cattledog5 Posted November 26, 2006 Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 Hello. I have a six year old border collie / ACD mix that doesn't want to eat. It started around september. At first she didn't want to eat dry food any more but she would eat a mix of dry and canned, then she didn't want to eat that. Then she started to throw up a lot. I felt that it was from a combination of not eating regularly and the fact that we were changing the canned part of her food. Anyway I took her to my vet and he tested her blood, urine, stool, and x-rays for some kind of blockage, everything came back fine. He gave me two types of pills, (one is like tagamet for dogs. I think the other was in case of an infection) and a perscription food and she ate that for a few meals then didn't want to eat and started throwing up again (although not as bad). So I took her to the vet again and he check her out again and didn't find anything. Now I am giving her just the tagamet for dogs pill and a different perscription food and she's not eating very much. Often she throws up stomach acid in the early morning. One thing occurs to me, she used to get a fair amount of people scraps like a crumb of toast in the morning and some gravy on her food on many evenings. Is it possible that she just decided she want's gravy on her food for EVERY meal? She will eat dog treats or people food without a second thought. Does that mean she's just holding out or could she be sick but nothing that comes up on tests? The strange thing is she is just as active as she was before all this started. She plays frisbie and runs around and such. Apart from the eating, her behavior is totally normal. By the way, I have been reading the posts for a while now and I really like the border collie board. Matt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosanne Posted November 26, 2006 Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 While I have a dog that is not always so enthusiastic about eating, he does not throw up when he eats inconsistently. . . I would be very worried if he began to exhibit this behavior. Also he has been the opposite - the older he gets (he's just turned 4) the better he eats - in his case I believe it was young male hormones and the unwillingness to waste all that time sitting around eating enough food to fuel his intense energy level. I would suggest trying a different vet, and maybe trying a better food. In my experience the prescription foods are generally still corn-based (dogs aren't made to eat corn) with whatever special Ph-level etc built into them. If the vet has no real prognosis then there seems to be no reason to prescribe a food (?). Try some good natural foods (I'm sure if you search that on the board you'll get plenty, but for example Nature's Variety, Canidae, Innova, Eagle Pack Holistic, Solid Gold. . there are lots). Or you could try just feeding meat and veggies for a while and see if the throwing up continues (this is what I might do - to rule out the eating being the problem). If it does, there has got to be a physical problem! Good Luck! Be persistent with the vets! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cattledog5 Posted November 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 Thanks for the ideas. The perscription food I have is a HIlls brand and corn meal is listed first in the ingredients but it doesn't say how much. Although the canned food I have is Iams beef and rice entre and there is no corn listed in the ingredients. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sea4th Posted November 26, 2006 Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 cattledog5, My border collie Pete was put on a vet prescribed diet - the early kidney diet --- my dogs will eat, no matter what, but this food was just not palatable for him and he just stopped eating and was looking pretty bad after a few weeks on this food. In a last ditch effort I switched him to a completely different type of diet, without consulting my vet. The results were phenomenal, but keep in mind, we are talking about a different dog and a different circumstance. If there is any alternative to the prescription diet, I would do some serious searching. Here is Pete's story. It made me start thinking "outside the dog food box". http://d21c.com/buddyx2/MORIGINS/pete.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartdog Posted November 26, 2006 Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 Has she been tested for tick borne illness? Loss of appetite is one of the stmptoms and can be the only symptom! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosanne Posted November 26, 2006 Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 I had a cat that had urine crystals who was prescribed a Hills diet. . . well I read the ingredients and did some research and found a much better natural-type food that met the pH/magnesium/whatever health requirements (this was a few years ago) and I switched him. Never had another problem, and it actually cost LESS than the Rx diet. Cats and dogs are not made to digest corn with a little bit of meat mixed in. A good food will start with several animal-specific (chicken, beef, etc, NOT "meat meal" which can be ANYTHING) ingredients, then maybe some rice or oats or something like that. Ingredients are listed by weight, so the first ingredient weighed the most going in, the 2nd weighed the 2nd most, and so on. But again, if your dog WAS eating, then stopped, and now vomits - that seems like more than being finicky to me. When my dog skipped meals several times a week all he got was skinnier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cattledog5 Posted November 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 Yes she has been tested for tic borne illness and came up negative. It seems like if I could just get her interested in eating I could get her back on a consistant feeding schedule so I could rule that out as a possible problem. I'm going to try a food with no corn in it and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daviid Posted November 26, 2006 Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 Hi Matt, Seeing that you ruled out medical problems; you may just have a finicky eater, or she really likes a little people food with her kibble. There's nothing wrong with that. If the people food is good and she tolerated it well and eats...what's the problem? I know some people feel its wrong to give people food to their dog...maybe vets instilled that or whatever. She also may do better with more in her stomach if she's throwing up. Maybe a few snacks before bed and a few during the day. Feeding twice a day is better then once with most dogs. I had a female border years ago that threw up bile if she didn't get her breakfast fast enough. She didn't do well with an empty stomach. I gave her a few treats before bed and several through the day. Fed twice a day instead of once, I added chicken, beef, fish, eggs, vegetables, broth etc. to her kibble and she ate fine for the rest of her life (18 yrs) no more throwing up and if I had to add more "good people" food I did. Each dog is different with their eating, the border I have now gets almost all people food ( I feel it's better) but he would gladly eat plain kibble, heck he would eat Styrofoam if I gave it. After many dogs, sometimes you just have to make adjustments to each of their needs. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alicia Posted November 26, 2006 Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 Could she possibly have some sort of allergy? I'm not sure if that is true as they usually will have a skin reaction first. Maybe try a different vet and/or a raw diet to eliminate allergies and really know what is going in her tummy then you can add and subrtact foods as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cattledog5 Posted November 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 26, 2006 Thanks a lot for all your advice. I really appreciate how you all help each other out on this board. I will let you know what happens. Matt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flrpwr52 Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 I had a BC female that would vomit when she did not eat on a daily basis. After many different vet visits with all the same outcome of finding nothing wrong I decided to add some pumpkin to her morning kibble. She went right after it and then I started to switchit up with all natural yogurt. I only gave the supplement in the morning and her dinner kibble was plain. I never had another time of her missing more than a meal here or there. Zoe had started to skip meals so I started with the pumpkin and yogurt once again and no more skipping meals for her. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2 Devils Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 There is a an ailment which I can't remember the name of called Bile something or other. It basically is - when a dog has an empty stomach they end up throwing up bile. You can stop this by feeding a couple times a day, giving treats at bedtime giving pepcid a couple times a day can also help... I had a dog with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2 Devils Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Now that I have more time and my boss is not standing behind me that you should try finding a good quality food, buy some generic pepcid, feed a couple times a day, make sure to feed something light at bedtime. This really helped Charlotte. As long as she was fed on schedule, was given some treats or something throughout the day, took pepcid at dinner time and had a couple treats at bedtime - the bile issues were kept to a minimum. My vet explained that basically Charlotte was digesting her food so quickly that her stomach was basically empty and building up acid/bile which in turn made her vomit. Try feeding just the chicken and rice diet for a week so the stomach can recover and then slowly start adding regular food while slowly decreasing the chicken/rice meal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyF Posted November 27, 2006 Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 I have heard of a few dogs with the anorexic symptom who tested negative for any tick borne diseases that were still treated with Doxicycline and responded. These dogs got their appetites back. I cannot say that the tick panals are 100% reliable. I would go back and talk to your vet or get a new vet. It wouldn't hurt to try a trial of Doxicycline just to see if it makes a difference. Now remember, this is just information given on other dogs that I have heard about. I am not a veterinarian. Kathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cattledog5 Posted November 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2006 Hi everyone. I just wanted to give you all an update. I got some of those eukanuba pouches of beef and gravy. Y'know the ones that smell so good they make me hungry? I put that on top of her kibbles and she has eaten three meals in a row and no throw ups. I hope the record will hold. I'll keep you updated. thanks so much for all your help so far. Matt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cattledog5 Posted December 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2006 Hello. I have an update on my dog. Her eating problem got worse so I took her to another vet that I really respect. He couldn't tell anything more than my regular vet. So I took her to a specialist who did an endoscopy. She has stomach cancer. I will know exactily what kind when the biopsy comes back. But it doesn't look good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2 Devils Posted December 28, 2006 Report Share Posted December 28, 2006 Matt, I sent you an email but wanted to post saying that I am sorry for the diagnosis. My Charlotte was 4 when she was diagnosed with GI Tract Lymphoma and was euthanized not 3 months later. Your story did sound very much like Charlotte's but I was afraid of posting that and upsetting anyone... I am very sorry and hope that your dog has a better outcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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