How to tempt an ill dog?

Penelope_Penguin

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renegade

Rebob hello
My vet diagnosed chronic renal failure in my dog 18 months ago, apart from involuntary weeing he is not suffering any more problems, he eats like a horse enjoys his walks plays with my other dog, he is 11 yrs old.
I wouldn't worry too much about what to give him, my dog will eat anything now ,prior to this he was a picky eater, I just put the food down for him and he what and when he wants I leave it there for him to eat randomly, no excessive weight gain either.I am just grateful he is still with me after being told that he would dead in a few months.

Mupette

don't forget to watch the salt levels in the food you give your dog.
if you do gravy then you can get low salt gravy, although you can buy special dog gravy in the dog food aisle of the supermarket.

Not sure about giving dog cat food, mine will hunt gizmo's food down as he loves cat food, but i am sure i was told (on here) that it is not good in the long term, although Perry manages to get to at least one kitty sized bowl a week.

Vet told me bland food for a poorly dog, rice, chicken, fish and scrambled eggs etc.

what about their favourite doggy treats?

gratefulforhelp_2

another vote for sardines for a GSD x collie who really had no interest in food!

Kinski

I'm surprised your vet told you to feed your dog anything it wants.
Abby my elderly sheltie has renal failure, she's being fed a special food ( Hills ) which is very low in protein, it's a crap food but if it keeps her with me I'll keep her on it. She is also fed six small meals a day so as to not overload her kidneys, dogs with renal failure will more than likely also have stomach ulcers, I'm giving Abby slippery elm which will protect her stomach and stop her from being sick, milk thistle, greenleaf tablets and kidney tablets all of which should help protect her kidneys. The vets can't say how bad the kidneys are just that there will only be a maximum of 1/3rd of the kidneys working. Abby was diagnosed in December and apart from her not feeling well a couple of weeks ago and having to go back on antibiotics for 10 days she's been not to bad. I've been in touch with about 4 people who's dogs have lasted 18 months after diagnosis, I'm not sure Abby will last that long but I'm going to give it a bloody good try.

Abby my fat wee oik

gratefulforhelp_2

Lovely Abby.

aliasojo

Hannah_10 wrote: »

..........and bacon.

Twix bars if dog is not going to get better. Dogs love them. For a healthy dog these are strictly out because something called therobromine in the chocolate builds up in the dog and poisons them over years. For a dog who doesn't have that kind of time this is largely irrelevant.

Bacon usually has high salt levels so not good for pooch's kidneys.

Also chocolate can cause an immediate reaction and death in some dogs depending on their tolerance and the level of therobromine ingested.

http://www.dogownersdigest.com/news/library/chocolate-dog-poisoning.shtml

The local vet here has a printed warning sheet on his wall telling of a dog who snaffled a selection box from under the xmas tree and died because of it. (I realise that's a lot more than *just* one twix mind ).

Personally if I was the OP I'd be trying to feed nice but still kinda healthy things rather than just anything nice iyswim.

Rebob

Went on the local meat market earlier today and bought an ox heart. All chopped up and in the fridge now. Fried some off earlier and she loved it. Going to freeze some in separate portions so if she goes off it for a while we can go back to it. She loved the pasta and meatballs last night but will not touch it today which is part of what is making this hard.

Thanks for the continued suggestions.

Kinski - You have made my day by saying how long your friends dogs have gone on to live after diagnosis. My last two dogs before Poppy were shelties too. One was a little fatty while his brother was alway slim. x

Kinski

Shelties are great wee dogs if a bit on the noisy side :rotfl:.
Try and give your girl 5/6 small meals a day if you can, it should lessen the stress on her kidneys. I hope you have your girl for a long time yet .

loulou123

My last doggy had a stomach tumour and feeding him was a struggle at times. His main meal every day was plain chicken and rice, which in the later stages i used to get on the floor with him and feed him from my hand. Also maybe try lightly heating up something 'smelly' (i mean smelly like fish, not smelly as in gone off!) as the process of heating the food tends to release more smells and flavour which might tempt the dog.

I also have to admit, that once his diagnosis was terminal and a matter of weeks, he ate whatever he liked - crisps, cheese, cake, ice cream!, chocolate (and yes i knew all about the poison issue, but he loved magic stars and chocolate buttons and a few here and there werent going to hurt him at that stage.)