Only eating once a day?

[D'Elle]

My Kit dog (age 14) has now decided suddenly that she doesn't want to eat breakfast. She will eat dinner, so I have been putting a raw egg and/or cooked meat of some kind onto her dinner and giving her an extra large portion to try to make sure she still gets enough, but I still am not sure if she is eating as much as she was when she ate twice a day. She is thin, but by no means skin and bones, and seems otherwise to be fine. Although with her, (like with Jester and most BCs), you rarely will know if anything is wrong anyway because they are so darn stoic. She did just recover from a UTI, but has been off the antibiotics for a couple of weeks. (I am also giving her yogurt on her food).

 

Have any of your dogs ever decided to start eating only once a day? And is there any chance it could be a sign of something going wrong?

[gcv-border]

IMHO (and I am not a vet, but have just been through the long-term issue of decreased appetite in a senior dog - 17-19 years old), if other possibilities have been ruled out, it is not unusual for senior dogs to have less interest in eating. In addition to being less efficient at utilizing nutrients, senior dogs may have decreased appetites for various reasons. So they eat less, then absorb less, then lose weight while eating less, absorbing less and lose more weight. A downward spiral.

 

The miracle drug that helped Ritz was mirtazapine - which has an anti-nausea effect. It seems logical that a senior dog may not want to eat in the morning if they are feeling nauseous after waking up. Not so different from senior humans who take a while to 'find their sea legs' in the morning and also do not want to eat much for breakfast.

 

Ask your vet about trying mirtazapine. It is not very expensive and you could start with just a week's supply. You should be able to tell if it is going to work within a day or two. For my dog Ritz, she was eating again within 12 hours!!

 

In my case, the vet tried mirtazapine for exactly the reasons cited above, the fact that we would be able to tell if it was working within a short time, and not many other options available to make her eat. [i had tried everything I could think of at home.]

 

I truly believe that mirtazapine gave Ritz about 18 months. The way she was going, she was going to starve herself.

 

ETA: if you want any specifics, feel free to PM me. Good Luck.

[Gideon's girl]

I've seen many older dogs lose their appetite and I agree that an appetite stimulant or anti-nausea drug may be in order. I've heard it speculated that it might be an age related inner ear issue or that their sense of smell has decreased, but I don't know that anyone really knows why. If she isn't to the point that you want to go with pills, you may try adding smelly things to her food, like heating up canned food or adding tripe or sardines.

[diane allen]

Yes, this isn't uncommon in older dogs.

I had one who wouldn't eat anything before about 10 a.m. But then till noon was good for "breakfast."

I was lucky enough to be able to do that for her.

Even the other dogs eating nearby didn't "tempt" her.

 

Adding goodies might help - or might not.

Changing bowls (from metal to glass or ceramic or paper) might help - or might not.

 

I think it's hard for older dogs to get all their nutrition at one meal, so try things, and if none work, I'd ask a vet about an appetite stimulant and/or anti-nausea drug (which, BTW, doesn't always manifest as anything obviously nauseous).

 

Good luck with the old 'un.

diane

[Maralynn]

I'd probably ask your vet about trying something like pepcid before trying prescription meds. It's cheap and could help if she's just feeling a bit nauseous.

 

I'd also thoroughly check her teeth to make sure nothing is amiss with them.

[D'Elle]

Thanks, all. Her teeth are good as far as I can tell (I try to take care of my dogs' teeth). I don't know that she is nauseous....I don't see her throw up....so hesitate to use anti-nausea drugs at this point, not knowing if that is the issue. I will try it, though, if she starts losing weight. Thanks for giving me the medication's name so that I can ask my vet about it.

 

I keep adding things to her food. Sometimes it will tempt her to eat a bit but more often than not she still won't eat breakfast and then I have to throw the food away because it won't keep until dinner.

 

This morning I see her drinking a lot more water than usual. I simply did not offer her breakfast this morning at all, and will try offering her something in a couple of hours, because I am not working today and don't have to leave the house until later. On days when I have a client I can't do that; it is either breakfast or nothing until dinner.

 

I am going to keep a close eye on her and take her to the vet if the excess water drinking continues for another couple of days.

She just had a CBC only about a month ago, though, and everything looked good except for her BUN ans creatinine which were still within the normal range but were not in the middle of that range. I suppose I could do another CBC to see if they are getting worse, if the vet thinks I should. I am not made of money but when it comes to the animals I do what they need and to hell with the cost. If she is starting to develop kidney disease that would affect her appetite for certain.

 

<sigh>

One friend's doberman just died last week. Another friends beloved elder dog, a dog I love and have taken care of a lot over the years, is dying this weekend. I sure hope that it is not going to be Kit's turn any time soon.

I hate it that they get old before we do. I know it is part of the deal and I accept it but I don't have to like it.

[juliepoudrier]

Try 10 mg of pepcid. Often even adding dinner (I've traditionally fed my dogs once a day, in the morning), I've found that my oldsters (except Twist; if she ever stops being interested in food, I'm in serious trouble), had better appetites if I gave them something to eat in the evening before bed and gave them pepcid. I agree with Maralynn on trying that before jumping straight to the appetite stimulants, especially if a little acid control is all she might need.

 

J.

