Urgent help with Labrador refusing to eat.

[mrV]

Chocolate isn't as bad as xylitol! A small amount of xylitol can easily kill puppies and adult dogs. (It causes same as in diabetes).

Hopefully it gets well! Like other said, I would probably bring it to another vet too. (I also asked it from our forums, if they have some ideas).

 

[pondfreak4365]

hi William,
I hope your baby is eating and feeling better today. I agree with all of the advice given so far, especially suemack's theory that the dog may be reacting to the vet's force-feeding her. I hope she's doing better today. When one of our cat's was ill and refused to eat, the vet prescribed some antihistamines that increased her appetite. Maybe the 'bad vet' would prescribe something to enhance the appetite without charging you for a visit.

 

[mrV]

I tried to find any answer from a book of dog healthy, but didn't find any reasonable issue. And because you wrote that everything was ok in her mouth and throat.

Hmm... Is her stomach ok? I mean, is it swollen or anything like that? Dogs stomach can easily go upside-down.

 

[William]

Try dropping a small piece on the floor - not a plate. If she is showing no other symptoms (i.e. normal stools, temperature, gum colour etc) it could be worth talking to a naturopathic vet to see if they have a remedy for the nausea and stress.

Hi sue thanks for the advice and help, one thing I should say is that she hasn't been doing any stools at all, this has been about a week now, of no food and no stools. She did throw up three times and I think this was after the vet forcefed her.

She is now lacking so much energy she just lies around so much and even getting up seems a struggle for her. I wonder if she has given up her will to live after all the trauma and with the vet. I have tried every single food listed here and she still doesn't want to eat anything. I can only keep trying, she is not actually my labrador but my sisters, my sister lives in paris and is coming back tommorow to see her and hopefully this may lift her spirits somewhat. I feel completely disillusioned by the vetenary clinic and of antibiotics in general. It is terrible to just see her lying there, and so thin. mr V the stomach is not swollen but in fact really pretty sunken in, she never was a large labrador and to begin with we assumed it was ok if she stayed off her food for a few days after her ordeal at the vet, we never assumed it would be this long term.

Its the feeling of helplessness which is the worst, as if I can see my dog dying but I am powerless to save her, its terrible. If anyone has any ideas please post them up.

 

[mrV]

Sounds very bad... Don't try to find answer anymore, think about bringing it to vet as soon as possible. I just saw you wrote that it has thrown up several times and havent stool at all. Dog losts lot of water when throwing up. Dog needs atleast 0,5 dl water / kg / 24h, so if her weight is 30kg, she needs to drink about 1,5 liters water per day.

Constipations can be caused by too little exercise, too "dry" stool, little fibers, objects(!) or bones, inflammations(!), parasites...

If there is something wrong in small intestine, the symptons are strong:
- throwing up
- weakness
- poor appetite
- pain in stomach (if you touch stomach and it shirks it)
- vomit is "yellow"

(Taken from a book "Koiran kotilääkäri" written by vet Sari Haikka)

Haikka also writes on his book that if the dog is without stooling 2 days, you should immediately contact to vet.

 

[Debo]

This same thing happened to my Uncles dog once, except that it wasn't sick to begin with. Also my dog used to act like this when the kids would go away to summer camp. he was actually so bummed and depressed that we had to take him to the camp so he could see the kids were ok. When we took care of my Uncles dog, he had gone away for a few weeks. BoBo was so homesick for him that he threw up all the time and didn't eat for 2 weeks. When my uncle came home the dog was fine. Hopefully with you sisters return the dog will perk up and start to fele better. Animals have feelings too and they can be very homesick for someone that they love that has gone away. Whenever my kids would go back to school after summer vacation, our dog Dexter would have the runs and be sick for the first week. They do have feelings............more than we realize. Hope he feels better soon.
Deb

 

[pondfreak4365]

I'm very worried William. Has this dog been vacinated for Parvo? I found an article about this virus while looking for those symptoms (in addition to not eating and vomiting, it mentioned bloody stools, which she isn't having). The reason I mention this is that this virus incubates for 7 to 14 days...when was she in the vet's office for the removal of the tail cyst? I hope I'm worried for nothing and she's just missing your sister or traumatized.

http/www.canismajor.com/dog/pupvirus.html

 

[sandyd]

William,
Very sorry to hear about your dog. If she is not going potty, and was throwing up, animals can become very dehydrated, very quickly. If you grab the scruff of skin on the back of its neck and pull up then let go, and it does not retract quickly, then the dog is dehydrated and needs fluids quickly. If you take it to a vet, they will give it iv liquids under the skin. If your pup is dehydrated, then i suggest to you not to wait to find a new vet. Dogs like people can not live long dehydrated. I would find a new vet, and make out a payment plan with them to get your dog well again. It sounds like the dog is in a bad way, and needs medical help asap.
Good luck and let us know how things go.
Sandy

 

[suemack]

hi William - your girl sounds as if she needs rehydration therapy urgently at the moment - that is something you will need a vet for. Just say that you want to stay with her. Please don't put it off until your sister gets home. Once she is rehydrated you can begin to deal with the eating thing - kind regards - Sue

 

[alitheia_agapi]

You might try giving her crushed ice. Also, Pedialyte to replenish her nutrients and/or meaty baby food. Sorry to hear about the little gal--I had problems like that with a cat once who wouldn't eat or drink and it worried me to death. Are you still giving her the antibiotics? With the cat, the only way i could get her to eat was to put some moist cat food on ice--but she had a fever, and this may be different.

