We have a 10 year old doberman, and approx. 4 weeks ago, what appears to be completely out of the blue, she stopped eating. After a few days of trying to coax her, we took her to the vets. The vet coiuldn't see anything obvious so she took some urine and blood samples, and apart from a slightly higher than normal temperature, and a low protein levels, which the vet put down to the lack of food the results did not show up anything obvious, so she was given antibiotics and told to come back if no improvement. A few days later she was no better, so was taken in for the day for the vet to undertake a thorough examination and x-rays, but again, by the end of the day these further tests came up with a blank again, apart from a slight thickening of the intestinal walls and low protein levels, She was weighed on both visits and in the space of 6 days had gone from 36.5 to 34.2kg in weight, a massive loss in such a short space of time. We were given a course of antepsin, similar to gaviscon to line the stomach, and also a course of 2 different medications, one an anti-biotic, and the other was a high dose of steroid, to help reduce the wall lining and hopefully help to stimulate her appetite. We are now 2 weeks into the medication, she did appear to pick up and start eating just a couple of days into the course of treatment, but has slid back again and our dog is now no better. We have spoken to the vet in the meantime, but we were advised to continue on the medication to see how she reacted, but it is not working. She is completely refusing food, and we are literally keeping her going by force feeding her with tiny pieces of chicken/rice. She has turned into skin and bone, has no energy, and we are really worried sick. We will be going back to the vets tomorrow with her, but with nothing to go on, we are not really sure that the vet will have any other options.
Really I just wanted to know if anybody has ever come across this before? and if so, any advice/tips would be gratefully appreciated.
We know our dog is old, she has been with us since she was a pup, is a major part of our family, and we cannot bear to see her suffering like this. Perhaps this is physchological, and maybe she just feels that she has come to the end of her life ? I received Victoria's new book for Christmas and have read it from cover to cover for help on this, and I found it really useful on this particular subject, but nothing still springs to mind, although she does seem to have all the symptoms listed but I think is is expected as she has not eaten for so long..
We really fear that we may have to let her go as we don't want her to suffer further. The vet had suggested in a previous appointment that her next option may be surgery, purely for investigation purposes as she dosn't really know what she is looking for, due to vague test results, but we fear that our dog is not strong enough for this step. I doubt , after seeing her tomorrow and seeing how badly she has gone downhill that this now will not be a viable option anymore anyway...
If anybody has gone through this before and come out at the other end, or not as the case may be, I would really appreciate hearing from you.
Regards
food refusal:
Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost
Has your vet mentioned Canine Cognitive Dysfunction to you? It's a bit like senility for dogs, but there are medications that help with it.
Some of the other symptoms include:
Disorientation
• Wanders aimlessly.
• Appears lost or confused in house or garden.
• Gets ‘stuck’ in corners, or under bed/behind furniture.
• Stares into space or at walls.
• Has difficulty finding doors; stands at the hinge side of the door; stands at wrong door to go outside.
• Does not recognise familiar people.
• Does not respond to commands (assuming it once did) or name.
• Appears to forget reason for going outside.
Interaction with family members
• Asks for attention less often.
• Is less likely to stand or lie for petting (walks away).
• Is less enthusiastic upon greeting.
• No longer greets owners (once dog is aware owners have arrived).
Sleep and activity
• Sleeps more (overall) in 24hour period.
• Sleeps less during the night.
• Shows decrease in purposeful activity in a 24 hour day.
• Shows increase in aimless activity (wandering, pacing) in a 24 hour period.
Housetraining (For dogs that were previously housetrained)
• Urinates indoors.
• Defaecates indoors.
• Urinates or defaecates indoors in view of owners.
• Urinates or defaecates indoors soon after being outside.
• Signals less often to go outside (where it previously used to).
Does that sound like your dog?
Some of the other symptoms include:
Disorientation
• Wanders aimlessly.
• Appears lost or confused in house or garden.
