Rescued a dog but can't get her to eat

M

mabel lou

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A few weeks back I rescued an EBD from a local guy who could not take care of her. When talking with him about what she ate, could I see her poop if possible, and trying to get any information from him about her as far as her health goes. I got this from him.
I have a family to care for and cannot no longer care for her and my 4mth old baby and wife. She eats a little of this and a little of that and scraps. When looking for her poop to see what it looked like (she had a stain on her behind as though she has had diarrhea) he told me "well I am not sure if we can find any" he said she was a good dog and goes potty outside and she does let you know. This is true. He said "no vet visit in a long time because he could not afford it" I told him she needed to be seen by a vet because I could see medical issues that needed to be seen by a doctor. So anyways I got her from him and took her immediately to my vet. Wow the importance of knowing a dogs history is really unbelievable when trying to help understand a dog.Now during this time my girl has been isolated from her until she has been vet checked with a gate keeping them seperate. My vet was awesome with her and I got blood work and everything done on her. She came back checking out ok which I was happy about but her diarrhea was straight water and so I had to get gestational dog food for her and she was put on meds before I could even take a poop sample in. I got her flea prevention because she was covered in them but had already given her a good flea dip. I had no idea of her eating habits because as I said before he really couldn't tell me much other than she ate what he ate (leftovers). Her eyes had gook in them and I had her eyes checked for ulcers or sratches ect and it came back with she has dry eye (Meds for life). This little girl has been put through the wringer over here and I feel so bad for her. She had to take meds for whip worms (another check on poop in 3wks) but heartworm checked out. The guy said she was 6yrs old and the vet said her teeth were good for 6yrs old. My problem is that she doesn't eat like my girl does or drink like mine does so her vet said she will eat when hungry and drink when thirsty and maybe she is a dog who didn't always eat lots. She is drinking and eating just not like mine does so my ? is this?
Is it ok that a dog only eat like 1 1/2 times a day amounting to 1 1/2 cups of food? Oh and I have to put warm water on it and coax her half the time to even eat that. The vet said she obviously was neglected. I felt bad for her (dog) when talking to him (previous owner) about her and reassured him she would be taken care of with her medical needs and anything else. She acts like she has been in my home forever and has adjusted very well with us. Any help or suggestions on amount of food she should be eating would be very helpful. My vet is not concerned she said with the amount (I have called numerous times) but would like to see her eat 3x a day one cup each meal until our next visit. She is a good girl and since getting the ok with her from my vet she and my dog get along very well. We named her Thelma. She weighed 49.9 when I took her to the vet and since then I am sure she has gained weight and the vet would like to see her get to 55 so next week we will see as she goes to get her shots because not sure when the last time she had them was. Vet said we needed to wait until she was adjusted and eating drinking and off meds ect. THANKS EVERYBODY AND I APPRECIATE ANY IMPUT!
 

izstigspunks

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Sep 16, 2010
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How wonderful of you to rescue the poor little sweet girl! Can't talk much as I'm at work, but, yes!, it's perfectly ok if she only eats 1.5 times a day. Some even prefer to eat once a day, as long as their weight is healthy. She may not be eating because she's a little stressed with all the changes. Plus maybe she's not used to it yet. I say give her time to adjust, and lots of lovin', praise, attention, hugs and kisses. :yes:

I don't know about the gastro food though, I'm always skeptical when vets give food out. I'm going to suggest getting a high rated food, such as fromm, totw, etc and add probiotics to boost her immune system, and salmon oil to help with her skin. For fleas, someone here suggested to bathe her in blue dawn soap and lather for 10 mins I think, that should help get rid of the ones on her.

Again, bless your heart for taking her in. She'll thank you ten-fold, no doubt about it!

And where are the pics!!!??? You gotta share now that you've introduced her! :hug:
 

bulldogs4me

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Sep 25, 2012
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I feed my dogs 2 cups of food a day split in 2 meals morning and evening ... I give Honest Kitchen Dehydrated Raw and mix it with Kibble so I guess its a little more then 2 cups but just right about that amount (with their morning meal I add 2 pumps of Grizzly Salmon Oil to their food) and leave fresh water out all day long. They get treats but it's not a daily thing just a once in awhile "good baby" type of thing. sounds to me like you are on the right track with her, your vet said 1 cup 3 times a day ... she will get all she needs with that. I'm so happy she has you to take care of her now!!! she will be so much better off!
 

izstigspunks

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Sep 16, 2010
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Oh I forgot to mention, that you can always try the bland diet to settle her upset tummy. You can also add kibble down the line with the bland diet to transition her to new and better food.
 
