As for her desire to eat, it's hard to tell if she's just being picky or if she's genuinely not hungry. Justin and I ate dinner at restaurants almost every night this past week so that the girls wouldn't smell our food and think that they had any food options other than their own dog food. Despite our brilliant plan, Lexie never seemed interested in eating her own food. I got her to nibble some dog food a few nights ago, but it wasn't much, and I didn't see her eat again for two whole days afterwards. Obviously, this started to worry us, so Justin and I decided last night to give into Lexie's "hunger strike," if that's what it was, to see if she'd eat some people food. If she turned her nose up at the people food, then we'd know there was a more serious problem happening.
Well, after Lexie anxiously gobbled up an entire package of faux crab meat and two slices of American cheese last night, we've determined that she does still have an appetite after all. Now, the question is how do we get her to start eating dog food again?!?! We've thought about buying some canned food and mixing it in with her dry food, but you have to remember that Jocie and Sam are going to want to eat the canned food, too, and canned food is more expensive than dry food. Therefore, we're kind of afraid to "spoil" them on canned food, as well. Lexie HAS to eat, though! She's lost so much weight that I noticed her harness is actually falling off of her now. She also seems kind of weak on her feet.
Then, there's the issue of Lexie using the dining room rug as her new toilet. This is infuriating me, but I have no idea what to do! The couple of times that I've actually caught her peeing on the rug, I've told her "no," rushed her outside, and then praised her like crazy when she finished peeing in the grass. I just feel bad yelling at her too much because she drinks a TON of water, so I know she must have to pee a lot, and we're not there at all hours of the day to let her out every time she needs to go. I'm just worried that maybe this amount of thirst, especially coupled with a decreased appetite, could possibly be a sign that something isn't right. On the other hand, I'm also worried that she might get into the habit of peeing in the dining room whenever she has to go instead of trying to hold it until I can take her outside.
UUUuuuuuuugggghhhhh!!!!!!
On a better note, her incisions are looking fantastic. The swelling over her right eye is looking better and better every day. Here is a comparison of how she looked Monday compared to how she looked yesterday:
You can see how much the swelling has gone down, and also how her eyes are kind of "sinking in" now. I just wish I could be happier about the healing progress, but for the time being I'm just too worried about everything else. She does have an appointment to have her stitches removed this coming Wednesday, though, so I plan to talk about all these concerns with Dr. Ellis.
we recently dealt with lack of appetite with our rottweiler I wanted to change his food to see if he d be more interested in another brand plus to try to find a more calorie dense food because i worried about the volume of wet food he would need to eat to keep on weight. so i brought him to the pet store and he picked "pet botanics dog food roll" it is slightly moist and needs to be refrigerated after opening, but if i just crumbled some up and mixed it into his food he'd eat everything it touched. he absolutely loved it and i used it to coax him into doing things he didn't want to do (take pills, get up when he was hurting, etc) our other two dogs wanted some too of course but i would add just a crumb or two to their bowls and everyone was happy. we called the appetite stimulant food "magical" (among other names). It might be worth trying for lexie to keep her strength up while healing. it certainly added a dose of enthusiasm to my boy's day.
ReplyDeletegood luck!
Thank you so much for this suggestion. Justin and I went to Petco this morning to look for the Pet Botanics Dog Food Roll you mentioned, but they did not carry the Pet Botanics brand. We got a couple sample sizes of a different kind of food, though, along with a pack of VitaGravy to try pouring over her regular dog food to see if it will interest her.
DeleteI've been quietly following your posts but would like to comment about Lexie's diet. I've a huge proponent of feeding BARF (Bones and Raw Food) for 25+ years for many reasons. I'm not interested in changing what you are comfortable feeding but would encourage you to supplement Lexie's diet with REAL food, not faux meats or processed cheese. Adding canned sardines, cottage cheese, plain yogurt and hard boiled eggs are excellent additions that she will love, are good for her and will provide added protein needed to support the healing process. By all means, leftover 'table scraps' such as cooked veggies (no corn or potatoes) would also be excellent to add.
ReplyDeleteGood luck and keep on blogging!
I appreciate your input. I agree that it's better to feed the girls real foods. (One of their favorite snacks is baby carrots.) However, Lexie is being so picky that, at this point, we're excited whenever she'll eat ANYTHING. If we can get her appetite back up to where it used to be, I'll definitely try to clean up her diet.
DeleteIf you haven't tried sardines, I would definitely give them a whirl. I buy cans @ $.82 each at Aldi & other discounted grocery stores but only get the sardines packed in water. Sardines are loaded with protein, calcium & oils good for both us & dogs but she will be drawn to them because of their strong odor. Dogs are motivated by smell which dog food companies have capitalized on spraying treats & lower quality foods with a by-product called 'animal digest'.
ReplyDeleteBut I digress...you could also try a spoonful of peanut butter or try scrambling eggs for her. Sometimes even just warming food will make it more appealing since that will heighten the smells also.
Thanks for responding.
I've already tried peanut butter and was shocked when she turned her nose up at it, but I have never fed the girls sardines. I will definitely give that a try. Thanks!
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