dog not eating

[anomaly13]

our puppy is about 5 or 6 months old.  she has all her shots except rabies which she is scheduled to get when she goes in to get fixed in the next 2 months.  i haven't made the appointment yet because she has been sick and want her well before surgery, also i know if i take in a sick dog they won't do the work till she's better and i will get hit with a huge vet bill which i cannot afford.  

so about a month ago she was unable to keep anything but water down.  she slowly started to hold stuff down for longer periods but it always came back up.  she lost a ton of weight.  about 2 weeks ago she started holding food down and pooping again.  but she is not eating her kibble now. she eats eggs, raw or cooked, no problem.  she will eat her cookies, peanut butter, leftover salmon, pancakes, random ground scores after the kids eat.  but she won't touch her kibble, the same stuff she had been eating for 3 months.  i thought maybe it was too hard and hurting her teeth, but she eats the cookies.  she has eaten the same kibble out of the other dogs bowl on occasion but won't out of her own bowl.  everything else she eats is out of her bowl, except the cookies.  also yesterday i gave her a kong stuffed with cookies and peanut butter, she ate the peanut better but not the cookies, i thought she would come back for them but she never did though she did eat a different cookie later in the day.  i know she is hungry, has been hungry all  this time, by the way she acts when being fed and watching me cook from the laundry room.

any ideas as to what may be wrong with her and/or what to do?  a friend suggested mixing ditamacious (sp?) earth with some food to kill any worms she may have, if she has them i have no idea.  was thinking of giving her canned tuna mixed with the kibble and letting it sit awhile to moisten the kibble.  i usually feed the dogs twice a day but have been thinking of feeding her 3-4 times a day since i imagine her stomach is smaller now, thought when given a large amount of something she eats it all, yesterday she got 4 large floor pancakes and inhaled them.

[Mirzam]

Is her poo well-formed, and does she go on her "normal" schedule now?  At 5/6 months old (same age as my puppy) they are still teething, and I know my pup sometimes goes off his food, and I need to cut it up for him because of teething issues (like today) -- my dog is raw fed, so obviously this is different. As I type this he is making his teething noise, so I know his teeth are bothering him. Have you considered some tough love, put out her kibble, if she doesn't eat it after 15 minutes, put it away until the next meal, cut out all the cookies, peanut butter and other treats. If you suspect worms, you can go to the vet and get worming meds and have her stool tested for giardia. This is not always accurate because the protozoa are so small and are not passed with every stool so it can take several stool tests to diagnose. You will likely be given metronidazole or similar (I personally won't poison my dog with either of those substances). My pup had a week of runny stools a few weeks ago and I wondered if it was worms or giardia, so I fasted him for a day, gave him low sodium organic chicken broth and colloidal silver in the broth. I also gave the CS by hand (put some in my hand and he licked it off). DH (who is in the alternative health field) made him some garlic water, which is fresh garlic cloves seeped in spring water overnight and I added a little to his drinking water. In addition I gave him three flower essences to assist with worms/parasites: Wormwood, Clove Tree and Garlic. He was better by the next day. I do have DE and was going to use it, but did not need to. I did continue with the colloidal silver for a few more days and still use the flower essences in his water as a preventative, he has been fine since.

Oh, another thought, if she loves eggs, have you tried adding a raw egg to her kibble? Instead of the canned tuna, which really is an appropriate food for a dog, way, way too high in sodium (in the brine), and would likely give her the runs anyway. Also, maybe she doesn't like or is sick of the kibble and rotating it with another protein would solve the problem. I know my pup gets sick of buffalo tongue and chicken sometimes, so I take a break from feeding those things and give him other meat proteins.

[anomaly13]

wow that was a lot of really helpful information.  i have to reread it and try out some of your tips.

her poop is normal looking, a little darker then before all this started.  she is going less often, i suspect because she is eating less, for example she used to eat kibble and an egg for breakfast but now only eats the egg.  

she does eat raw egg every day, i put the un-cracked egg in her bowl with the kibble and she takes it out, cracks it open and eats the egg but leaves the kibble.  if i crack the egg into the kibble she kind of eats the egg around the kibble or at least as little kibble as possible, i should try mixing the kibble with the egg so there is no choice but to eat the kibble to get the egg.  

i have left her kibble from breakfast out all day but she will leave it and just not eat at all that day and the next if that's all i offer.  but if i offer something else she will eat it, so i know she is hungry.  

this morning i did add canned tuna to her kibble and mixed it up real good, she ate everything.  i didn't realize the canned tuna was not good for her.  

the cookies i give her are just peanut butter, milk, and flour that i bake till hard.

i would like to change kibble but really cannot afford to sample multiple brands until i find the right one.  we also feed another dog the same kibble and don't want to disrupt him too much or have to buy 2 different kibbles.  we currently use costco brand dog food.  

i think i will try the fast and broth with CS and garlic water.  i also will not give our dogs the mainstream meds most do.

