem for free. Aster was eating well enough, but it was going straight through her.