Older dog not eating

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abb123

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My mum has a 13 year old Golden Retriever dog who has stopped eating. He has always been a bit of a fussy eater but he is now refusing food that he would normally love. He is reasonably bright in himself and will play with his ball and goes for short walks.

He has had a lot of malignant skin tumours in the past that have been surgically removed. He has a few lumps now but because of his age we are not investigating them. He also has a very sore paw that he sometimes irritates by licking it.

He has been to vets and they think it may be pain related. He was put onto liquid pain killers but it was difficult to get him to eat it. He had a painkiller injection and then we have been syringing the pain killer straight into his mouth.

It has been going on for a couple of weeks now and he has been on the pain killers for about a week. There has been a little improvement but he is still very up and down and picky. Last night he refused croissant and ice cream but would eat a piece of leek and onion quiche. He wont touch anything dog foody, even gravy bones which he normally loves :(

He is going on stronger pain killers today and is booked in for a scan on Friday.

Anything else we could try?
 
I certainly wouldnt be giving him anything with onion in as its poisonous to dogs and at best will upset his tummy, have you checked his teeth at all as older dogs frequently have teeth issues.

Is he drinking normally and have you checked if he is dehydrated at all? Maybe some chicken broth would help, something easy to eat and easily digestible.

If he was mine I would starve him for 24hours then try him with some cooked chicken but no bones, you dont say what the painkiller is as there are others you can try.

Given his age it may well be he is coming to the end of his life, Im glad to hear he is having a scan soon which may well show up something which will account for his lack of interest in food, hope you get some answers and its something that is easily treated.
 
Try keeping him away from onions and things in the onion family as these are poisonous to dogs. Though i know how hard it is when your dog just won't eat, getting them to eat anything is a triumph.

When my old girl stopped eating her regular food we started giving her sausages which she would eat. Sometimes with some gravy.

First thing I could check (though your vet should have already checked) is teeth/gums if their gums are bad or have rotten teeth they won't want to eat as it's painful.

Glad you're getting him checked out - hopefully the vet will be able to find an explanation for his behaviour. For our old girl unfortunately the vet said it was her time :( She did well on the sausages for a while but when she completely stopped eating and wouldn't touch anything we knew it was time to let her go :(

Fingers crossed that he starts eating again soon for you.
 
He wouldn't normally have anything with onions in but we are just trying to get him to eat anything! We have tried with chicken and sausages but he turns his nose up at them too. He will sometimes eat a jacket potato too. He isn't eating enough to keep his weight up and he is now very skinny around his waist. I think we are probably coming to the end of his days to be honest but he just seems so bright in every other way :(

edited to add that he is drinking normally and displaying no other symptoms. The vet has had a good look at teeth and gums
 
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I went through this with my elderly setter this year-some suggestions in case you've not considered them: chubb, porridge, tinned fish (pilchards etc). Eventually though I had to call it while he was still up for a tummy rub and a game of tugger. ((Hugs)) its extremely difficult.
 
Poor old boy...given his age and his history I would do a chest x Ray and a blood test ( alt,alp) to see if he's in renal failure. then go from there. Good luck,it's never easy at this time
 
He has a new pain killer to have as well from the vets and a special pate that he seems to like. He has had blood tests and he came back with perfect results. Vet said she hadn't seen a dog with such good results at his age before!
 
My fussy eaters seem to like sardines either with or without tomato! The ones in oil help produce a lovely coat. Anything dog friendly if worth a try - sometimes they just seem to want a few days to recover, hope your boy is back to normal soon.
 
May have already came up, as it sounds like your vets have been following up with bloods scans etc, but its often worth treating for simple nausea as well as pain.
If food is making him feel nauseous he will avoid it even if its something tasty thats been well recieved before and its often quite hard for vets pick up on an exam as its a feeling as opposed to something detectable.
13 is a great age for a golden so its all about making him have the best quality of life he at this stage so let him eat what ever he wants..leek and onion pie is the least of this dogs worries right now. yes avoiding onions is generally a good idea but this is a large dog and some leek and onion pie won't contain enough onion to do harm...and in an elderly dog whos wasting away you feed them whatever they will eat.

I wouldnt starve an elderly dog who is losing weight and is likely to have an underlying illness regardless of how fussy he has been on the past.the last thing you want is anorexia and further weight loss after a period of not eating.

Canned a/d or recovery food is handy to have to hand if he likes it..simply as its very calorific and a complete food so he doesnt need to eat a hugh amount to get his nutrition for the day,very useful for keeping weight on the oldies..but depends on if he will eat it.might be the pate you have got now that I reread!

Otherwise its all about tempting him.heating up foods to increase odour can help.smelly tasty foods presented like a treat can help.even hand feeding often works as well. He needs the calories and has clean bloods so can have pretty much anything he will eat at this stage.

Old age isn't a disease but it does predispose to them ...quality of life(qol) is going to be key, so treating any symptoms that can causing reduction in qol(nausea pain dehydration etc) is sometimes more important then knowing exactly what is wrong . Knowing helps massively for fixing in the long term but it doesnt matter as much as making the pet feel comfortable while the hunt for the cause is on.
At 13 in his breed this may not be a fixable issue so its all about making him feel good.vets can sometimes forget that and focus on the find and fix it solution..so remember your the pets advocate and qol is key.
 
Thanks Aru.

That is all really helpful stuff. I think we are all preparing ourselves for the worst and we just want to do what is best for him. He is a very big boy even for the breed and with his past cancers we are over the moon to have got him to this age. Until this he has been running around happily and still as playful as ever.

I've seen him this afternoon and he is looking very thin and weak now. My mum is taking him back in tomorrow so we will see what the vets say then. I'll make sure she mentions anti nausea drugs too as I don't think it is anything that they have looked at trying so far.

The vets are very very good with him and know him very well after all his operations for his skin tumours. I think they will be very upset too! I trust that they will know when to say enough is enough and my mum doesn't want to see him waste away or be in distress.

He is my mums soul mate so I'm devastated for her :-(
 
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