Not eating and moving. Please help..

[popiandtoto]

Today I brought her back home from the hospital. Doctor said her surgery went well but she is still not eating. That is a concern but recommended me that I watch her diet and make sure she stays hydrated by giving her pedialites. Since she has not been eating I have given her some nutri-cal... She seems very weak and fragile at the moment but i am hoping she will recover soon. Does anyone know a good idea on how I can help her bring back her appetite?

[MauiGirl]

Originally Posted by popiandtoto

Today I brought her back home from the hospital. Doctor said her surgery went well but she is still not eating. That is a concern but recommended me that I watch her diet and make sure she stays hydrated by giving her pedialites. Since she has not been eating I have given her some nutri-cal... She seems very weak and fragile at the moment but i am hoping she will recover soon. Does anyone know a good idea on how I can help her bring back her appetite?

Oh, what a sweet little girl Popi is. There is a drug that increases appetite I heard of on another thread, but I can't remember the name. I'll look for it.

Other things you can try, give her some boiled chicken breast, diced very finely, or some baby food (a meat variety), or sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on her food (the smell is appetizing to them), or add some canned/wet dog food to her regular food if it is kibble, or soften kibble with some chicken broth. You may have to feed her little bits at a time, off the tip of your finger. I assume it would be hard for her to eat with the cone on.

Thank you for updating, and let us know how she is doing.

[dottiesyrky]

Poor little mite, she does look so sad with her cone on. What a pretty baby though! You must be happy that the surgery went well and that she is home with you. It may be, as was pointed out in the previous post, that she cannot eat with the cone on. When my boy had one on I would remove it while he ate (closely watched of course) or feed him by hand with the cone on. Maui Girl had good suggestions for food and I am sure your baby will eat some of those if she has an appetite. Usually dogs will lap up Chicken baby food when they won't eat anything else. Canned dog food is usually eaten by picky or sick dogs. Nutrical is not a good means of nutrition and should not be the only food. Hope you can find some food she will eat and that she heals quickly and returns to health again.

[Yorkiemom1]

Try tp get her to eat/lick chicken baby food from your finger....you are probably going to have to sit on the floor and feed her for however long it takes for her to eat a jar of the baby food....if she will not lick it feom your finger, you are going to have to syringe it into her mouth....the vet can give you a 12cc syringe with a nipple end on it as opposed to a leur lock type tip....squirt a little into her mouth and just keep doing it until she gets the whole jar...it is a small jar, and she needs to be eating....calories are what fuels the body to heal...she needs the calories. You need to be sure she is getting enough fluid to keep her hydrated....make sure she is peeing and it isnt concentrated. She is going to require a lot of work from you now to get her through this....be sure she is getting her antibiotics...take her temp daily at least, to be sure she is not running fever....if she is running fever, she needs to go back to the vet.

[popiandtoto]

Wow thank you for some great tips. I never thought of feeding human baby food to popi... I will definately go out tomarrow and buy some to see if she will eat that. Today I fed her some mashed potatos with some canned dog meat chunks mashed up all together. She wouldnt eat that so I had to use a syringe and squirt it into her mouth little by little... She kept spitting it out but I do think she had her first meal in almost 2 weeks... Although it was not much.

[popiandtoto]

I gave her the medication I was given today which was baytril and torb? After feeding her the best I could, once she took her medicine.. I noticed she slowly started to close her eyes... Im guessing its the Torb pain medication that is causing the drowsiness?... Thank you for reminding me to take her temperature. I forgot about that today. I dont want to wake her up right now so i will take her temp first thing tomarrow morning.

[joyce evans]

Just reading this thread. I don't mean to sound rude or anything but your pup might be better off recovering at the Vets office. To wait so long to get your pup to a vet and to get food down this pup sounds like you do not have a lot of experience dealing with sick animals. Some people just don't and that's all ok until it comes down to a sick pup like yours. If she is not eating regular by now than there is a problem somewhere! To not see that this was an emergency right away is hard for me to wrap my brain around. I pray she is better and eating normally today!

[Yorkiemom1]

Originally Posted by joyce evans

Just reading this thread. I don't mean to sound rude or anything but your pup might be better off recovering at the Vets office. To wait so long to get your pup to a vet and to get food down this pup sounds like you do not have a lot of experience dealing with sick animals. Some people just don't and that's all ok until it comes down to a sick pup like yours. If she is not eating regular by now than there is a problem somewhere! To not see that this was an emergency right away is hard for me to wrap my brain around. I pray she is better and eating normally today!

