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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
  
Location: 31 lengths farms | My mom's 18.5 year old JRT has not been eating well. Mom had a stroke on Christmas and was in the hospital, then had to go to Rehab place that it doesn't appear she won't be coming home from sadly. I don't know if Bandit is depressed because Mom is no longer there, I know it is a possibility, or if it is her age. We had to take her to the vet on New Years Eve, she was dehydrated, but her vitals were good, no temp, heart rate and respiratory was good. They gave her 150 cc's of fluid SubQ and some medicine to help her belly empty easier as she was a bit constipated. She rebounded well from that but now I'm having trouble finding something that she will eat. She has some kidney issues and had been on the Renal product from Science Diet or whatever brand is Vet only, can't keep them all straight anymore...
Any suggestions as to what to feed her, willing to cook food for her. Already have been but one night she likes beef, next night she won't touch it, one night she likes chicken, etc... |
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 Expert
Posts: 1218
Location: Great NW | Probably depression. but did you have her teeth checked - maybe she has one or two loose that are bothering her. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 738
Location: Anywhere my horses are ! Lost in Texas!!!!! | Bandit is missing your Mom,do you have some item's of your Mom's with her scent on them. that Bandit could sleep with? Is there any way the dog can go and see your Mom? I fostered a JRT that was sent to the pound at the age of 15. He got very depressed, with a lot of love I got him through it and he lived another five years. Prayers to you. |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | I thought maybe teeth too and I didn't have them checked at the vets but the other day when Dave cooked some lamb she knawed on the bone for hours, but will take her in to see if that might be it anyway. I know she is 18.5 and this probably comes with the territory however when we do get her to eat she acts much like her old self, she is mostly blind and still tries to chase the cats outside and will follow my scent trail all the way out to the horse pens and come look me up like she always has as well as her play time at 8:30 every night, again if we have gotten her to eat. I would love to take her to see my mom but the issue there is it gets my mom crying and wanting to come home again which she cannot. She is now confined to a wheelchair and my parents old home, the door ways and hall ways are not wide enough to accomadate her chair.
Bandit does seem to like when I sit in my mom's old recliner and hold her on my lap like my mom used to do....might just need to sit there in the evenings with her and see if it helps. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 738
Location: Anywhere my horses are ! Lost in Texas!!!!! | That will help Bandit a lot. Doing things that she used to do with your Mom. Hang in there, it will be okay. |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | Okay, so any recipes out there for older dogs that I could try also? |
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Expert
Posts: 2678
Location: Mi | My Rat Terrior is 14, if I leave her she gets depressed and 90% of the time she won't eat. I have found if I leave her at home and have someone let her out for me or stay there with her she does better, but still not the same as if I'm home. Darn dogs! |
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Regular
Posts: 60
| I cook for all my lil weinies. put some raw gizzards in a pot and add some water dump some ride in and cook. They love this and also try liver and rice cook together if they do not eat the liver, there is something wrong with them!
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | Thank you Fab I will give that a try, and I've been kind of thinking about taking Bandit to work with me in the mornings as she is now at home for a good part of the day by herself, though at least it is in the home she knows...Maybe take her bed and one of mom's shirts to lay on along with her child's size toy box, LOL! |
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 Chicken Chick
Posts: 3562
Location: Texas | At the vet clinic if we couldn't get a dog to eat we always went to boiled chicken, tore up into little bite size pieces and served warm. That usually enticed them enough to start eating, most of them switched easily to the food we wanted them on after they got their appetite back.
Sometimes they just wanted to be hand fed. I don't know how many times I have sat in a cage with a can of a/d (or baby food) and a spoon, or a hand full of chicken.
