| Lizzie07 | 06-13-2010 07:13 AM | I have a 15 yr old IG that was driving me berserk the same way. I was at the point of cooking for her to get her to eat and even then she wouldn't necessarily eat what I gave her. She'd go more than 24hrs, at least once a week without eating. Her normal weight is around 13 lbs and she was down nearly 2 lbs in the past year. All her routine blood work, just fine. She even looked healthy, for a 15 year old. My regular vet kept telling me to give her pepcid.
This dog has always been a master manipulator and she was my first IG and the first dog I'd had in a long time. She is a total princess, and her highness gets a away with murder around here, I admit. But not a day goes by that I don't thank God she is with me.
Anyway, for nearly a year I thought Gracie was manipulating me into cooking for her and giving her whatever she wanted. I'd buy all kinds of different foods to get her to eat. I was cooking steak for her and having her turn up her nose. My vet kept saying she was okay and to give her pepcid. Gracie even had two dentals during that time as IGs have notoriously bad teeth.
In desperation I took her to the internist that treated one of my dogs for lymphoma. He has way more diagnostic equipment than my regular vet and I just had to make sure we ruled out anything else that could be wrong. I was watching my dog waste away. It is hard when a dog is her age to decide if it is age related or something else and I can't tell you how awful and guilty I feel not having gotten her to the specialist sooner. I KNEW something wasn't right, and I just don't know why I didn't take her to Jory sooner.
Long story short, she has IBD caused by food allergies. She had an endoscopy done and her intestines were so inflamed, he could only get the scope a very short distance past her stomach. He did do multiple biopsies to rule out cancer. She has been on prednisone, 5mg 2x per day for nearly a month and a half. She has gained all her weight back and could fool anyone into believing she is a much younger dog. I just cut back her prednisone yesterday to 5mg 1x a day. She is also eating Science Diet ZD, canned and dry. I always use to think my dogs would eat SD over my dead body, but I am so grateful she is eating on a regular basis.
What I am hoping to get across in this long narration is that you have to keep pursuing an answer. If Tucker use to eat well and that has changed, even if the change is gradual, pursue an answer as to why. I think you feel in your gut that something is going on with Tucker and haven't gotten the answer. That is how I felt with Gracie, but I wasn't as proactive as you are being and I feel awful that I wasn't and Gracie suffered as long as she did. |