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Dog is a picky eater to the extreme
NateVader
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My 1 year old beagle won't eat.
Occasionally I can get him to eat a food for about a month, then he loses all interest in the food. When he does end up in a good phase he eats the bare minimum to keep conscious. 2 months ago I switched him to the Honest Kitchen (dehydrated raw diet) food and he went crazy for it for a month, and then refused to touch it and is now in another phase of refusing to eat. He will eat brands of food he's never had before, but only for maybe a day then hates them. This has pretty much been an ongoing problem the past 6-8 months, slowly getting worse.
I've taken him to the vet and had a variety of blood, urine, stool, liver, and chem panels run and they're all relatively normal (few numbers are off just due to malnutrition). He's on an appetite stimulant right now that the vet prescribed and he's still not eating.
I've tried a variety of different foods, all with slow transitions and he eventually turns up his nose at them over time or within a couple days. I've added chicken broth, heated up the food, added water to dry food. I've tried both standing nearby when he's supposed to eat and being in another room when he's supposed to eat. I've tried feeding him at set times and leaving the food bowl down all day. I've made him rice and chicken and he gets bored of that after the first day. He even turns up his nose at treats and peanut butter now. I have to shove the medication into his mouth with peanut butter for him to swallow it, and then afterwords he will lick the peanut butter off my hands.
Nothing works, the vet has a few possibilities, but none of them are likely because he has no other symptoms. When he does eat he's energetic and a normal puppy. I'm losing my mind.
Occasionally I can get him to eat a food for about a month, then he loses all interest in the food. When he does end up in a good phase he eats the bare minimum to keep conscious. 2 months ago I switched him to the Honest Kitchen (dehydrated raw diet) food and he went crazy for it for a month, and then refused to touch it and is now in another phase of refusing to eat. He will eat brands of food he's never had before, but only for maybe a day then hates them. This has pretty much been an ongoing problem the past 6-8 months, slowly getting worse.
I've taken him to the vet and had a variety of blood, urine, stool, liver, and chem panels run and they're all relatively normal (few numbers are off just due to malnutrition). He's on an appetite stimulant right now that the vet prescribed and he's still not eating.
I've tried a variety of different foods, all with slow transitions and he eventually turns up his nose at them over time or within a couple days. I've added chicken broth, heated up the food, added water to dry food. I've tried both standing nearby when he's supposed to eat and being in another room when he's supposed to eat. I've tried feeding him at set times and leaving the food bowl down all day. I've made him rice and chicken and he gets bored of that after the first day. He even turns up his nose at treats and peanut butter now. I have to shove the medication into his mouth with peanut butter for him to swallow it, and then afterwords he will lick the peanut butter off my hands.
Nothing works, the vet has a few possibilities, but none of them are likely because he has no other symptoms. When he does eat he's energetic and a normal puppy. I'm losing my mind.
NateVader on
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Try this: get food like Old Roy Strips, put one on a fork and put it to his nose. If he eats it, do this a few more times, then let him see you pour the rest of the can into his bowl. That's what I have to do.
We adopted this dog, apparently, his previous owners fed him "people food". When we got him he was fat and out of shape. He's doing much better now.
Something psychological going on when he's eating.
How do you reward him?
Not familiar with BARF, I'll google it....He was on a dehydrated raw diet for about a month, then refused to eat it.
I would def. say it's depression due him being alone that long, but I'm not a vet.
http://dogs.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Dog_Depression_Symptoms
Look into it?
He's kind of a loner anyways.
Get him a buddy maybe?
PSN Hypacia
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Does he drink normally?
How much exercise does he get daily?
What are his stools like?
Has the vet ruled out dental issues? What does the vet think is wrong - behavioral?
Have you tried changing his food dish and location of where he eats?
Have you tried lifting the food up onto a higher pedestal so he doesn't bend over to eat?
If the vet thinks its behavioral I would recommend using food with clicker training and reward based system for some mentally-stimulating programs like mini dog trials, but just in your own yard for now. I would probably try a canned wet diet to start with this.
I do BARF with El Presidente (my bullmastiff). I give him cheese for treats.
