My now oldest dog is a German shepherd. He’s probably about 14, but I don’t know his age for sure, as I rescued him as an adult. Recently I lost my other geriatric dog, a doberman, who was at least as old as Mike. Mike’s old, he’s arthritic. He had tape worms, which I got rid of. I tried rimadyl but that doesn’t seem to do much good and really messed with his stomache. Between the stomache problems and (I think) grieving for Simon, Mike’s lost a TON of weight. he’s always been a picky eater, I’d put parmesan cheese on top of his kibble to get him to eat. But now I’m cooking a chicken, rice and oatmeal stew for him. I’m mixing it with canned dogfood. I’m adding things like sour cream and yoghurt for calories. Even with such special food I have to sit beside him and literally hand feed him to get him to eat. I feed him as much as he’ll eat about 4 times a day. I’ve just started giving him a can of evaporated milk with an egg mixed in every day. That’s about 550 calories. I feed him a couple hot dogs during the day. That’s another 150 calories each.
He’s getting 1/2 a prednisone each day as an anti-inflammatory for his arthritis and a pepcid for his stomache. He’s still interested in things around him - in fact he still likes to chase my horse. If he were just lying on the floor not eating and in pain I’d probably give up and have him put down, but that’s not the case. I need to stimulate his appetite and put weight back on him. He literally looks like something from Animal Cops.
Does anyone have any suggestions for weight-gaining foods and appetite stimulators? Thanks in advance.
Have you talked to your vet? I know there are drugs (valium, no less!) they give to cats to stimulate appetite - perhaps there’s something that works for dogs?
One other idea: puppy food. It’s high in calories, and if your dog is anything like my dogs, they eat it like candy.
I went through this with my diabetic dog. Sometimes he wouldn’t eat anything. Some things that did work a little were baby food, cat food (Fancy Feast - expensive, but it was flavors my cats wouldn’t eat), cottage cheese, and cooked chicken (boiled) with mixed in green beans. It was still tough to get him to eat. He was on Deramaxx for his arthritis, my vet doesn’t like rimadyl for some reason. I think Deramaxx is easier on the kidneys and liver.
Someone had told me about some kind of appetite stimulant from the vet, maybe something like that is possible?
Switch the canned dog food for canned puppy food or specially formulated foods for anorexic animals. Most animals I’ve dealt with like Hill’s A/D better than Eukanuba’s MaxCal. Those are prescription diets, though, so you’ll have to get them from your vet. You might also look into baby food.
I probably wouldn’t give him a lot of dairy products, though, because many adult animals are lactose intolerant, so the cheese and sour cream might actually be making his tummy problems worse. If you really want to give him milk, look into non-dairy stuff like soy milk and Catsip. He might also like Frosty Paws, an ice cream type of treat for pets. Ask your vet about substituting in puppy formula, also; I don’t know if it’s got lactose or not, but it’s generally very calorie-concentrated.
Thanks for the quick replies. The vet suggested babyfood, but unfortunately being unemployed and looking at the cost of babyfood I couldn’t really afford it. He’s a german shepherd, after all, and that would be a LOT of babyfood. I hadn’t thought of puppyfood, though. CrazyCatLady, I hadn’t thought about lactose intolerance - Mike’s always loved milk. I just figured it would be a good source of calories. The chicken & rice stew that I make is from boiled chicken leg quarters, with rice cooked in the chicken broth and oatmeal added to that. I debone and cut up the chicken and add it along with some mixed vegetables to the rice mixture. I’m giving him vitamins and the vet just recommended some extra Vit. B. She gave him a shot of Vit. B (I think) a while back. This problem’s been going on for a while. I thought the prednisone would stimulate his appetite, but it doesn’t seem to have.
My Shepherd went through antifreeze poisoning last year, and had the same problems with no appetite. Something I found she loved was bread (the higher calorie content the better) that was torn up and mixed in a bowl with bacon drippings and various meat fats – bacon fat, chicken fat, etc. It did absolute wonders for her. My vet approved it, but do keep in mind that we were in a last-ditch scenario with her. Maybe CrazyCatLady could say if this is okay for your Shep or not, or you could ask your vet. We also gave her high-fat vanilla ice cream (the human kind) and watched carefully to make sure it didn’t disagree with her. Again, though, we were in a “anything that will work” situation. Good luck! I’ll ask the missus and see what else we fed Char when she was sick, as my memory is shit.
I have an older dog… at least 13 and she is in a similar condition. I am giving her Science Diet from the can. I have to chop it into small pieces with a steak knife and sometimes I have to feed her from hand. I don’t know if this will help you but I elevated her food and water. I put the water bowl inside a Maxwell coffee can. The lip of the bowl catches the top of the can. It is a perfect fit and much cheaper than the elevated bowls they sell at the pet store. I use a plate for her food. I place the plate on a box top with a towel over it to keep the plate from sliding around. The box top is about six inches in height. She seems to be more interested in her food now. I am giving her a can of baby food twice a day. Yes it is expensive. What I have noticed is that the baby food gets her more interested in her other food. Maybe you could give your dog a half jar every day…just as an attention getter. I can see how trying to feed a large dog baby food exclusively, could get to be very expensive. I tried scrambled eggs but that didn’t work. Although my vet suggested that. It is odd, but sometimes she will gobble up dry food. Other times, not at all interested in dry food. I have had some success with bacon bits. A friend of mine told me the smell gets them intersted. I was a little concerned about the extra salt so I used just a few sprinkles. Works sometimes. She is pretty thin and I know the time is drawing near. Anyway, hope these suggestions help. Good luck.
jacksen9 - I do elevate his food and the communal water dish is placed on a step stool because my airdale insists on climbing in the dish if it’s at floor level. I didn’t think about using babyfood as a teaser to start him eating. I’ve noticed that getting him started is the hard part - sometimes a hotdog piece will help. He’ll pretty readily eat hotdogs.
CrazyCatLady - If I gave hime 8 hotdogs a day, would that be bad for him? It would be 1200 calories right there.
A while ago my dog needed a tumor removed (non-cancerous, thankfully), and had a lot of appetite problems afterwards, for some reason. One thing we found she’d generally eat was eggs - she’d gulp that down even if she’d been ignoring other food.
She also, oddly enough, absolutley loves my soy-based not-chicken-peices and soy-bacon. My mom tried to give her some cooked chicken breast, and she wouldn’t eat it. I dropped a not-chicken piece on the floor, and she gobbled it up.