[Jude N]

Merrick has tiny kibbles, and a large variety of protein sources to choose from, some of which are labeled as “poultry free”. You could try a dehydrated food like Grandma Lucy’s (makes doggy gruel), or even a Stella & Chewy blend. Their food is dehydrated, so even though the pieces are a little big, you can crumble them easily and your dog can chew them very easily, too. Wellness has tiny kibbles, too, I believe.

[Jude N]

My dog is the same way. I’ve tried him on the following kibbles:

– Blue Buffalo
– Merrick
– Taste of the Wild
– Zignature
– Nature’s Varity Instinct
– Orijen
– Acana
– Legacy
– Wellness
– Fromm
– Nulo
– Earthborn
– ZiwiPeak
– PetKind
– Wysong
– Halo

I have tried numerous wet foods; the only kind he’ll eat is Merrick, which makes him gassy, and is expensive. He has tried Stella & Chewy dehydrated raw, Grandma Lucy’s, and Primal. He likes them all for about a week, and will then start going days without eating, to the point that he will vomit bile from being without food for too long.

He ate Nature’s Variety Instinct beef patties very well for several months; I made the mistake of trying to switch to Stella & Chewy’s venison raw patties, and he detests those. He now will only willingly eat actual ground, whole prey beef mixes from My Pet Carnivore, and beef tripe. I switched him to pork and he has eaten his dinner only twice since last Wednesday, because he’s refusing it.

So basically what I’m saying is that I feel for you, LOL.

Are you wanting kibble or wet food recommendations?

Something that you might try: sprinkle a little bit of garlic powder onto his food. My vet recommended this trick to me, and it’s worked a few times. Now I just make his meals into what can only be called “tripe sandwiches”, trying to not waste the pork meat by layering it between tripe. Sigh.

[Jude N]

Hi all,

Thank you for the replies. As an update, we did take him into the vet. We brought x-rays from his original appointment; the vet didn’t think he needed new images, and was comfortable dx’ing him based on the originals. He said that the old back injury has likely become re-inflamed, and that there’s some thickening around his knee joint. We went home with a 7-day script of Vetprofen, and then a decent amount 1/4 tablets of a painkiller.

I bought a supplement from Chewy. Here are the ingredients:

Active Ingredients Per Chewable Tablet: Glucosamine HCl (Shrimp and Crab) 750 mg Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) 400 mg Chondroitin Sulfate (Porcine) 400 mg Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) 100 mg Manganese (Mn Proteinate) 5 mg

Inactive Ingredients: allspice, brewers yeast, chicken liver flavor, nutmeg, silicon dioxide, stearic acid.

He eats 1/2 a tab at a time. I smash it into a powder and mix it into his breakfast, which is usually just raw tripe.

He seems to be doing a little better. He’s definitely stiff in the mornings.

We’ve had some back and forth with him not seeming very hungry, which is very unlike him, but I’m curious if it’s just because I switched from beef to pork…and he prefers beef above everything else.

I’m going to make another thread in one of the health boards with a couple of additional q’s…not sure how stringent you guys are here about keeping topics in the correct board.

I’m definitely going to look into the green-lipped mussels!!

[Jude N]

Prescription meds often have longterm side effects that can negatively affect the health of my dog. He’s been to the vet recently, had a senior blood panel done, an exam, etc. He has a low grade heart murmur but nothing else was mentioned in his bloodwork, other than being a little dehydrated.

I disagree with your stance on supplements, but thanks for the comment.

Still looking for input regarding which supplement would be best to try.

[Author]

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