He's pretty significantly underweight.
He drinks fine.
He gets walked every couple hours for 5-30 minutes. And usually spends at least 30 minutes at the dog run every day or 2.
Stools are normal, no diarrhea or anything except if he's had some sort of diet change.
The vet's thoroughly examined him multiple times so we don't think it's a dental issue. The current possibilities according to the vet are: kidney infection (he's now on an antibiotic due to the possibility), pancreas enzyme issues (wild guess), hernia in the stomach or intestine (would cause discomfort when eating), or behavioral. She doesn't think very strongly about any of those possibilities and basically said it was up to me if I wanted to pay for an ultrasound now to rule out the hernia, but suggested trying appetite stimulants and antibiotic now.
He has multiple food bowls around the house in high traffic and very low traffic areas. Plastic bowls, and ceramic.
I haven't tried elevating the food, but he's still pretty small and he doesn't really have to bend to get to the floor, just look down and he's at floor level.
I tried a tiny bit of wet food before and it gave him the most horrendous, explosive diarrhea that I'm scared to try it again. I was up literally every hour for 3 nights straight because of his bowels.
Wet food tends to do this to my dog as well. Here's what I do to minimize it and trick him into eating.
I take a 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of wet food and smear it completely over the bottom of his bowl. I then put a 1/4 cup of dry food into his bowl and smear that all over the bottom of the bowl so the kibble has a little wet food on each piece. He then eats all the kibble and licks his bowl clean. And there usually isn't a shower of nasty from his butt. It works best if the wet food is the same brand as the food he's currently somewhat used to.
And I'm going to say this as a precaution. We here know you're doing everything you can to help your dog. But keep all these vet records. If random neighbor # 4 sees you with a significantly underweight dog you may get a knock on the door from animal control. You need the records to prove you're doing everything you can.
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So does that mean that you do or don't give month old raw chicken to your bitch?
You may definitely have to do some more experimenting here.
Poor little guy! Has the vet / you considered one of the vet-only hypoallergenic foods? Usually Hills Prescription or whatever. Most dogs wouldn't usually react so terribly to a bit of wet food.
By now it might be partly behavioral even if there was an underlying cause. I am thinking it might be time to try and reintroduce food as a reward during playtime.
Ultrasound will give you a lot of information, I recently had one on my cat and a bunch of information about the stomach lining, bowels, pancreas and liver came back from it. It might be worth it if its affordable just because it can look at so many things.
Also his current food is Purina Puppy food, which is used by vets for dogs with food allergies.
=/
Kong - fill with wet food and freeze for interest
http://www.amazon.com/KONG-Extreme-Dog-Large-Black/dp/B0002AR0II/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1273709759&sr=8-1
Tug a Jug - dry food bits or snacks
http://www.amazon.com/Premier-Busy-Buddy-Medium-Large/dp/B000KV7ZGQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1273709811&sr=1-1
Bob-A-Lot - dry food (small pellets)
http://www.amazon.com/StarMark-Bob-A-Lot-Interactive-Pet-Toy/dp/B001JQLNB4/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1273709811&sr=1-5
Also, although our dog has no problem eating (in fact she's on a diet now), she also loves variety... things such as veggies (baby carrots, apples, lettuce) work great
I've got a kong and he used to like kibble + peanut butter, but he's lost interest in peanut butter lately.
My money is on "something is hurting or sickening your dog when it eats." If your vet says otherwise, maybe try asking another vet. You might also try posting in a forum specifically devoted to animal care. I'm not sure where such a place would be but I'm sure it exists.
Pricey Options:
You can ask for a referral to a specialist in behavior, an internal medicine specialist, or a dental specialist if you have any inkling that it might be his teeth. Getting a full set of xrays sent off to a radiologist could be useful.
Inexpensive Option:
Try hand feeding him. I had a boxer with a chronically upset digestive system and no definitive diagnosis (he would vomit pretty frequently) who would often refuse to eat but if you sat by the bowl and fed him a few pieces at a time by hand, he would eat. It was almost like he didn't want to disappoint the person offering him food. It's a bit of a pain but better than getting into the vicious cycle of inappetance causing nausea causing more inappetance. My boy lived to the ripe old age of 14 despite his lack of appetite.
