[weimlove]

Hi everyone, for the past couple of days, Shadow has barely ate any of his meals. Uusually, he devoures the whole meal and never leaves a crumb, but lately he has been taking a couple bites and just leaving the rest. On Saturday evening, I gave him a whole chicken. He ate about 1 amd 1/2 pounds of it, then I picked it up and put it in the fridge for breakfast. When I gave it to him for breakfast, he wouldnt touch it. He also didnt eat any of his dinner which consisted of beef and chicken. I thought maybe it was the chicken so I offered him turkey and veggies and he wouldnt touch that either. He dosent act sick at all, and stil has all his energy. His gums look healthy, and he is drinking water and going potty. Shadow was taken to the vet on thursday because in the summer months he gets raised bumps. I take Shadow to a holistic vet & she gave him a holistic oral remedy to help with the bumps. I was thinking that it may have some affect on his appetite. But this didnt begin until yesterday morning. A few minutes ago I offered him fish, veggies, beef heart, and eggs. He ate a little peice of fish but left the rest. He is even putting his nose up at treats. Any ideas???? Thanks! I am very worried because Shadow always has a great appeteite and is never finicky.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Do you fast him at all? Eating twice daily or even daily isn’t natural for dogs. Some dogs will periodically fast themselves for a day or two when they feel they need it. I fast my dogs once a week. As long as he’s acting normal, his stools are normal and he’s not vomiting, I’m sure he’s fine. If it were me, I’d withold all food for 24 hours and then see if he eats – if not then you should probably call your vet. You also should probably do a little research on the medication and/or contact your vet regarding any effect it may have on appetite.

[weimlove]

Hdm- no I don’t fast him. I’ll probably start doing that. We were up all night with him vomiting and having diahhrea. He’s at the vet now

[Hound Dog Mom]

Oh so he is acting sick now, I hope everything is okay!

[weimlove]

Hdm- he is staying at the vet overnight. I take him to a holistic vet. They gave him fluids and says he has quit throwing up and having diahhrea but he’s still not eating. I’m so worried about him. My family is like ” I told ya the raw food was bad” I know it’s not bad but they are making me feel guilty

[NectarMom]

Don’t beat yourself up Weimlove, you could not have known this would happen and it can happen feeding dogs anything these days. My husband is giving me grief over 2 of ours getting Pancreatitis from feeding Raw and now I am scared to death that if I get my shihtzu cleared up that giving them it again will be even worse and my husband isn’t helping matters. I hope your baby will be ok, did they run a test for Pancreatitis on your baby? Its so very painful watching your babies hurt 🙁

[weimlove]

Nectarmom-
I’m so sorry about your babies 🙁 what causes pancreatitis? I know, my whole family is blaming it on raw.

[NectarMom]

Thank you Weimlove. Pancreatitis is brought on by high fatty diet. We maybe switching just our shihtzu back to kibble due to she was only given 1 teaspoon of raw when we got back home and I ended up rushing her back up there, she blew out basically nothing but watery diahrrea and was trying to throw up the teaspoon that I fed her so it is not looking good for Raw for her in which I really hate it. Shes going back in tomorrow for more test and I guess they enjoy trying to see how many times they can stick her to get blood 🙁 Poor baby, Vet said once again no food for 24hrs….shes going to starve to death and I feel so bad while everyone else is eating and shes sitting there licking in the air……….. 🙁

Weimlove, how is your baby today?

[theBCnut]

Licking air is a sign of nausea, so she really does need to wait longer to eat. I know how hard that is, but you are going to have to be strong for her if she is silly enough to want to eat inspite of her tummy warnings.

[weimlove]

Oh my goodness I am so sorry to hear that! It is so frustrating when you spend so much time researching a raw diet and preparing their meals, for it not to work out. Shadow stayed at the holistic vet lastnight. I picked him up this morning and when we got home he had liquid diareahha and still wouldn’t eat. All they did at the holistic vet was give him fluids. Since he was still worse I took him to a normal vet that’s close to my house. She says he may have a touch of pancreatitis but that she thinks we caught it in time. She gave him some antibiotics and an injection to calm his tummy. I went to the store and bought some wellness chicken and rice canned food. Thankfully he ate almost a whole can! The vet I went to was very kind and understanding. I think for now I’m going to use canned food until his appetite comes back all the way. When it does, I’m thinking about just going to a pre made raw such as primal. I want to feed shadow the best, but I don’t want to risk his health.