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mabel lou

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I have her digestive system on track now and she has been on a transition over to Taste of the Wild pacific stream smoked salmon. I had been mixing in a tablespoon of low residue canned food to help get her started but she will lick the canned food off (she was eating much more canned when I initially started her on gestational food from vet,both combined) of it and leave it dry so I thought omg I will put warm water on it and she will eat it and she will get her fluid as well as getting her food. But like the vet said (She is from Michigan State) that she would like her to eat 3x a day so hmmm not sure how else to get her to eat. I do know that she will inhale the canned food and the vet said that holds a lot of water in it but I would like for her to eat dry food as my other girl does. Such a sweet girl, but she sure doesn't do much and I am not sure it it is because of her age or the fact that she never was shown how to play but Mabel sure drives her crazy wanting to play. She did manage to hog up mabels bed and mabel now is cleaning her face all the time and just dotes over her. It is cute but I am trying everything I can to do right by her and Thelma at least is a happy little girl in my home. She is a solid brick I know that and mabel tried to plow her over and she ended up falling back herself lol. She has had babies for sure the vet said but her scar we are not sure of if she is fixed or from C-section.
 
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mabel lou

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Ok she just went on her own and ate the 90% of her watered down food all on her own, maybe me pushing and pushing her is driving her crazy lol and she just wasn't hungry at that point. So happy to have seen her do this all on her own.:clap2:
 
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mabel lou

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I posted a new forum for Mabels new friend Thelma , go take a look. I am new to this site as far as really understanding what goes where or where to go but I am trying my best. So happy she went on her own lol i have literally drove my vet crazy with ?s like what do I have to do in an emergency case I mean when is not eating or drinking considered lmao I MEAN DOES THELMA HAVE TO FALL OVER , SERIOUSLY? No they said and to just take a breather lmao. So yeah success for her today and for my health! whew
 

JAKEISGREAT

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Mar 25, 2011
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:clap: How very special you are! I was also going to suggest the bland diet..but if she is eating..., all the better! Just take it slow with her. She s learning what love is from you! :bravo:
 

bullmama

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This is so awesome-- you saved this girl!!

Since she had worms that could've been causing the liquid poo. Is she doing better with that now?


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk :)
 
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mabel lou

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everything is doing so much better for her and I have had her blood work and fecal all tested and she is on good food and taken all her medications from our vet, now she is just adjusting to our home which is very dog friendly and although she does try to be the alpha dog to my little Mabel lol Thelma will learn to understand I am the only ALPA dog in this house and bullying will not be tolerated. But she knows it is done with kindness and love from me. She is cooling her jets now lol
 

Davidh

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Thank you so much for rescuing her, that is awesome. We feed out females only 3/4 of a cup two times a day. Lucy we had to cut back a little because she was getting fat, but she only weights about 48 lbs. BeBe is 55 lbs. and only eats 3/4 cup twice a day. So as long as she is not skinny, I would not worry about it.
 

KT221

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Oct 30, 2012
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I'm new here, but also just adopted a bully. She was a little hesitant to eat at first as well. I think a lot of it was nerves and the stress of change. I have her on the Fromm grain-free diet now. Because my girl, Muffin, was a little finicky at first, I added in about 1/4 cup of water and sliced in a hard boiled egg to the kibble. (She LOVES hard boiled eggs.) The yolk with the water gave her food a little gravy-like feel. I did that for about 4-5 days and then weened her off of it. Now, she eats her kibble with no problem.

Good luck with your bully...she's very lucky to have you!
 
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angelIV

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Aug 19, 2012
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Philly has been a part of our family for more than 2 months now his former owner also feed him scraps, rescue fed him nutro, I tried feeding him Fromm! Very finicky! I had some success with toppers I used Fromm canned, cottage cheese and now since he was given pres. Gastro food he loves turkey! I'm mixing canned turkey potato by blue wild basics grainfree to salmon tunalini. I may change Fromm to bw. He won't eat kibbles with out toppers even if its just grated cheese!
 

2BullyMama

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Thank you for saving this sweet baby! It is great to hear she is eating -- when in doubt the bland diet is always a good way to get them to eat.
 

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