mirzam, on another note what do you use for flea/tick treatment?   we were dealing with ticks this summer and i fed them raw garlic and washed them with some herbal shampoo with essential oils that worked, and smelled so nice.  i had to pick off ticks but it worked in the end.  but next spring/summer i would like a preventative measure so as to not have to deal with the ticks again (it was gross and i hated having the dogs inside or letting the kids play with them.  i had to keep them in the living room/kitchen/laundry room and out of bedrooms.  i found ticks crawling on the walls.  so glad we don't have any carpet or rugs and all our furniture is wooden)  

[Mirzam]

It sounds like her tummy has settled down, which is good. I can understand not wanting to change her kibble, and the Costco brand, Kirkland (?) seems to be a good one, I'm not a kibble feeder so I don't have any experience there. Do they offer different proteins to change things up?

As for flea/tick preventative, I use the "Pests" flower essence combo made by Pegasus Products (same brand as the essences I use for worms/parasites). I have had great success with it with fleas. I noticed a few fleas on my dog a couple of weeks after we brought him home and also one or two on DS, I started on the "Pests" formula and within a couple of days the fleas were gone. But our infestation, if that is what you could call it, was very mild, nothing like you experienced. If I had a major issue I would likely use DE, both internally and topically.

I bought my DE from Earthworks Health here is the specific page on pet use.

[Ola_]

I feed raw, not kibble, but are you by chance at the beginning of a food bag or at the end?  It could be an issue with the food itself - at the end of the bag it could not be fresh anymore, and at the beginning it could indicate that there's something "off" about that particular bag.  Costco is very good about returns so I'd consider that if it's a new bag, you can bring it back even if it's opened.  Also, since their food comes in really big bags, how long are you keeping it before it's used up?  Often for smaller dogs/puppies who do not eat as much it's better (though more expensive) to get smaller bags so they stay fresh.  I just re-read your second post and see that you have another dog - is he eating the food without issues?

I would consider doing a worm test to see if there's anything up there.  That can be a reason for recurring tummy issues.  Since you already have a relationship with your vet I'd just call them and ask if you can drop off a fresh stool sample without an appointment for them to test.  Once you have the results you can research the best approach for any worms that she may have, whether you go the natural or mainstream route with treatment.

Re: rabies vaccine (not what you asked, I know) I wouldn't do it at the same time as the spay.  IMO it's too much stuff to subject her system to at the same time.  Of course I wouldn't do any vaccines now since she's not well, but just something to think about.

[greenmagick]

I cant really add anything to the food discussion that hasnt already been said, but wanted to reiterate the following.  I would definitely not do the rabies at the same time as the spay...they should be separated by at least 2-3 months
 

Originally Posted by Ola_ 

Re: rabies vaccine (not what you asked, I know) I wouldn't do it at the same time as the spay.  IMO it's too much stuff to subject her system to at the same time.  Of course I wouldn't do any vaccines now since she's not well, but just something to think about.

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by greenmagick 

I cant really add anything to the food discussion that hasnt already been said, but wanted to reiterate the following.  I would definitely not do the rabies at the same time as the spay...they should be separated by at least 2-3 months
 

I meant to mention that too. Please make sure she has fully recovered from the spay and is in perfect health before you do the vax.
 

[anomaly13]

the other dog is doing fine on the food, no problems.  the bag is about halfway gone.  what about giving her some other meat/fish from the store?  not really trying to get in to feeding raw but what about feeding conventional meat from the supermarket mixed with kibble?  i need to keep this affordable.

ok as for the rabies/spay i have a voucher that the city gives out to low income families that covers both.  i have a list of vet to choose from and am not sure how they handle it, the voucher also includes vac. but i gave her them already so no need for a second dose.  i am sure they will do it in 2 appointments if that is the way it should be done but i will make sure to ask about that when i make her appointments.

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by anomaly13 

the other dog is doing fine on the food, no problems.  the bag is about halfway gone.  what about giving her some other meat/fish from the store?  not really trying to get in to feeding raw but what about feeding conventional meat from the supermarket mixed with kibble?  i need to keep this affordable.

ok as for the rabies/spay i have a voucher that the city gives out to low income families that covers both.  i have a list of vet to choose from and am not sure how they handle it, the voucher also includes vac. but i gave her them already so no need for a second dose.  i am sure they will do it in 2 appointments if that is the way it should be done but i will make sure to ask about that when i make her appointments.

Do not feed raw meat combined with kibble, you are just asking for gastric trouble. Raw meat is digested very quickly, and kibble takes much longer to go through the digestive tract. You can feed raw meat for one meal and kibble another though. You certainly can feed conventional meat from the supermarket just make sure it isn't enhance, if the meat has a nutrition label with sodium content, don't feed it. Generally chicken and pork can be enhanced, but not always. If you want to give raw ago, post back and I will post the links with all the info you need to know. Raw really isn't hard, but does require some easily acquired knowledge.