I have a 6 year old female black lab. She is the most faithful eater I know but she has eaten since Tuesday... 6/21/05. All she wants to do is lay around and sleep. Granted it's been hot and I am sure the heat wears on her BUT she always eats. She TELLS me when it's breakfast and dinner time. Her nose is not hot, she isn't breathing weird or anything but she can not keep her eyes open. At this point, she probably doesn't have much energy so that could be one reason she is sleeping but the eating part is really concerning me. I haven't taken her to the vet because I am not sure what they could do. She is drinking water and today she downed some yogurt. However, she couldn't hardly chew her favorite snack... cheesy bones. Any advice? Should I just get her to the vet ASAP?

Unless your vet has Saturday hours, it may have been better not to have let it go into the weekend. Faithful eater is a good way to describe most Labs. Still, I wouldn't panic and seek emergency care over the weekend. This is particularly true if she is over weight like too many Labs.
Your dog definitely should be narrower at the waist than the hips and chest.
You should be able to easily feel the ribs, but not see them. Each dog is
different. Standard recommendations are a good place to start, but each dog
must have its food adjusted to its individual needs. See
http://www.purina.com/dogs/nutrition.asp?article=292.

We visited the dog guide school school recently. Thought I would share some of what I learned. One of their veterinarians gave a talk on current hazards. Xylitol, a newer artificial sweetener finding wide use in sugar free gums, is very bad for dogs, see http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=2&aid=75125. The word on grapes and raisins being toxic to dogs has been around for a while, but new findings show some dogs are very sensitive to them, only taking a few to kill them. Her last point was bottle caps. Their sharp edges can cut dogs internally is swallowed. And like many other things, they can block the digestive tract. She had some nice X-rays of dogs that had swallowed all sorts of things. They fish the bottle caps out with a magnet. Other stuff, they have to operate.

Thank you for this information. I am taking her to the vet Monday morning. I have been able to hand feed her some canned food I bought yesterday and she drank a little bit of milk. I think I can continue doing this until Monday. However, she is now sleeping about 22 hours a day. She has lost a lot of weight but she was a hefty weight anyway so fortunately, she could stand a lose a few pounds. I am very worried about her.

Is there any evidence she may have swallowed something she may not be able to pass? I am talking about a shredded toy or anything else she may have gotten ahold of. Rawhide chews are dangerous. Labs are bad about that sometimes. Even a rock they ate can cause problems. After my other answer, I became more concerned about it after thinking some more.

I took her to vet Monday and they kept her to do blood work and x-rays. The blood work was normal and nothing showed on the xrays; however, the vet said that plastics and wood products won't show on the x-rays. It is quite possible that she ate plastic... we have it under our deck and last week, she was on a mission to get a lizard. Needless to say, the plastic came out yesterday when I got home from work! The vet said that while they were giving her the x-rays and moving her, she vomited everywhere and it was the most vile ever. He said that it was a rotten/sewer smell. I guess what she had eaten was sitting on her stomach.

Anyway, he gave her barium last night and she passed it today so he is pretty confident that whatever it was, it has been moved since her digestive system seems to be working properly. She is going to stay in the hospital another night to ensure she is eating right. I visited her and she drank more water while I was there than she had Friday through Monday morning before I took her to the vet. The vet gave her some chicken and has taken her on two walks and she seems to be perking up. She is still very weak though and she has lost a lot of weight.

Thanks for trying to help me. I was panicing bad. I cried all weekend and especially on Monday. I thought for sure it was cancer or something. Ya know, sometimes the Internet can hurt more than help after you read all the terrible things that have happened to people's pets. Again, Thanks a lot.

I am glad she seems to be making some progress. Labs love plastic, doesn't seem to make any difference what kind. Unfortunately much of it doesn't stand up as well as Nylabones. Having just been at a talk on problems including ingesting foreign objects, perhaps I should have done better. My half Golden and I were in with the people with Goldens. I guess they are as bad as the Labs.

Here are links to a couple of my pictures. The first one is Zeke waiting for dinner time. He was a very regular eater. The second is the notorious Kate, the worst chewer of our 13 Labs. To the right is the A/C. After she chewed a hole in the plastic flex over the power feed, I replaced it with rigid steel conduit. She ate all the foam off the vapor line. I put a length of stove pipe over the new foam and control wires. On the other side, you can see the copper pipe I ran from the outdoor faucet outside the fence so I dared leave a hose hooked up. Kate is 3 now, working as a dog guide, and still a chewer.


http://www.photolocker.net/images/La...theproplan.jpg

http://www.photolocker.net/images/Labman/KatetheAC.jpg

Hello Labman, I recognise your name from another forum, I just had to say how much I loved the pics of your labs, mine is only 8 weeks old right now, and yes, she does love plastic also *L* aren't labs wonderful , fun loving pets?

Latcamp, I'm so glad the vet was able to help your dog. Maybe that will cure her of eating plastic... *L* but I don't be thinking so!

I tried to view the pics but my computer says that the page can not be displayed... it's probably just my computer... anyway, thanks for the advice on my dog... I know I learned something.

Today she finally ate some dog food... she got people food last night and this morning (I think she was used to the handfeeding while she was in the hospital and dog food just wasn't good enough). Anyway, I had to makeover the dog food and act like I was going to let my beagle eat from her bowl just so she would go to her bowl and eat. The things we humans do. BUT we love them.

I have a third dog, a mini-schnauzer... I had to take her to the vet today too! I have never been to the vet this much... I got those one a year dogs--shots and that's it. But yesterday my mini developed a crusty left eye. The vet noticed that her eyelid was scraped (probably from playing with the beagle--they are buddies) and started oozing. She is now on eye drops.

Oh well, I am not a vet but I play one at home :-)

I am glad to hear she is progressing. Please post again in a few days.

She is still getting better slowly... she is eating about a cup of food a day. I think now it is a matter of her liking people food better than her food.

She is getting back to herself a bit too. Barking at the birds and running around the yard.

I am thankful for her.

Hey you.

Wow that was pointless

thread closed.