It varies widely. Pretty much every bearded collie owner I have spoken to confirms that his or her dog will not eat unless there's cheese in the bowl, generally preferring to sleep or do rounds of the house to make sure everything's okay. My dog will take a treat, spit it out, and then look at you to see if you want to keep rewarding him, which has allowed me to train him for a full day with only one treat. On the other hand, I used to walk an insane Australian terrier who would do anything from chewing through the drywall to get a grain of rice to eating enough ground beef to feed a four person family. It might come down to breeding, as collies and beagles were bred not to eat the livestock or dead bird, while terriers were bred to hunt, kill, eat, and hunt some more.
The shit may be explained by a type of parasite that makes the carrier's shit smell delicious to other dogs as a way to spread, so try to watch out for that.
Another option is that some dogs prefer to work for their food. Does he take kibble when you train him? Have you ever done any nose work with him?
If your vet is mentioning behavioral issues, they mean that your dog has learned that if he refuses food he gets something better. This article describes the process of how to reverse the process and teach a dog to eat again: http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/Writing/TeachEat.html
It isn't easy to follow (you will feel like you are starving your dog) and it should only be done after physical issues are ruled out (sounds like you have done that) but it does work.
Does he act sick in any way? Or do you only think he is sick because he isn't eating?
Um... or commercial kibbles have enough fat in them that it isn't all digested and some gets passed through and dogs like fatty foods just like humans do? Yes there are parasites that can be passed through shit eating but I have never heard of one that changes the way shit smells.
Also, that is not the case with all bearded collies. There are two in my agility class right now and they both looooove treats. I think they are from the same breeder, so it might be a line thing, but it is not universal.
This isn't uncommon in dogs. It can occur with a few medical conditions, but most of the time the dog just learns that if they refuse food they get something better.
Yep. Our dog does this all the time. She holds out for something better. Damn manipulative master mind..
Have you tried just raw mince? But, yeah poor doggie has 5-6 hours of alone time before din-din. That's probably depressing for a pack animal
It was cat shit. *shrug*
The pup's coat looks just fine. He used to go for treats when I trained him but he hasn't had much interest lately. That link looks like a good idea and I may have to give it a whirl. He doesn't have any symptoms of any health problems, everything seems to be derived from his lack of eating.
What we found that eventually worked was to take a tsp of brewers yeast and mix it with water and dry food. He loved it, and this was after trying several different foods for him. When we got him he was severely infested with worms, so I imagine most of his issues were related to that. But we did find he loved the brewers yeast as a gravy to his dry food.
Also what vet are you using? I live in Fairfax and I've had amazing luck with Pender if you wanted to try another vet.
My corgi puppy was also a picky eater. I did the same thing as you, enticing him with tasty toppings like cheese or gravy. While this got him to eat, he wouldn't eat his regular dog food unless it had the extras on it. Or worse, he would just eat the tasty stuff and leave his dog food. Not what I was going for, so I changed my tactics.
I would feed my dog twice a day. When I put his food down in the AM, I told him to eat and he got a time limit on how long the food was available. 20 minutes or so. Once the limit was reached, the food bowl was picked up. If he chose not to eat then he got his wish. When it was time to eat in the PM, I did the same thing. I kept this up until he was hungry enough to eat his food. It took about 4 feedings, so he only went 1 day without eating anything. Essentially I trained him to understand when I put food down this is his only time to eat. He got the message and it is not an issue anymore.
I'd give it a shot. Pick up all of the other food bowls throughout your place and only give him food when you want him to eat. Get him on a schedule and stick to it. He'll get hungry enough to eat, then it won't matter what is in front of him.
When he was home alone with one of my roommates he did eat some, so that has me hopeful that this is all behavioral.
It sounds like he knows *you* will always give him extras. Would any of your roommates be willing to go through the feeding protocol with him? It may be easier for you to do it after he already understands the program and has started eating for your roommate.
Unfortunately trying to get him to eat and then cracking before he does is exactly how one would train longer and longer duration in this behavior.