[frebul9671]

I have a 3-year-old French Bulldog named Chunk. About two weeks ago, he had a little stomach bug and got sick several times a day. I was instructed by his vet to give him chicken and rice with supper. After he got better, Chunk would not eat his dog food. He walks up to his dish, sniffs it, looks into it, then jumps away like it spooks him. I've tried putting some kibble in my hand, on the floor, switching from Iams to Eukanuba, putting people food in it--he won't even eat the people food if it's touching his dog food. He's obviously lost some weight, but he's just his normal self aside from refusing to eat dog food--he doesn't appear to be sick at all. All I feed him is dog treats to wean him off people food, but it doesn't make him want to eat kibble, unfortunately. I'm beginning to think that he associates his dog food with sickness, because the last time he ate it he was throwing up and had diarrhea. I'm going to give this a few more days. I just got back from a weeklong trip (which I took him on), so I'm hoping he'll get back to normal. If not, I'll take him back to the vet to see what he recommends. But in the mean time, is there anything else I can try? I'm hoping he won't starve himself :( !

[N0help4u]

Sounds like he relates his food to his stomach ache.

[frebul9671]

That's what I think, too... do you have any suggestions?

[margarita_momma]

I think he just got spoiled with people food because it tastes so different from his dog food. Our Rat Terrier use to eat her dog food so well. She is an outside dog and one day we noticed she stopped eating the Purina dry food we were putting in her bowl. I thought maybe she just needed to switch so I bought a different brand. When that didn't work, I started giving her wet food. She still didn't touch it. She wasn't losing weight though. Then one day I was standing at my laundry room window and noticed my little 80 year old neighbors come out of the house with a big bowl of left overs and dumped it over the fence for her. She gobbled it up like nobody's business. She is now a table scrap dog and is just as healthy as ever.

I think the jumping away from it is just a little fit he is throwing because its not what he wants. Do you usually give him people food when he doesn't touch his dog food? ;)

[frebul9671]

Actually, the problem seems to have been resolved! At first, I switched bowls, but he still wouldn't go near the food. Then, I put his food on a plate on the floor, and he went right for it. I also put some gravy made for dogs on his food, as well as some dog treats (and just a bit of chicken) and he downed the whole plate! So I think he was just upset because he was traveling so much. So things are pretty much back to normal. Thanks for all your comments!