If this is feasable at all, this is best case scenerio. This rehab at home requires an enormous amount of time dedicated to this task. Taking her fever is REALLY important.....getting food down this baby is critical, as is keeping her hydrated....you REALLY need to get at LEAST an ounce of water/pedialyte into this baby, every hour or so......she really needs to be on IV therapy, not only for hydration, but to stabilize her electrolytes, including maintaining her glucose levels. Stress causes their sugars to go down....this baby is definately stressed.....Problem is, if your vet does not have staff on site overnight, it isnt going to be a good thing to leave her overnight.
If this baby is not much, much better today, you need to see if your vet can take her in during the day, for hydration and monitoring her status.....you MUST feed this baby that baby food....she needs at least 4-5 jars per day....put her on a feeding schedule like 9am-1pm-5pm-9pm-1am........you need to syringe that into her mouth, 1cc at a time, until you have fed her the entire jar...she MUST have the calories in order for her to heal....Your vet can inject fluid under her skin, to keep her hydrated....see if at the very least, you can take her in and have him do that for you, to help keep her hydrated so you dont run into kidney issues....If she starts getting to sleepy/drowsy, dont give her the pain medication....she is going to be easy to overdose with everything else that is going on with her.....What you are doing now, involves a lot of assessment skills.....I think you may need experienced help with this....involve your vet in this.....praying for you and this baby.....how is she doing this am? What is her temp?

[Bellabean]

This baby is a fighter. Hope she is doing well. Try some chicken baby food.

[yipyap]

After Taffy had his major leg surgery, I was told to examine his poops for little tiny flecks of red....which meant the anti-inflammatory med was probably irritating his stomach/digestive tract. I was to stop that med and call the vet-surgeon's office immediately. All of a sudden, after 4 days, there were 4 tiny red specks on Taff's poo. The surgeon said to stop the anti-inflammatory med, and just keep him on the pain med. At least he had 4 days on the anti-inflamatory med to help the healing. Taffy liked his Nutra-Cal gel (he got a 1/2 inch strip smeared in two blobs on his tongue. And, he like chicken broth (low salt) and little pieces of cooked chicken. I used the empty pain med syringe to squirt some broth into the back, side of his mouth...slowly...it seemed to perk up his appetite.
Keep in contact with your vet if she does not eat!! LOL, Sue & Taffy

[wemple2]

Praying for this wee one...

[Rhetts_mama]

Originally Posted by popiandtoto

Today I brought her back home from the hospital. Doctor said her surgery went well but she is still not eating. That is a concern but recommended me that I watch her diet and make sure she stays hydrated by giving her pedialites. Since she has not been eating I have given her some nutri-cal... She seems very weak and fragile at the moment but i am hoping she will recover soon. Does anyone know a good idea on how I can help her bring back her appetite?

Nutrical can cause hypoglycemic issues if it isn't followed by a protein. If you have any concerns about her, then she needs to go back to the vet immediately, even if it's an ER vet in the middle of the night. She is still in a weakened state and can't tolerate another delay in care.

[popiandtoto]

Your post had some so much valuable information... thank you for your advice. After I received the call from the vet to pick her up, I brought her home with the medications and instructions on how to give her the meds. I did everything I was told and even went out to get baby food. When she came home she was as lethargic as she was before the surgery... and looked very tired so i gave her some baby food, meds, and some pedialite. Before going to bed I measured her temperature and was reading 97... So being worried I mixed some honey with some pedialite and syringed into her mouth. She was not eating so I also had to syringe the baby food. I also noticed she was not going to her peepad so I picked her up and as soon as i left her on the pad she pee'd a river... She seems to have been holding it. I tried to stand her on her feet but she is weaker then before the surgery... She cant stand up and just plops right down.

Early next morning which is today, I went to popi to see how she is doing and noticed she threw up. I fed her more baby food and hydrated her with pedialite and honey. I waited an hour so her body can take in the nutrients before I give her the meds. Hour later I give her the pain med and few minutes later she threw everything up again... Worried I measured her temp and she was 96.8 degrees F... I put a heating pad under her and also a portable heater besides her... Lunch time... I tried again to feed her.. but again few minutes later she threw up. So I took her to the vet again. Her body temperature dropped even more to 94. Doctor recommended I leave her with him for another 2 days. So now she is back at the hospital....

[yipyap]

Thank you for the information about being sure to make a protein after giving my little guy any NutraCal. My friend/breeder had told me to make sure I always had some of the NutraCal around in case of an emergency or shock that threw pup off his appetite. Taffy always ate his food later on, so he was safe the couple of times we used it. I enjoy the information I am learning on this site. Thank You!

[Buster Brown]

I am glad that you brought your sweet baby back to the Vet. Sometimes when they are so weak it is better to have the professionals help our babies gain their strength back. I will have to look it up but I have read DO NOT GIVE HONEY to dogs. Nutrical or Karo syrup followed by protein is best. If you just give the Nutrical or Karo syrup it is basically a sugar rush but it needs protein afterwards to help maintain the energy or it will be followed by another sugar crash. I will look up the info on the honey warning that another member posted. Sending prayers and best wishes for your baby girl and I hope she is home healthy again soon. Best wishes.