[Mary G]

Hello everyone!

My 11 year-old beagle was diagnosed with arthritis on both shoulder and hip joints. The vet suggested we feed him Royal Canin Mobility and give him a supplement for that as well. We started him on it and he hates it. He refused to eat today – we are feeding him Taste of the Wild and he was doing great but this is for his own good. Any suggestions? I mix it with a home-cooked ground turkey meat and veggies so it coats the kibble and he still refuses to eat it. I believe he hates the mussles taste. He is not on any digestive distress but he just refuses to eat it. Please help!

[anonymous]

Presoak the food in plain homemade (no onion) chicken broth or water, skip the veggies and mussels or maybe there is something in the supplement he doesn’t like?
Did your vet discuss prescription medication for pain management of arthritis with you?
Add a splash of water to meals, don’t leave food down (free feed).
Don’t panic unless he eats nothing times 3 days, as long as he is drinking water.
I assume he will. Call the vet if he doesn’t.

PS: How about adding a little of the old kibble that he likes in with the prescription food…for now.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by anonymous.

[Susan]

Hi Mary,
take the Royal Canine back to vet, all vet diets are money back guranteed, ask the vet nurse at the front desk can you try the “Hills” Metabolic + Mobility Tuna stew canned food instead there’s also the matching dry formula, there’s NO green lipped Mussel in the wet tin food or the dry that I could see, the wet formula will be nicer to eat & have better ingredients, ask vet can you buy 1 can then if he eats it, buy the 12 pack cartoon or get a script to buy online, it will probably be cheaper online….Hills must add something to make all their food more palatable my boy loves the Hills foods but he wasnt as keen on the Royal Canine vet diets.
or look at the “Canidae” Pure Meadow Senior dry formula, it’s high in omega 3 & has Glucomine + Chondroitin, the old dog up the rd acts like a young pup again since eating the “Canidae” Pure Meadow Senior formula….https://www.canidae.com/dog-food/products

You could rotate different meals, Patch eats 4 smaller meals a day, I feed his TOTW at 7am & 5pm then 12pm & 8pm feed, I feed something else either wet tin, cooked, or another brand of dry food & rotate everything….
I was taking Green Lipped Mussel and Turmeric with BioP & the Green Lipped Mussel would repeat on me, I’d burp it back up but it did help with my joint pain but I couldnt handle the taste coming back up, now I’m trying Glucosamine + Chondroitin joint repair it doesn’t repeat on me……
When your weather starts cooling down a bit get those heat packs, I’ve got the wheat heat pack, you put in microwave for 2 mins, make your boy lay on his side & place 1 heat pack on his shoulder area & another heat pack on side of his hip & a electric banket for the other side of his body to lay on, you can buy those heated pet beds the heat really helps the joint pain, he’ll look like a heated sandwich lol
after I go to Physiotherapy once a week, he puts the heat pack on my neck/shoulder & another heat pack on my lower back & gives me a light massage, I feel really good afterwards…

[a c]

Hi Susan, What kind of Green Lipped Mussel do you use on Patch?

[Susan]

Hi a c,
I buy the “K-9 Natural” Green Lipped Mussels” freeze dried treats, I also give 1 to my cat as well she loves mussels but sometimes I think Patch gets his acid reflux after he has eaten a couple of the Mussels, he does his mouth thing & starts grinding his teeth, he’s nilly 9 yrs old & not showing any signs of arthritis or slowing down not yet, but his vet did an X ray a couple of months ago cause she thought he had a blockage (urinary crystal) but instead she found this weird looking bone with all nerve endings, it was coming out of the top of his left back leg towards his spine, she said she has never seen anything like it in the 35 yrs she’s been a vet, she showed me & it was weird, she did say she has seen something similiar before but it was growing out of dogs top of front paw into his shoulder bone, she went & showed the X ray to the Osteo vet & asked him what he thought it was, he asked was Patch slowing down, can he jump up onto the bed, up into the car etc & is he’s fine walking up & down stairs, Patches vet said, he seems fine & not showing any pain in his back end, then the Osteo vet said he may have been born with this defect & it’s not bothering him at all, at first my vet thought it might be what has been causing Patches pain he gets sometimes when he whinges & whinges, drinks & drinks water but I said no that pain is more around the stomach & pancreatitis area the pain is further up near his rib cage, then she said but nerve pain can travel & be thrown in a different area & go further up the spine, then she wrote him a script to try “Gabapentin” for nerve pain + his IBD pain, we had talked about it before on his last visit to be given twice a day with his meals, vet said it doesnt affect the stomach like NSAID & other pain meds can do & she has a few older dogs on the Gabapentin who have IBD & they can’t take NSAID for their Arthritis pain & they are doing really well on the Gabapentin it also reduces stress & stops anxieties, yeh cause they’re drug up I thought, I’ve only ever given him the Gabapentin 100mg capsule twice now, when he’s been whinging & whinging all day & I don’t know what’s wrong with him & it makes him OK, he’s not drug up like I thought he’d be, he just settles down & stops the whinging the Gabapentin relaxes him & he has a good night sleep, it does stops what ever was wrong with him but I don’t give every single day with his meals cause some days he’s fine there’s no whinging, no drinking & drinking his water…

[anonymous]

“My 11 year-old beagle was diagnosed with arthritis on both shoulder and hip joints”.

@ Mary G

If you have pet health insurance or can afford it, ask your vet about aquatic therapy as a treatment for arthritis. Twenty minutes about 3 times a week can make a BIG difference.
https://www.vetinfo.com/aquatic-therapy-for-dogs.html

Also if your Beagle has extra weight on him, get it off.
Less is more.
Your vet would be the best person to advise you regarding which prescription medications may be beneficial.

[Mary G]

Thanks!!! For all the suggestions!!! I have tried just not feeding him the mobility diet and just stick to TATW dry kibble and still refuses to eat. I am at my wits end. He refuses everything unless I grind the dry food and mix it with yogurt. He is only eating like 2/3 cup and then refuses to eat anything else but asks to be fed and when he sees what it is, he walks away.

I think we will try to go back to Royal Canin Mature Consult again I wanted to improve the diet but again, he refuses to eat anything that is grain-free. We wioll switch to that again and just hope for the best. I just want him to eat.

[Susan]

Hi Mary,
why not try the Hills Metobolic + Mobility Tuna stew canned food?? I looked at ingredient list there’s no green lipped mussel, just ask vet can you try 1 tin around cost $3-4 then if he likes & eats you buy the 12 pack cans in a cartoon, Hills is money back for palability & any health problems it make cause, feed the Hills wet tin for say dinner & the dry kibble for breakfast. also instead of grinding up the kibble let the kibble soak in warm water when the kibble is soft (a good kibble soften in 20-40mins, TOTW is good soft in 20mins) all the way thru drain all the water thoroughly, then you put your clean palm of your hand in bowl & push about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of the soft kibble against bowl edge & squeeze out as much water out, this way there’s no excess water no real sloppy kibble, then add his yogurt to the moist kibble, I was sqeezing out all the water then putting the soft swollen kibble in a blender & pulsating for 2-5 sec, the kibble becomes nice & fluffy then mix thru the yogurt my boy also loves his yogurt he gets 1 spoon every night as dessert….

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