Do Shelties Need to Eat Evey Day?

Justicemom said:
Have you done blood work on him lately? The decreased appetite and leg trembling you mentioning in another thread make me worry about kidney issues or eletrolytes imbalances. If you have not done that recently do it and rule those types of things out. You can also see appetite decrease with pain. The muscle tremors could be a sign. Dogs are very good at hiding pain.

I know my dogs they are foodies and a missed meal out even slow eating is a bad sign. Justice had missed one meal in his life and broke with HGE 3 hours later and almost died. Diva missed one meal the day she passed from GME. Ember and Birch have never missed a meal voluntary and hope they never do. Some dogs just don't care about food that much but if your dog has up to this point in his life readily ate and that has changes something is going on in my opinion.It depends on your dog.
Click to expand...

Blood work was done the other day by the local animal hospital. We will be talking to them Monday about test results. They didn't tell me that anything unusual turned up, though. Before that, blood work was done by our regular vet last fall at annual checkup and again in early Feb before teeth cleaning.

There was a noticeable change in his eating pattern last fall, but there had been a slow change over the previous few years. He's not liked dry food for quite a while. Also, he still seems to have a normal appetite for treats, people food, things he finds outside, etc. I have a feeling he's getting a good number of calories with all the people food and snacks he munches in between. He definitely hasn't lost any weight in the past six months.




We'
 
I would be worried. Rhiannon did this exact behaviour. She wouldn't eat her food but she would eat treats. Blood work, including CBC and Biochem panels x2, xrays x2 and ultrasound were all inconclusive. She lost nearly 14 pounds as the anorexia became worse. With switching foods, adding goodies, feeding smaller amounts more frequently we were able to get 2 lbs back on her. Unfortunately, in the end, we couldn't save her and we don't know why. That's the hardest part of it, we don't know what happened just that we lost my beloved girl one month ago today. We would have done an endoscopy to check for stomach cancer if she hadn't become such an anesthetic risk. Don't wait and assume that it may be just being picky.
 
I had the same problem with my Dad wanting to slip the dogs treats. I finally got through to him that they don't need as much as they were getting. If you are feeding treats during the day, cut back on what you feed at meals. I could everything the dogs get into their daily total. I can't give exact calories - but I can tell by how they look if they are doing okay. The vet is happy with their weights, now that I have Emma down to about 22 pounds.

Hoping you can get some answers to your questions. I am glad you have had the bloodwork done. Shelties are notorious for being very stoic about pain. When Liam had his bowel obstruction, no one would have known who didn't know him. I could only tell something was wrong by the look on his face - it was a different look. Pain can affect their eating habits as Dr. Shellie has said.

Keep us updated on how Fasb is doing. It is a worry for you - we can totally understand that.:hugs
 
Fasb ate quite well this morning. No procrastinating.

We did notice he threw up last night or early this morning. That's not really unusual, in and of itself. He doesn't throw up a lot, but every several months, he gets sick (sometimes a couple times over a few days or week), then is fine for a few months. He's not getting into anything and he generally shakes it off immediately afterwards. He seems to have a nervous stomach. Also has a tendency to munch grass in warm weather. Doesn't usually affect his appetite this drastically, though.

Anyway, I tried something different this morning: gave him a little less than 1/3 of a cup of Merrick's dry food and poured Mixables over it. Mixables is sort of a soupy broth with little chunks of meat and veg in it. Fasb came to it quickly, ate quickly while I shaved, and seemed good. I'm hoping he'll eat a little easier if I change up his diet and give him some tastier food. Owner of the pet store I visited yesterday says Natural Balance (his old brand of canned food) is sort of tasteless and best for dogs with allergies.

After he ate the Merrick's, I threw in a large handful of his old dry food (Iams) to soak up the remaining broth. He ate that too very readily, So far today, he seems normal and happy. All in all, he ate about his normal amount of breakfast. Maybe a little more than that. If i keep using Mixables, I'll have to get a rough idea how many calories that adds to his intake. For now, I'm just wanting to get him eating normally and be interested in food.

We'll see how he eats tonight. Feel better though.
 
That's good to hear. Maybe his intense visit to the new vet regarding the tremor got the best of him and maybe he had to have a bit more taste to entice. My shepherd will miss a meal if he has the grumbly tummy. I give extra probiotics and it settles down and he is fine. Maybe it was a tummy upset you didn't realize and in throwing up he felt better.

Keep us posted on the followup on the tremor workup.
 
Yeah, hopefully this was a false alarm. Having an upset stomach/need to get sick has never affected him quite like this before, but the norm is changing as he ages. Getting stressed out is affecting bowels and stomach in different ways (it's not uncommon for him to have runny stool after a visit to the groomer).

Still, this is a good time to change up his food. The animal hospital is going to contact me tomorrow to go over all the tests he had done last week. I'll talk to them too about his changing eating habits, see if they agree with our regular vet that it's a behavioral issue. Even if he starts eating again, I'm going to confer with our regular vet about his weight and portion sizes.
 
Fasb got more excited over dinner than he's been for awhile. Wolfed down his food in a couple minutes. Guessing he just needs a change.

Thanks to everyone who's posted in my threads or contacted me.
 
Blood work came back normal. No sign of kidney issues or electrolyte imbalance or anything else. It could be pain from the arthritis, but the arthritis isn't that severe and he generally doesn't show signs of pain. Since he's being treated for arthritis, they think his appetite issues are behavioral. He does appear to have a sense of smell (I thought maybe that was going).

He ate quite well again this morning. Hopefully, we just need to find a food he likes. I don't think he's going to go for plain kibble, so we'll either need to move him to a largely canned food diet or (preferable, I think) flavor the dry food.
 
He's eating well enough, so it definitely looks behavioral. He isn't too keen to eat his dry kibble - either the old brand or the new ones I bought over the weekend. And he positively turns his nose up at his old brand of canned food. But, if I mix dry in with a little something to make it tasty, he eats quite well. I think he'd eat his old moist chow if I coaxed him. but, given his age and everything, I'm not going to fight that battle. Time to just give in, find a mix of dry/moist food he likes, and figure out the potion sizes so he doesn't take in too many calories. Thinking I'm going to try mixing in raw/natural food some once I get a handle on what he can have and how to prepare it for him. I expect he'd readily eat chicken for a meal if I offered it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top