[theBCnut]

Do your research on which premade raws are high fat. They only have to list a minimum and some of them have a lot more fat than that. A dog that is susceptible to pancreatitis needs controlled fat levels.

[NectarMom]

Patty is right Weimlove and we were using Darwin’s and my baby is now in intensive care and staying at the Vet for who knows how long. My bill is already $1300 but if they can make her well and then money is no object. I plan to probably put her back on Brothers Allergy since they changed the ingredients back to where they were the first go round. She did fine on it until they added that fish oil so we will give it a shot. Sometimes things do not work out and you have to do what is best for your furry babies health. As far as my research Darwin’s was lower in fat than most pre-made Raw and Darwin’s came highly recommended. Yes I am aware that licking in the air is Nausea but this was not that type of lick, she was trying to get in the others bowls to eat and licking. She will also lick in the air with acid reflux.

Thanks for the well wishes everyone. Weimlove Best of luck to you with your baby.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi weimlove –

Sorry to hear Shadow’s having a bout of pancreatitis. 🙁

As Nectarmom stated, pancreatitis is brought on by fat – it wouldn’t have to do with whether or not the food is raw, although raw diets do tend to be higher in fat than kibble. Some dogs can handle very high levels of fat with no issues (i.e. my dogs) and others are very sensitive to fat. Some breeds are also predisposed to pancreatitis and don’t tolerate high levels of fat in their diet. Rancid fats can also cause pancreatitis – this wouldn’t be an issue with the fat on fresh meat but kibbles can go rancid as can fish oil (if you’re supplementing with fish oil it should be refrigerated and used within a couple months of opening). As Patty stated, raw diets are only required to state a minimum level of fat – often the actual level is much higher. So be careful if you go with pre-made. The best way to determine the true fat level is to look at the calorie content (foods with over 50 calories per oz. are likely higher in fat) and/or ask the company for a batch analysis in which they provide you with an actual nutrient analysis run on a batch of food (this can give you a good idea of what the fat levels are actually in the food but can also be inaccurate given that it’s possible to have great variance between batches). Personally, I think your best bet (if you want to continue with raw) would be to use a pre-mix and add lean meat from the grocery store. Human foods are required to list the actual fat levels (not a minimum) so you know what you’re getting. I’d stick with at least 95% lean and supplement with minimal levels of omega 3’s (he’ll still need EFA’s, but don’t over supplement).

[weimlove]

Nectarmom-
I’m so sorry to hear that your baby is still sick 🙁 shadow has fully recovered and his appetite is back. For now, I purchased natures variety instinct with raw boost. It’s a grain free kibble with added bits of freeze dried raw. He is still having some runny poop but it’s a lot better than the liquid poop he was having. I was also thinking about Darwin’s, but I’m going to continue researching. I wish I could feed raw but sometimes it just dosent work for our babies. I feel like a failure but his health is my top priority

HDM- I will definitely keep that in mind, but the pre-mix and that kind of meat Woukd be way out of my budget. In trying to spend no more than $100 a month on food.

Thank you all for all the help and advice you have given me.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi weimlove –

Don’t feel like a failure, what works for one dog won’t always work for another. As far as kibble goes, Nature’s Variety Instinct is great – I used to feed it frequently before I switched to raw. If you keep him on kibble you could always top the kibble with small amounts of lowfat raw meats.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 6 months ago by Hound Dog Mom.

[weimlove]

HDM- that’s what I was thinking about doing. Maybe adding some fresh low fat neat every once in a while and maybe an rmb every once in a whole too. Thanks for being understanding, the people on my other forum would most likely chew me out because they hate kibble so much.

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