Question:

What would cause a dog to stop eating when there have been no changes to the way a family lives, the dog gets a lot of love and attention, my friend who is 95 is home 24/7 with the dog but approx 2 weeks ago her dog stopped eating other then a little water now and then. She has lost weight and I was told that she feels skeletal when you pet her. HELP!!

ANSWER:

A dog can lose their appetite for many reasons and I am afraid not many of them are good. An emotional upset or switching their food to something unpalatable can cause a temporary case of anorexia in our canine friends but I have never heard of a dog starving him or herself to the point of ‘skeletal’. Their keen sense of survival kicks in well before that stage and they begin stealing more palatable food or at least enough of their new diet to sustain life. Skinny, yes – skeletal, no.

A drastic change like that is usually medical. Without knowing the age of the dog, it is hard to say what the condition may be but I definitely recommend a visit to the vet.

The first place I look when a dog loses their appetite is their mouth. Old dogs with bad teeth will pick at food before eventually stopping eating entirely so there are some warning signs. You would be surprised the condition old dog mouths can get into before anyone notices anything besides the bad breath – rotten and painful to say the least. Who wants to eat when every bite hurts? Plus, the bacteria from the various infections can put the dog into early renal failure, again, a condition that decreases appetite.

After the mouth, the next place I look is actually the opposite end of the digestive tract – are they constipated. Constipation can cause a number of problems including pain, distention, nausea and inappetance. Ask your friend if the dog has had any poops and if so, what consistency before going to the vet so you have all the information you may need.

If all of these parameters are normal and not the culprit, it would be worth having a full blood panel performed on the dog including urine to see if anything pops in the labwork. I would also recommend abdominal x-rays as my guess there is something in her that shouldn’t be – either a foreign object she swallowed when her owner wasn’t looking or a growth of some sort. Sadly, the big C causes a loss of appetite and severe weight loss although tumors can be benign so it is worth investigating.

A rule of thumb for any dog is that if they go without eating for more then 36 hours, something is wrong. As for weight loss, it depends on the normal weight of the dog – the fatter they are, the more weight they can lose before anyone should start getting nervous. Ideal weight is when you can see a definite waist from the side and from above and the last two to three ribs can be easily felt (or seen on a short-coated breed). Any more body fat then that is too much and any less is beginning to get dangerously thin. A dog at their ideal weight should lose no more then 5-10% of their body weight before a visit to their vet is necessary. Even if they are eating properly and their energy and attitude are good, something odd is going on and it should be investigated before any more weight is lost or the situation becomes critical.