Please help! Appetite stimulation in elderly dog?

C

chestnut cob

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We have an elderly dalmatian who is becoming increasingly more picky about his food. He's 14 now and has been picky for probably the last 4 years or so, but worse this year. He has a heart problem which the vet says causes him to be a bit on the skinny side anyway, but he will happily go for a couple of days without eating. We've tried all of the usual things... only leaving food down for a short time and taking it away if he doesn't eat, but he will quite happily go without eating once he gets into this mindset anyway.

He has dried complete food with bits of "tasty" things on top to try and tempt him. We have tried soaking the food in gravy, warm water, milk etc in case his old teeth are finding it hard to chew to no avail. Today we have taken away nearly all of the dried food and just given chicken, fish, rice and pasta. He has picked at it but not over keen.

Is there anything we can give to stimulate the appetite, or does anyone have suggestions for diets that are easy and tasty for an elderly dog?

FWIW, he is quite happy in himself, still going out for his walks, still cheerful and cheeky. A bit creaky but then he is 14, so to be expected.

Thanks
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Have you tried him with raw food??

I know he is probably alittle old to start changing to raw but abit of green tripe should do the trick. Its smells awful but dogs love it. If you gave him alittle at a time until he was used to it then increase the amount. Tripe is supposed to be good for putting weight on.He couldnt live off this for a balanced diet but you couod give him one meal this and one meal his dry food ( just dont mix the two as dogs digest them at different rates ) If he likes it you could try chicken and beef mince too. You can get 2kg bags of raw mince for abou £3 or 400g blocks for 72p from pets at home. Its worth a try if he's struggling.
 
Not tried with raw food but it's worth a try, thanks
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He adores cooked tripe so assume he would like it raw. Will try to get some tomorrow and see how we get on with it.

We're also going to worm, to make sure it can't be that.

Thanks
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Raw tripe is greating for encouraging them to eat, if you can stand the smell. You can buy frozen blocks from most pet superstores. And I have fed all my GSDs on nothing but tripe for the last 30 years, only giving extra supplements when in whelp or feeding pups, so it is a perfectly adequate diet.
 
I wouldn't have thought so. I feed mine complete now cos I can no longer get whole tripe from the local abbattoir. On the odd day I buy them frozen tripe as a treat they nearly take my arm off.
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Like all new foods just try him on a small amount first and increase gradually. If you can't find it anywhere else they have it at Kennelgate in Shrewsbury. Hope it works for him.

Ets. Yes Naturediet and Natures Menu also seem very palatable, I used them when my older bitch had a liver problem and she ate them well. Pretty expensive though couldn't feed them all the time.
 
If all else fails I've found even the pickiest dog will always eat scrambled eggs!!!!! Not high nutritionally for long term use but if he's not eaten for a day at that age I'd rather he had something inside him..

You could also try the Butchers tripe canned food.
 
Indie is on a low dose of the steroid Medrone for her neck problem/arthritis and a side effect of that is it makes them hungry so her appetite increased. It does have side effects but at that low dose the vet said she shouldn't have any problems for 4 years or so and as she's an old lady I thought the benefits outwayed the long term effects. It also makes them feel good apparantly and she's doing brilliant on them.
 
Thanks for the tips all
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He was bought some Chappie this morning, and some tripe, which he has woolfed down. So it seems it isn't so much lack of appetite as not liking his usual food
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Tomorrow he'll be having Chappie again (tinned food, which he's never had before) with tripe and some dried food in, to wean him back (hopefully!) on to the dried food.
 
One thing to think about is that you say he's 14 and he's not had tinned food, so it's the dried that he went off... Check his mouth, he may have some dental problems or soreness there that dried food is causing pain to eat, or even lack of teeth!!! I'm all for dried food, (I've only ever fed it to mine) but it can be hard to eat with some older dogs or he may just need a dental. the senior diets are supposed to have an easier to eat kibble.
 
CD, interestingly, the day after I posted to say he was improving, we wormed him. Opened his mouth to put the tablet in to see a big scratch at the back of his throat, so he'd obviously been eating a stick or something like that, and had injured himself. My guess is that this was causing him problems eating, so maybe the soft food was a little bit easier, but he generally didn't want to eat at all.

Now the scratch has healed, he's back to eating normally. So I think you were right in that it seems to have been something physical in his mouth, rather than him being contrary.
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