Friday, April 19th, 2013...12:25 PM
April 19: The French Continue Their Domination
A disclaimer…I am writing these backwards. (Or, rather, I wrote them previously, but didn’t update the blog. So now I’m doing that. :p)
Hunger strike saga continues:
So, Sam is on piroxicam, tramadol, Prilosec (and prior to that had a week long course of sucralfate), and Thyroxine.
He gets 100 mg of tramadol in the AM and again in the PM. 10 mg of Piroxicam in the AM. Thyroid meds 2x a day. I was TRYING to give him the K9 immunity plus–but no matter what I do, he will not eat them.
I am absolutely struggling to get him to eat anything, and at this point, I am about to lose my sh*t. He has always been a very sporadic eater–some days, he’d just not eat at all. He wasn’t PICKY–meaning IF he’d eat, he’d eat anything. He just never ate much. Not a problem when you are a 95-lb, otherwise totally healthy dog with a very low activity level. Definitely a problem when you are a 70 lb, emaciated, geriatric cancer patient trying to do PT.
For awhile, I could get him to eat a can or three of Fancy Feast. Then, we’d eat a bit of Chef Michael’s kibble. Then it was some other kibble. One day, he’d eat a few bites of chicken breast. It’s just totally scattershot what he’d eat, if anything–I’ve tried a MILLION types of dog food, cat food, people food (baby food and grown up food), things that have zero nutritional value (popsicles, mashed potatoes, etc.), things that are drizzled in ollive oil, hamburger juice, PB. This weekend, he ate pretty much nothing at all, save for 1/3 cup of vanilla ice cream and a crap ton of off-brand milk bones one night.
Yesterday, we ate one hot dog, and…about 16 small-sized dog biscuits (although I did manage to get him to eat PB on some). This AM, same thing: one hot dog, and 6-8 biscuits with PB. He doesn’t want the Chef Michaels, or the Fancy Feast, or the Pedigree (canned or dry), or his Taste of the WIld or even the chicken breast. Ditto for any of the prescription food.
I am seriously about to lose my sh1t. It can take 30-45 minutes just to get a biscuits in him. I KNOW he isn’t eating enough, but i can’t figure out what to give him. And I don’t think it’s a “lost the will to live” thing at all. His personality is fine; he goes outside; does his “pt”; plays with his toys; humps Sadie; etc. It just the food thing…he’s always been such a stubborn bastard, and that’s EXACTLY what he’s doing now, and I want to f’ing strangle him. :p
2 Comments
July 8th, 2013 at 1:01 PM
Lol this sounds exactly what chuck is going through. Did you ever find out what caused it?
July 8th, 2013 at 2:42 PM
Hey lori…
If you keep reading, you can follow all the crap we tried to get him to eat over the course of a few weeks.
In the end, we’ve decided it was probably a combo of general anorexia from the cancer, stomach upset from the piroxicam (and later from the prilosec, ironically), and…possibly, depending on which vet is winning the fight that day :p, Addison’s Disease. (Well, and also pure, unadulterated stubbornness…which Sam has in spades. When he decides he is going to (or not going to) do something, there is nothing in this world that can change his mind.)
I wanted to titer off the Prednisone entirely, but when we went to 5 mg every other day, he started balking at food again. 5 mg daily, though, and he continues to eat. We’re up almost 9 lbs, so even though it means we can’t do the piroxicam, we’re staying on the steroids for now.