For about a week she’s been leaving her food and not wolfing it down like normal. She does eat bread from when I’m making lunch. Her poop has been solid then runny, then solid…and had little white specks in it. Initially I thought she had drunk water out of the bucket with ashes in it, but that water has dried up.

Any thoughts?

Does she get bones? Tiny bone fragments or tape worms most likely. I’d take a stool sample to the vet.

I have read that dogs have a hard time breaking down nuts and grains. Did the white specks show up before or after the bread eating?

Do any of the white specks move? That would definitely be a parasite, obviously! Tape worms leave white specks that are not alive though, so would be hard to tell without a vet taking a look.

That is a clear sign that something isn't right. I'd be making a trip to the vet. There are a wide range of possible issues, so difficult to pinpoint what's going on with the info provided, but fecal tests are where I would start to see if there was an easy answer.

Get her teeth checked.

Happened to Bandit.

How old and what breed is she?

Just got back from the vet two hours ago. My dog had similar symptoms. Vets are expensive but they have the best judgment.

If the dog isn't eating its food, but is still wanting your food, I'd start with something being wrong with the dog food.

Boiled chicken and rice to settle the stomach and firm things up. And a vet visit.

Then maybe try a different food, we fed Fromm.

Since this has been going on for a week or so, this is a vet trip for sure.
All we can do is guess, based on very limited info and knowledge.

My 10 year old dog has some chronic gastrointestinal issues, which are managed with medication and diet, but he has occasional flare-ups every several months. So I have a lot of experience with him refusing his normal food.

When my dog refuses his normal food, it's usually because he's had a flare-up that irritated his stomach and in his dog brain it's the dog food's fault, so he won't eat it.

When dogs is feeling sick, they very often equate that feeling as the fault of the last thing they ate. (A survival mechanism to avoid "bad food" that makes them sick.) In the case of a domesticated dog, that is typically their normal dog food, and it's usually not the fault of the dog food that they were sick but they don't know that. They then won't want that type of food for a bit.

When mine starts refusing his usual kibble, I start by seeing if he'll eat treats, which he usually will. (If he refuses all food, that's a bad sign and time for the vet after the first day or so of refusing all food.)

From there, I start by giving him some low sodium beef broth. If he tolerates that, I next give him some rice with boiled chicken or boiled hamburger. He will usually eat these. I will feed him these for a day or two, and then try starting to reintroduce his normal food. You can mix a little in with the meat and rice, and/or offer him some kibble doused in beef broth.

Then I transition him back to his normal food alone over the following day or two. That's usually successful after 1-3 days of alternate food, once he's had time to disassociate the kibble from the stomach illness.


In your case, since it's been a week of them not eating, I'd say it's time to visit the vet. But in the future, this regimen might be worth trying on day 1 or 2.

quote:

Originally posted by Riley:
Boiled chicken and rice to settle the stomach and firm things up. And a vet visit.

Then maybe try a different food, we fed Fromm.

Do this until you can get to the Vet.

She’s a 50lb boxer/bully mix
She’s been eating this pro-plan chicken n rice food for years and is about halfway thru this 35lb bag..so she’s been eating this for at least 2 weeks
She doesn’t get people food but I give her a slice of bread when I’m making my kid’s sandwiches (once a week)
She gets a greenie treat in the morning after she’s been outside and eaten her regular food.

So she wouldn’t eat this afternoon and I had to go to a school thing, so we just got back. I gave her her regular food thinking if she’s hungry she’ll eat. She picked up one kibble nd dropped it then picked it up and dropped it again.

Then I gave her a slice of bread and she ate that-so it’s her food. I’ll go get a new bag tomorrow. If that doesn’t work then we’ll go to the vet.

She doesn’t have worms in her stool, I scoop it daily so I’d see it…

The wife and I just got back from visiting our daughter in Maui. The daughters pup stopped eating so the wife and I took her to the vet. After a couple of blood tests the vet figured out the pup had a bacterial infection. The vet prescribed a couple of different antibiotics and after a couple of days she was eating normally again. Sorry I can't remember the name of the bug.

Got up and made some rice, she managed to fling half of it in a 3’ radius, but did eat it. She ate some crackers too. And appears to be ok.

There was spots of drool in her room, she sleeps in the laundry room. And Mrs. MIke said Luna has been doing that since Sunday. She only drools when she’s eating-so I assume it’s almost eating time, she’s hungry, she begins to salivate. She does it sometimes when we are eating dinner and Mrs. MIke makes Luna sit in the kitchen so she’s not underneath us begging.

She’s in good spirits, so I guess I’ll try feeding her rice tonight and begin mixing her kibble back into it tomorrow

Vet. Any dog off its feed for a week is in real trouble.

Our dog did a similar thing, suddenly not wanting her dog food, and having randomly runny poops. For her it turned out to be her stomach didn't like the treats which she'd been ok with for the previous 6 months. We had increased the number of treats and that was enough to do it. Plus, she has a sensitive digestion, being an older dog.

A trip to the vet is definitely called for.

I had a lab years ago, cut way back on eating. It ended up as an ailment from a tick. We did the Vet prescribed medication & she recovered.

It was noticeable with her stark eating change. I’m also not into putting high $$ into a 12+ year old dog. In her case, much younger, recovered well.

Well this afternoon, Luna dropped a turd that was easily half grass. So I assume whatever was bothering her is now gone thru her.

I gave her rice and half kibble and she devoured it. We’ll see tomorrow when I try to feed her kibble in the morning.

When dogs has intestinal issues, they often eat grass.

Both of mine went about a week without eating. This was a couple of years apart. Not sick, just look at the food and walk away.
I finally went to a non-chain pet store and got multiple samples. When a sample was eaten I bought a bag.
Best guess, in both cases, they were bored of the same stuff.