[gcv-border]

I think that attempting to increase her appetite with pepcid is a good first try, but I don't necessarily think that all OTC drugs are less toxic or have fewer side effects than Rx meds [if these are reasons why someone hesitates to use Rx meds.] OTC meds are certainly easier to obtain.

 

IIRC, the cost for the mirtazapine for Ritz (~30 lb) was less than $1 per day. It could have been cheaper, but I would have to look it up. Since it has been a while, I forget the details and may have it confused with another med she was taking at the time.

 

Also wanted to mention that just because Kit is not throwing up, doesn't mean that she isn't nauseous. Ritz never threw up.

 

That is the problem with our pets - because they can't verbalize, we are left with trying different treatments. And if a treatment works, then we assume that the cause has been identified - but it isn't necessarily true all the time.

[GentleLake]

... I don't necessarily think that all OTC drugs are less toxic or have fewer side effects than Rx meds ...

 

Very true. Look at the recently announced link about the proton pump inhibitors being linked to heart heart attacks. I'm not sure if pepcid is one of the PPIs or not though.

 

Also wanted to mention that just because Kit is not throwing up, doesn't mean that she isn't nauseous.

 

I was thinking the same thing. I'm pretty sure Tilly was feeling nauseated, but didn't throw up. I rarely throw up but experience nausea quite often.

 

ETA: I looked Pepcid up. It's a histamine blocker, but has warnings not to be taken if there's a history of kidney disease, liver disease or stomach cancer. If you don't know what's causing the inappetence and these things haven't been ruled out, well, I'd be leery about giving it to my dog without having a better idea what's going on. JMO, of course.

[juliepoudrier]

I think it's safe to say that if one is concerned about one's pet, the best advice is to take it to the vet for a full checkup. More safe vs less safe isn't the issue I was addressing; for me being able to get something OTC often does make life a bit easier with my crazy schedule, but of course I used Pepcid on the advice of my vet.

 

I don't think anyone is arguing that Kit *isn't* feeling nausea, but, for example, a friend had a dog who wouldn't eat and the vet was hesitant to use anti-nausea meds. My friend resorted to B vitamins (injection, not sure if it was B12 or B complex) to try to improve the appetite and it worked quite well. This was before IGS was widely discussed and I don't think the dog was ever tested, but it is an anecdotal example of one where the first choice might not have been the right choice.

 

Pepcid has worked for two of my elderly dogs. YMMV.

 

J.

[gcv-border]

Unfortunately, treating our pets can be trial-and-error [what I was trying to say before].

[D'Elle]

Thanks for the replies. Currently I have her eating breakfast again, by boiling a chicken breast and pouring warm broth from that, plus a few pieces of the meat, onto her breakfast. We will see how long that lasts. Knowing her, I will have to try something else after a while because she will stop eating again.

I do think that if she does stop eating breakfast again I will take her in and discuss with the vet about anti-nausea drugs, whether OTC or prescrip. I am certainly more than willing to give her something like that if it will help, I just don't like to use medications, on myself or my animals, until it is necessary.

And, of course, you are right that just because she is not throwing up doesn't mean she is not feeling nauseous.

[Gideon's girl]

I used to have a dog that I needed cajole to get him to eat during a medical episode and I boiled liver and put it through the blender, with the water I boiled it in, to pour over his food.

[D'Elle]

I used to have a dog that I needed cajole to get him to eat during a medical episode and I boiled liver and put it through the blender, with the water I boiled it in, to pour over his food.

ooh, that's a good idea. when the chicken stops working that will be my next thing. thanks.

[simba]

You could try the same thing with tripe. Some butchers will stock it. I have my eye on a shop that sells tripe, pig intestines, duck's necks etc and sometimes sells whole pig's heads for five dollars- some day I will get one, cook it, eat all the bits I can stomach, feed the rest (not including the skull, that's for stock) to the hounds.

[GentleLake]

Tripe that butchers sell (and I think this is the same in the UK and Ireland as well) is bleached and scalded for human consumption, unless it's a butcher who's selling green tripe under the table so to speak.

 

Bleached tripe won't have nearly the appeal to dogs that green tripe will, and it's not as nutritious as beef meat.

[simba]

This is more for enticing a dog to eat- which I have heard it being used successfully for- so I don't think nutrition is as much of a concern at that point.

[GentleLake]

^^ My primary point is that the bleached tripe available for human consumption probably won't be very enticing, as all the stuff that dogs find irresistible has been washed away. The nutrition bit was just added information tacked on at the end in case anyone was interested.

 

If you've ever smelled raw green tripe the difference is quite noticeable, even to human's relatively un-discerning senses.

[D'Elle]

I have heard that they process white tripe with lye, and I would not eat it myself nor feed it to my dogs. Green tripe of course is the unprocessed stuff, and apparently good for dogs and also very appealing to them. I would love to try it but have not found any place here that has it. They sell lots of tripe here, because of the high Mexican population, who use it to make menudo, but that is all the white kind.

[juliepoudrier]

If you're willing to mail order, Chewy carries Solid Gold's version of tripe, and there are number of canned dog foods that are tripe mixed with something else (apparently because some people just can't take the smell of tripe). The Solid Gold version isn't as tripe-y as the Green Cow tripe I used to get, but it still smells like tripe and the dogs love it.

 

J.