[C W]

Vet said since she hadn’t eaten, she only had water moving through her colon and that’s what was causing the borborymi noises. They were pretty scary though. And I’m inclined to agree that she’s got GI issues or a food allergy or something.

She’s happy as a flea eating these tiny gold bars laced with crack that they’re calling the z/d formula. It has a pretty strong smell to it, so maybe that helps make it more appealing.

We’re going to stick with it for a few weeks and see how it goes — I’m really curious to see if it helps keep her ear infections at bay (in conjunction with cleaning and etc) because she’s had chronic problems her whole life with her ears. Maybe that was a symptom of this larger problem.

[C W]

Well, she threw up again and then had some very loud bowel sounds. Another vet had a look and repeated that basically she’s in perfect health, but just won’t eat anything.

I tried getting her some fish/potato food for a unique protein/starch to see if we could try to eliminate some of the possible allergens from her other foods — wouldn’t touch it, even after another round of anti-nausea shots/pills.

So I bought a bag of Hill’s Prescription z/d and a few cans of wet stuff. She ate it straight away for dinner last night and breakfast this morning and hasn’t thrown up at all, so that’s a plus; just a shame it’s junk food and costs $4/lb. So I guess as long as she’ll eat this, we’ll do an elimination diet to see if she’s just sensitive to something in her old food.

DH noticed she’s been sneaking bites of rabbit poo from the yard as well, so maybe that’s part of her problem. I just hope we can find something to feed her other than z/d because it’s way, way, way too expensive.

[C W]

Acana is not available in my area, bummer! We also move just about every 2 years, so it’s always a struggle to find good foods that are widely available or that ship from Amazon.

Sue66b, I haven’t tried any wet foods but I think that would burn out my wallet pretty quick with a large dog and other “toppings” (or even just plain boiled chicken) I’ve offered her haven’t helped.

Your comment about the fat content does get me thinking though… We started out on NV Prairie Chicken (~13% fat), switched to the Lamb (~14%), then went to TOTW (~19%). She mostly ate the TOTW well, give or take a bag here and there. The Pedigree & RC Gastro were both low fat and she ate them immediately. Maybe the fat is bugging her… The Blue Buffalo she refused had about ~16%, so mid-range I guess, but it was also the Chicken flavor and I have a growing suspicion she might also be sensitive to chicken.

Thank you all for your thoughts & suggestions so far — lots to think about!

• This reply was modified 9 years, 8 months ago by C W.

[C W]

When she refused to eat before the $500 vet visit described above, I tried adding broth, sprinkles of boiled chicken put through a food processor, a touch of yogurt, and a variety of other things. She would sometimes pick through and try to eat the not-kibble bits with a few pieces of kibble mixed in… and then she threw it up a few hours later.

ETA: Shortly afterwards, she went into heat (or the bleeding phase at least), so I attribute her nausea to that. But now her heat is over and she still refuses ‘good’ food.

She’s had chronic ear infections her whole life. The vet has always said the ear infections were just normal for her type of ears and given me cleaning stuff & antibiotics. Maybe it’s a food allergy, but I can’t pin down what because she’s had different meats and different grains and no grains and nothing seems to help.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 8 months ago by C W.

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