Need suggestions- eating issues

[kikker]

Just thought I would post here as you all have been so helpful in the past! I'll give you a little history & then our current "symptoms":

When we got Harley (as a rescue thru BRAT), we were told he was eating Beneful and advised to get him on some better food. After tons of research online & at our local "health food" pet store, we switched him over to Evo (chicken/rice) mixed with Innova. He ate that for a while & seemed to be doing ok. Then he just sort of tapered off of eating it little by little & also started showing some signs that seemed to indicate a food allergy.

So we switched him over to Merrick (the kind you add a little warm water to it & it makes "gravy") and he ate like a champ for a while with none of the allergy type signs anymore. While we were making the switch, he had the most foul gas but that cleared up.

Now he has pretty much tapered off of eating that also. He has had diarrhea and has thrown up occasionally (mostly from the empty stomach, I think). He is not lethargic or showing ANY other signs of being sick at all. He is just not eating his food. He will eat biscuits or other stuff, so it's not that he's refusing ALL food, just the stuff that goes in his bowl. And he acts hungry when we're eating. We've tried wetting it, leaving it dry, mixing it with a little bit of some sample stuff from the pet store, but he is just not interested.

I would totally take him to the vet if that seemed necessary, but he is showing absolutely NO other symptoms like he is sick, in fact is acting perfectly normal except for not eating….I don't want to pay the vet just to tell me that our boy is just being picky, but on the other hand, I really want to get this figured out. I think he's getting thin, but don't know if he really is or just me being paranoid!

Any advice or suggestions?

[tanza]

How much does he weigh? Is he overweight? Or he just might be full…. I would not worry about it if he is alright otherwise and not ill.. the fact too that he will eat biscuits and other stuff means mostly he is not sick... just not that hungry. Do you leave it for him or take it away after a short time? Remember unless really ill, they will NOT starve themselves... Mine has all been doing well on EVO red meat.... I would continue to give him what you normally would, leave it for a short time.. and pick it up after 15/20 minutes regardless if he has eaten it or not.

[sharronhurlbut]

I would stick with a chicken and rice food…my b's don't do well on lamb or beef.
Is is poop solid?

[JazzysMom]

@tanza:

How much does he weigh? Is he overweight? Or he just might be full…. I would not worry about it if he is alright otherwise and not ill.. the fact too that he will eat biscuits and other stuff means mostly he is not sick... just not that hungry. Do you leave it for him or take it away after a short time? Remember unless really ill, they will NOT starve themselves... Mine has all been doing well on EVO red meat.... I would continue to give him what you normally would, leave it for a short time.. and pick it up after 15/20 minutes regardless if he has eaten it or not.

If I recall…. he was a little pudgy when you got him ;)

That said, Jazzy does that from time to time. She is fed 1/2 cup in the AM and 1/2 cup in the PM, and sometimes skips a meal or barely eats anything. It seems to go in waves -- days of not eating, and then suddenly she's emptying the bowl.

I used to go to great lengths for her -- seasoning the food,etc -- to get her to eat, but now I just leave it out for about ten minutes and if she doesn't eat it, so be it.
She doesn't starve because she does get some goodies during the day, and she won't go more than a few days picking at her food {at a time}.

[soulmate]

I had a "education Test" with my Gromit about food as well.
I bought a testing bag of what ever company and he liked it. Then I bought a 7 kg bag and he ate that. I bought the next bag of the same type and he refused it. This took about for 7 different Food brands and finally we landed where we stayed for the next 5 Year. Meanwhile I do kind of a mixed Rawmeat and Readyfood concept and this works out pretty good.

If you think that he might have a allergy, try to feed him with for example horse meat, which is known as causing almost no allergies. You could try to have him on a ex-clusion diet. Feed one component for a few days (for example horse meat), then add carefully only one other component (for example carrots) again after a few days add another component (rice). If he is safe with that, then you can add other components but only one by one always for a few days. Write exactly down, what you feed. Then you will find out, what causes the problems. It is a long way to go, but it is the best to find out…

Could it be that your food supplys lots of raw protein and raw fat? I have made the experience, that in dryfood (for example Nutro) the raw protein should better not be more than 21% and the raw fat should if possible be lower than 10%.

If he tends to have a loose stomach, try to get food without Mais (Corn) which is hard to digest for dogs.

No other ideas left now. Good luck!

Esther

[sharronhurlbut]

Re the thowing up, try a couple of dry dog biskets.
My boy used to throw up in the am, until we gave him one before bed.