Hey again!

Well, I promised it. If the eating disorder continues, I'll post a topic. Here it is.

My puppy is skipping meals. She's on Royal Canin Puppy 32. I called the vet and the secretary says if she doesn't like the food, she may starve herself to death. I have a LOT of trouble believing that, but she did spook me. There are some meals when she just sits down and eats the whole thing, no questions asked. When she's done she even comes to me for more, it seems. Anyway, if it really was an issue of her not liking the food, do I really want my dog's finnicky tastes to rule what kind of nutrition she gets? I chose this brand after long consideration of her health. Although, indeed, if she's not eating it, buying nutritious food won't help.

I don't know what to think. Our schedules don't allow us to be completely regular regarding mealtimes. She usually has breakfast around 9-10, lunch between 2 and 4 at the most, and dinner between 7 and 9. Of course, if I give her one meal late, I'll try to give her her next meals later as well, so there is enough time between the two for her to get hungry. Once in a while, if she doesn't eat, I'll pick up the food and try again later, but I'm worried this will make her used to eating whenever she feels like it.

We do train her with treats, but the quantity we give her seems minimal. We use PureBites in liver and cheddar, and give her a total of one to two pieces a day, maximum. We cut them up in little clusters and that's what we use as a reward. At first she showed little interest in them, but by switching from one to the other we managed to make her interested enough so that we could teach her a couple things already.

She's had some diarrhea as well. Almost every poop starts off looking nice and healthy, but she always stays crouched there about a minute and a half, and at the end, it gets kinda mushy. Not liquid, just sort of unformed and squishy. We did the transition from her former food (Puppy Chow) in almost two weeks, and really took our time. We went from 100% Puppy Chow to a 25-75 Royal Canin-Puppy Chow, to 50-50, and then 75-25. Now we've been on 100% Royal Canin for about a week. Sometimes when she doesn't eat, I do wonder if it's because she feels ill. This morning she hasn't touched her breakfast and I can hear weird little sounds coming from her tummy, and I think she's burping and farting noisily, which is unusual for her. One time she skipped two meals, but usually she'll only skip one. She sniffs the food and walks away and goes to lie down on her carpet.

One time I locked her in the kitchen with baby gates and left, leaving her alone with her meal, no carpet and no toys. Eventually, out of boredom I guess, she ate. I don't know if she's just testing the limits of our willingness to work around her apetite. At first we were so worried that we tried feeding her by hand, but we didn't let that last too long. Now we're trying the "put the food down 15 minutes, and then pick it up" method. But I am concerned. I have no idea what to try anymore. I have also tried giving her smaller portions so she will be hungry for all meals, but in the morning, she should be starving! No?

Ugh! I'm so worried for my puppy.

Hey!

Sorry, my post was lacking that important info.

She was born sept. 16th. That makes her 2,5 months old. I give her a total of 2 cups per day, which is what the bag says for 10 lbs puppies, even though she's probably more like 13-14 lbs now. I give her 2/3 of a cup each mealtime.

I'm worried she may have a stomach bug. I don't remember when I last saw her have a completely healthy poop. There's always *some* diarrhea in there.

I have an appointment at the vet tonight...

Thanks so much Tessa for a very detailed reply! If this doesn't work, I'll give it a try.

So they found worm eggs in her rectal smear. She had the flea/mite/worm treatment two weeks ago but somehow it didn't work. We're now giving her an oral treatment for worms and another kind of parasite which they said is easy to miss even with the microscope. This will be until Friday, every night.

The vet also said, however, that worms do not cause diarrhea. This is why he's giving a treatment that is also for parasites. But if she's parasite free, the diarrhea may keep happening. In this case, the food would be the problem. He has recommended some brands, on top of the list would be P/D prescription diet.

If next Monday she still has diarrhea, I'll try your method, Tessa. She also does get the hiccups quite a lot, maybe not letting her drink with her meal would be a good idea. However, I do cut her water supply after dinner time and until morning so she doesn't need to pee more than once during the night. So if I cut water for an hour and a half around each meal (and she eats 3 meals a day), that means she'd have access to water... never. I'll think about this.

Also, the doc did say that I should reduce her portions to a 1/2 cup of food, for a total of 1,5 cups a day, instead of 2/3 of a cup for a total of 2 cups a day. This will help her have a regular income of nutrients. She is a bit skinny, I can count her ribs and her flanks are sort of hollow when she's standing up. But I'm crossing my fingers that the parasite treatment will help her digestion as a whole and her appetite will go up.

Thanks again to everyone for their very helpful input. I will keep you posted on our little Melli Beese's recovery. And TB, let me see what pics I can post for you. She really is a cutie. Instead of a full liver color head, she has a racoon-like mask. She looks like a little bandit. We actually named her Melli Beese because that is the name of one of the first german women aviators, and she sort of looks like she has aviation goggles on with her spots... " src="/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/blue/emoticons/smile.gif" />

M. xx

Edit: I did want to mention, for archives' sakes, that the vet also recommended that we skip to 2 meals a day. Her weight is now 6,2 kg or 13,5 lbs. He said at that weight, even though she is only 11 weeks old, 2 meals a day are enough. Besides, if it can assure she gets food regularly and doesn't skip meals, it's healthier that way.

h wait - there is another product I totally forgot about. Breeder friends of mine use it and I should start using it again too. It's supposedly especially great for puppies which are prone to worms, diarrhea/loose stools etc. It's the Olewo carrot pellets. They are pretty big in Germany where they come from. You just soak a teaspoon full in warm water for 10 minutes and mix it in the food. Here is the link:

www.naturmix.com/pages/products/olewo.html

It does sound a little bit like hokus pokus but so many people swear by it. It can mess with the coat color tint which disappears when the dosage is decreased - Tessa never had that problem though.

Hi everyone!

I am happy / proud / slightly disgusted to anounce that Melli Beese has been pooping tons of ugly, long, white, dead worms all day. Her diarrhea even seems to be getting better already, despite these horrible excretions. She's still vomiting (and swallowing it right back up again before it even touches the floor), but I'll wait until we're done medicating her before I worry about that. She seems as giddy as ever and is back to her normal self again.

Also, cutting her down to 2 meals a day has helped tremendously. I'm giving her 3/4 of a cup twice a day, and she's not skipping meals anymore nor does she leave a single kibble in her bowl, ever. I'm thinking of giving her a bit more food if she keeps this up, to make sure I cater her growing puppy needs. Since she's not an over-eater, and she's not in the least chubby, I think I can trust her to show me how much food she needs.

Also, TessaGA, I've been flipping through your photograph website. What a face your Tessa has! I've never seen a GSP with that kind of face, I don't know how to explain it. She's got these half-closed, sort of tired or blasé looking eyes, and this huge aristocratic nose... She must be great at what she does.

I'll post more news in a few days to tell you how she is.

M.

Edit: The medication she is taking is called Fenbendazole. There's a wikipedia page for it. I don't exactly what kinds of parasites it fights, but it's doing a great job at killing those worms!