If we force fed them, we used a/d or baby food in a syringe. |
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 Crazy Doggy Mommy
Posts: 1419
Location: Where Governor's make the liscense plates | I would try canned food heated up- with dogs the stinkier the better- I agree with otheres that chicken livers and gizzards might be good for her. you could always do chicken and rice with veggies like peas and carrots. |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | This is her , a picture from about 4 years ago so she would have been 14 or so at that time..one of the really good JRT in this world and my last connection to my mom at home.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l232/tuckercan/Cocoa-Rosie003.jpg
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Industrial Srength Barrel Racer
Posts: 7268
| I used to boil chicken and rice for my old JRT. |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | I'll be stopping to pick some up today, thanks again for the input everyone, BAndit and I appreciate it :-) |
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Veteran
Posts: 165
| You could probably go to your vet and get a can of anorectic diet dog food and try her on that. It is made to be very attractive smelling to dogs that won't eat. Sometimes we would heat it up a bit to get them eating it and it helped. |
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 How freakish is that?
Posts: 3927
Location: Oregon | My old dog loves cottage cheese.
Also these rolls http://www.wag.com/dog/p/natural-balance-duck-potato-treat-roll-117861?site=CA&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc_W&utm_term=NLB-107&utm_campaign=GooglePLA&CAWELAID=1323844157&utm_content=pla&ca_sku=NLB-107&ca_gpa=pla&ca_kw={keyword} |
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 I'm Here!!
Posts: 4583
Location: Is it Summer Yet? | I feed my dogs raw eggs, one a day for breakfast. They love them. |
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 I Am Not Worthy
Posts: 3151
Location: Wishing on a sunny island.... | My grandma died in August and we took her 15 year old border collie in. It took me a while to find something she liked. She was very thin when we got her but I have gotten all her weight back on and she looks good for her age. She has some arthritis so has issues getting up. What I found that she likes is that she wants to eat what all the other dogs eat and in bowls that look like theirs. So I had to buy a metal bowl and put her smaller bowl in it. If we try any other dishes she wont eat. Also I put water in her food, but she gets HIGHLY offended. she wants to eat the same way everyone else does. Shes certainly got her personality traits and I know she still misses my grandma, but we've tried to make her as happy as we can until her last days. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1182
Location: Do I hear Banjos? | You mentioned the pup is on a special diet for kidney issues. Quite often when their BUN/Creatinine (blood values related to kidney function) are high...they lose their appetite. They just don't feel like eating. Often they get dehydrated and that just concentrates things and makes it worse. If you are able to give the Sub Q fluids at home a couple of times a week...that might go a long way to helping her feel better and more like eating. We have a phrase in the vet world... "The solution to pollution is dilution"
We would teach clients how to give the fluids and send them home with a bag and a supply of needles. We would sometimes give a B12 injection to perk them up and give them more of an appetite.
As others have mentioned...boiled chicken and rice is a good meal to temp them...and whatever you offer can be made more enticing by sprinkling it with either garlic powder or Parmesan cheese.
Hope the little pup feels better. |
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I Really Love Jeans
Posts: 3173
Location: North Dakota | The dog is at the ends of its life so I would do what you are doing, give her human food scraps and let her enjoy her last few months happy. As long as the dog is not in pain I would not put her to sleep just let her finish her life out. Boil her some chicken, give her some cheese etc....Iams has some really nice can food that most dogs love! |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | Try getting the soft food version of whatever formula science diet the dog normally eats. Warm it up in the microwave and maybe add a little water. We used to do this in the clinic for the hospitalized animals to get them to eat.
I would not feed the dog any regular food unless the vet tells you it is okay to do so. |
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 Experienced Mouse Trapper
Posts: 3106
Location: North Dakota | boiled hamburger and rice, salt it a little too, will encourage drinking. Some dogs love licking ice cubes, help flush her organs. We've used chicken and rice too. so sad when they don't want to eat :( |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | I 've given her the canned version of the Renal product, the problem with most canned food is that she will eat it when you first open it, but not after its been in the refrigerator, even when you microwave it to heat it up.
I sat with her last night and held her in my mom's chair, she seemed happy about it, but still wouldn't eat. However this morning she ate the chicken I had cooked up the night before for her, will go home at noon and see if she will eat a little more.
I also figured that she is towards the end of her life, she is gong to die if I can't get her to eat so I kind of have to throw out the rules for her usual diet and find what ever she is willing to eat. I will give the cottage cheese a shot also, she is not an egg eater. Not even when my mom was still at home, she would eat pretty much anything my mom snuck her off her plate...except for eggs, LOL!!! |
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OT-older dog and getting them to eat...