need advice with picky eater - Page 2

I may upset the apple cart here.  Sorry!

I've had a picky eater, a seriously picky eater, (I'm talking 2 years) I've sat on the kitchen floor and cried because I couldn't get him to eat, he was pretty thin!

I asked the Vet (on advice from a friend) to give him a Vitamin B12 shot... Eureka!   He had an appetite and we never really looked back.  I'd do the same again if need be, I know it's far from ideal but I think they can go into a kind of starvation mode and you end up fighting the same battle again and again... and you don't win!

That's intresting nevere heared of that approach but good to know if I ever run in a situation that 15 plate rule will not work :)

Tigermouse - my vet told me a dog can go 7 days easily without eating as long as they have access to water.

When I was told to do this my dog was obscenly thin and looked like a victim from Belsun.  However my vet is a stomach/intestinal specialist and had saved her from being PTS so I went with his guidance and it was the best thing I ever did.  She went on for another 10 years of healthy happy life and one day even got a bit tubby!

Miss Beeb, 

You mean a kind of anorexic mentality, possibly brought on by a vitamin deficiency? 

Give her Panacur every day for five days !

You will be surprized with the results.

Maybe should take stool sample in to the vet.

I had a dog once like that and she had Whip worms, I could never get rid of them.

They can be sometimes unfound til they inhabit most of their body.

Hope all works out.

No, but Jack just got out of the habit / feeling of a full tummy IMO.  The B12 shot gave him an appetite... once he got used to eating he was ok.  We had hiccups over the years i.e. starving him when he got diarrhoea... he'd go back on his starvation plan, but I'd feed him scrambled eggs & chicken as soon as I could (I know you're thinking I'm mad now) to stave off the whole no eating thing!  I could go on forever about Jack's eating problems... my feeling is, that it becomes a weird habit with some dogs.

 No need to spend the money  for a vet and stool samples when all you have to do is give the Panacur and all will be ok .

I think I'll try the Vitamin B-12.

In humans it is hardly possible to have too much of B-12. Some people are low on "intrinsic factor" that is required to absorb this vitamin, so it is taken by injection or sublingually. May be some dogs are like this as well.

If she does not eat what you give her take it away, then the next meal the same amount if she plays with it  , take it away

next day the same again, if by the end of the second day she still plays around with the food take her to a vet for a check up

But anytime she does eat up her food, do not give her any more than her normal amount

'Anytime' plus no tit bits in between meals

Steve