• Gets ‘stuck’ in corners, or under bed/behind furniture.
• Stares into space or at walls.
• Has difficulty finding doors; stands at the hinge side of the door; stands at wrong door to go outside.
• Does not recognise familiar people.
• Does not respond to commands (assuming it once did) or name.
• Appears to forget reason for going outside.
Interaction with family members
• Asks for attention less often.
• Is less likely to stand or lie for petting (walks away).
• Is less enthusiastic upon greeting.
• No longer greets owners (once dog is aware owners have arrived).
Sleep and activity
• Sleeps more (overall) in 24hour period.
• Sleeps less during the night.
• Shows decrease in purposeful activity in a 24 hour day.
• Shows increase in aimless activity (wandering, pacing) in a 24 hour period.
Housetraining (For dogs that were previously housetrained)
• Urinates indoors.
• Defaecates indoors.
• Urinates or defaecates indoors in view of owners.
• Urinates or defaecates indoors soon after being outside.
• Signals less often to go outside (where it previously used to).
Does that sound like your dog?
Hi Josie
Thanks so much for your reponse. I did feel, and still do to a certain degree, that our dogs' problems might be due to senelity, as it does appear that one day she was fine and seemed normal, and the next day it was as if she completely 'forgot' how to eat. She does still know the command 'walkies', but once her lead is on her and she goes outside, she just stands outside in a daze looking up the track and then turns round and comes back in, we cannot force her to go for her walkies, and we don't want her to use up what energy she has left so bring her back inside. She often lies in her bed looking very vacant, her eyes are glazed. We have had trouble with incontinence for the past few months now, but our vet put this down to her being a senior, neutered female with a relaxed sphincture. she has been taking propalin for the past few months which has been working a treat, but she has wet the bed again a couple of times in the past week.
I have suggested my concerns about her going 'senile' to our vet, but she is not convinced, as apparently the test results are not pointing to this..
I still think it is very feasible that she could be going through a senile demntia, or has a doggy strain of alzheimers, or even may have had a stroke which has affected her brain, but my vet thinks not..
CJ is now back at the vets surgery. We took her there this morning. She has lost a further 4-5lbs in weoight since a few days before Christmas, and her muscles are being eaten away. We left her there to undergo further x-rays, and to have more blood tests. These have showed up that her intestinal walls are still getting thicker, and that there is a lot of activity in her gut, and a lot of gas, even since her last visit, and that she now also has aneamia.
The x-ray today has shown up a tiny lead shot embedded in her gut wall, which may have been embedded in a piece of pheasant meat so it is possible that she could have lead poisening.. We receive pheasants throughout the shooting season , which we eat ourselves and feed to our dogs, but we are always careful to clean the meat properly, although lead shot is so tiny there is always a chance that there may be one or two shots left in the meat which go undetected. It is possible that this could have been swallaed over the past couple of months, or worse still, may have been eaten a year ago, or even more. She is staying in the vets overnight, for observation, and then our vet is going to open her up tomorrow to undertake further observation and to remove the lead shot. CJ is now so weak that we are scared that she is not strong enough for surgery, but the vet feels that she is, so we have to put our trust in the vet at this stage. We will then have to wait a week or so for lead testing results to come back, and then for medication to reduce the lead in her system to begin. To be honest we are not looking this far forward..
So from today, it is looking that it may be a form of lead poisening, to what degree it would have affected her, how much damage it has caused so far, is not yet known but 2 vets have discussed our dogs symptoms together today, and both are really completely baffled and stumped as to what may have caused this..Even on seeing the lead shot, my vet is still not convinced that this is the underlying problem, due to the test results..
We are now just praying that CJ is strong enough to pull through the surgery tomorrow, and that something new comes to light that the vet can work with..It is such a distressing time. if we lose her during the surgery at least we know that we gave her every chance available, and that we tried everything we could, and if she pulls through, and something comes to light, at least we have something to work on to help her get better...But if she pulls through, and nothing new raises its head for the vet to work on, then we are going to consider having her pts as we cannot bear to see her suffering any longer, or being used as a guinea pig with different medications, and feel that having to prolong the diagnosis and medication for lead poisening for another week or 2 due to the wait for results from the lab, will be too late for her...