 

[pebbles]

william , i dont know what to add here, just to say hope things improve and think ing of you and her..... pebbles

 

[commanderdoom21]

My black lab was never very greedy, but this four- five days she has refused to eat anything. It all started as she had a lump on her tail to be removed by the vet a week ago and she came back looking really miserable, unfortunately it got infected (the vet said it was ok for her to lick it ) and so this meant more visits to the vet, since this she has just stopped eating altogther. The vets gave her antibiotics and I'm wondering if these have somehow affected her. We left her in at the vet overnight as they needed to do something to the tail and when we came in the next day we learnt that they had force fed her. She is now almost a trembling wreck and a real shadow of her former self, even more alarmingly she still hasn't eaten. I have vowed not to return to that vet we went in with a healthy dog and after £1000 of operations they have said that they'll need another £500 to do some more scans. I am not a rich person and would love more than anything to spend whatever was needed to get her the best treatment but the fact is i'm not i can't and I have to be pragmatic. As terrible as it sounds the way it is going she may have to be put down and she is only 7

Please can you give any advice knowledge you know of to get a dog back eating again, she looks so thin. She has been drinking and passing water, but she's been drinking less than usual, foodwise she threw up twice what I imagine was the force feed the vet gave her. She did eat a small piece of chocolate cake (i really mean a crumb ) but since then we have tried milk, meat, chocolate, dog treats and she although shows interest in it (even took one dog biscuit in mouth) then drops it. This is really tearing me apart and any and all advice is very welcomely recieved. She seems to be lacking almost all her energy, her tail however has been recovering.

Could the drugs the vet gave her have upset her stomach lining if so what to do? Please please help.

first of all DO NOT FEED YOUR DOG CHOCOLATE, OF ANY KIND!!!!!!! CHOCOLATE CAN KILL DOGS!!!!!!!!!
next, i'd say its the antibiotics, and if the tail is indeed infected, this can also be making her not feel well. what the vet should have had you do was get one of those lampshade collars to keep her from licking it (it can't heal very well and stay clean if she's continually mucking with it....) have you taken her to a different vet? thats the best recommendation. do you have a local rspca? they may be cheaper than a regular vet..................... there may be some internal problem that until now just wasn' apparent. or as said, something with her mouth. maybe what they used to anethezize (sp?) her had some affect. i know after i've had surgery the stuff they use to knock me out always leaves me nauseous for days and a sore throat....
i'd have her looked at before you decide to put her down. as long as she's taking water and passing it okay, she's still okay. one thing that may get her to eat is gravy over food (either some cooked up hamburger meat or dog food), or even just try gravy alone (if its a mouth/throat problem).
i hope you figure out the problem soon. please keep us posted.

I agree. I used to have a basset hound. It died because our neightbors fed it chocolate behind our backs. I hate it when people don't listen to me when I say, "don't feed the dog human food unless we say it is o.k." That happened, I caught my cousin feeding Lola handfuls of bacon. I told him he was gonna get the heck beaten out of him if he didn't have a good explaination. He didn't have a good explaination. I can guess you figured what happened to my cousin.

 

[William]

Tommorow (today?) we're taking her to a different vet, she's keeping drinking water which is a good sign and using a pipette she had some milk today...

 

[lizard]

Tommorow (today?) we're taking her to a different vet, she's keeping drinking water which is a good sign and using a pipette she had some milk today...

Glad to hear she's drinking water! Good luck at the "different" vet. Keep us updated, please! We're concerned about the sweet doggie

Pamela
aka Lizard

 

[Eelzor]

William, Your labrador may have a stomach infection. It something like what humans feel. One of my friends at school had this and it was basically impossible to eat or put much near the mouth because the feeling just felt so bad. I have seen dogs with this, and it is also nice to see that you dog is drinking something, that's step one. I think the best wasy to get around this is get something like a wet 'water-like' food. And you also said earlier about accidently dropping a cake crumb or soemthing, that shouldn't do much at all but then again, I suppose some dogs are a little more sensitive. Is it easy to notice that your dog is thinner? Or can you only notice it slightly? Dogs sometimes should be a little thing or you should be able to feel their ribs easily. My dog is nothing but puppy fat, so she needs to loose some weight! But I hope it clears up for you William.