Thanks so much for your reponse. I did feel, and still do to a certain degree, that our dogs' problems might be due to senelity, as it does appear that one day she was fine and seemed normal, and the next day it was as if she completely 'forgot' how to eat. She does still know the command 'walkies', but once her lead is on her and she goes outside, she just stands outside in a daze looking up the track and then turns round and comes back in, we cannot force her to go for her walkies, and we don't want her to use up what energy she has left so bring her back inside. She often lies in her bed looking very vacant, her eyes are glazed. We have had trouble with incontinence for the past few months now, but our vet put this down to her being a senior, neutered female with a relaxed sphincture. she has been taking propalin for the past few months which has been working a treat, but she has wet the bed again a couple of times in the past week.
I have suggested my concerns about her going 'senile' to our vet, but she is not convinced, as apparently the test results are not pointing to this..
I still think it is very feasible that she could be going through a senile demntia, or has a doggy strain of alzheimers, or even may have had a stroke which has affected her brain, but my vet thinks not..
CJ is now back at the vets surgery. We took her there this morning. She has lost a further 4-5lbs in weoight since a few days before Christmas, and her muscles are being eaten away. We left her there to undergo further x-rays, and to have more blood tests. These have showed up that her intestinal walls are still getting thicker, and that there is a lot of activity in her gut, and a lot of gas, even since her last visit, and that she now also has aneamia.
The x-ray today has shown up a tiny lead shot embedded in her gut wall, which may have been embedded in a piece of pheasant meat so it is possible that she could have lead poisening.. We receive pheasants throughout the shooting season , which we eat ourselves and feed to our dogs, but we are always careful to clean the meat properly, although lead shot is so tiny there is always a chance that there may be one or two shots left in the meat which go undetected. It is possible that this could have been swallaed over the past couple of months, or worse still, may have been eaten a year ago, or even more. She is staying in the vets overnight, for observation, and then our vet is going to open her up tomorrow to undertake further observation and to remove the lead shot. CJ is now so weak that we are scared that she is not strong enough for surgery, but the vet feels that she is, so we have to put our trust in the vet at this stage. We will then have to wait a week or so for lead testing results to come back, and then for medication to reduce the lead in her system to begin. To be honest we are not looking this far forward..
So from today, it is looking that it may be a form of lead poisening, to what degree it would have affected her, how much damage it has caused so far, is not yet known but 2 vets have discussed our dogs symptoms together today, and both are really completely baffled and stumped as to what may have caused this..Even on seeing the lead shot, my vet is still not convinced that this is the underlying problem, due to the test results..
We are now just praying that CJ is strong enough to pull through the surgery tomorrow, and that something new comes to light that the vet can work with..It is such a distressing time. if we lose her during the surgery at least we know that we gave her every chance available, and that we tried everything we could, and if she pulls through, and something comes to light, at least we have something to work on to help her get better...But if she pulls through, and nothing new raises its head for the vet to work on, then we are going to consider having her pts as we cannot bear to see her suffering any longer, or being used as a guinea pig with different medications, and feel that having to prolong the diagnosis and medication for lead poisening for another week or 2 due to the wait for results from the lab, will be too late for her...
Hi Josie
Thank you for your concerns. Sadly, we lost CJ through the night. She underwent surgery yesterday, and the vet found an enlarged appendix, biopsies were sent for anylsis of her appendix and of her gut as this too was very unusual. CJ did come round from the surgery, and our vet rang to say that she was lying with her head up looking alert, which we were so pleased about. But then we received a call at 10pm last night to say that they were worried about her, and then another call at 2.30 this morning to ay that we had lost her her.
Obviously we are devesated. She will leave a very large hole in our lives. We have asked that she be cremated and we will keep her at ashes at home, and have also asked that the vet continue with the biopsy results to see if they can throw any light on her condition, we are also still going ahead with the lead analysis to see if this may have been an issue. The results will not bring her back, but may be helpful should our vet come across similar symptoms in future, hopefully CJ's death will help another dog in the future..
We loved her very much, and we are devestated, I think one of our worst thoughts is that we could not have been with her when she passed away. But we do feel that we gave her every opportunity..
Thank you to everybody who may have read my posts and bearing with me, and thank you especially to Joise for your input.
Thank you for your concerns. Sadly, we lost CJ through the night. She underwent surgery yesterday, and the vet found an enlarged appendix, biopsies were sent for anylsis of her appendix and of her gut as this too was very unusual. CJ did come round from the surgery, and our vet rang to say that she was lying with her head up looking alert, which we were so pleased about. But then we received a call at 10pm last night to say that they were worried about her, and then another call at 2.30 this morning to ay that we had lost her her.
Obviously we are devesated. She will leave a very large hole in our lives. We have asked that she be cremated and we will keep her at ashes at home, and have also asked that the vet continue with the biopsy results to see if they can throw any light on her condition, we are also still going ahead with the lead analysis to see if this may have been an issue. The results will not bring her back, but may be helpful should our vet come across similar symptoms in future, hopefully CJ's death will help another dog in the future..
We loved her very much, and we are devestated, I think one of our worst thoughts is that we could not have been with her when she passed away. But we do feel that we gave her every opportunity..
Thank you to everybody who may have read my posts and bearing with me, and thank you especially to Joise for your input.
I'm so so sorry that you lost her 
She was a really lucky dog to have had you.
I don't know if you're familiar with Rainbow Bridge, but I've copied and pasted it below.
RAINBOW BRIDGE
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....
Author unknown...
I hope you realise how lucky CJ was to have been your dog, and how you did everything within your power to help her.
I'm thinking of you xxxx
She was a really lucky dog to have had you.
I don't know if you're familiar with Rainbow Bridge, but I've copied and pasted it below.
RAINBOW BRIDGE
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....
Author unknown...
I hope you realise how lucky CJ was to have been your dog, and how you did everything within your power to help her.
I'm thinking of you xxxx
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milliegirl
- Posts: 12
- Joined: Sat Nov 25, 2006 5:01 pm
food refusal
Sorry to hear your sad news about CJ it is hard to lose a beloved pet, remember the good times and try not to remember the run up to his death.
I lost 3 cats ever the last 6 years, all of them where ill, cancer-heart lung problems and after surgery windpipe collapsed it was heart breaking. Instead of remembering them like that I think of the other times. I had them cremated and brought home.
milliegirl
I lost 3 cats ever the last 6 years, all of them where ill, cancer-heart lung problems and after surgery windpipe collapsed it was heart breaking. Instead of remembering them like that I think of the other times. I had them cremated and brought home.
milliegirl
Thank you so much to everyone for your kind words and thoughts. Thanks again to Josie for taking the time to write the words of the Rainbow Bridge poem for me. I had heard of the Rainbow Bridge, but didn't know how it went, it is so true to think that CJ is waiting for us, I am sure she is up there now watching over us whilst having lots of fun with the new friends she has met...
It has been nearly a week now since she passed and we do so miss her. I am sorry that it has taken so long to read your messages and respond, it has been so painful for me to do anything really... But life has to go on, and we are talking about her and remembering the good memories that she left for us.
Thank you to everyone you have been a great help during this difficult time...
Jan
It has been nearly a week now since she passed and we do so miss her. I am sorry that it has taken so long to read your messages and respond, it has been so painful for me to do anything really... But life has to go on, and we are talking about her and remembering the good memories that she left for us.
Thank you to everyone you have been a great help during this difficult time...
Jan
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NicolaLloyd
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:50 am
- Location: Leeds
