I need some feeding suggestions you guys!

[sheilabgroomer]

I have an old lady Schnauzer who is a "foster". She was left w/me 3 yrs ago when her owner had surgery for bone cancer. He never returned and I assume he passed away because he was a regular clinet who loved his dogs (also had an old ****-tzu who passed this January).

Anyway, Rosie was treated for whip worms last week and she is still having symptoms like diarreah and vomiting. Because she is so old (16 or 17) she is going downhill fast, but she still has such a life spirit I certainly don't want to write her off yet! The vet gave her another vitamin shot on Monday which gave her a boost and she is still on an antibiotic for a bacterial infection as well.

I have been cooking her chicken and rice and noodles of which she will pick out only the chicken. She did well on that for a few days then started vomiting it. She never got over the diarreah, but only has it maybe 2 times a day. I have cooked her egg whites ( which she likes) and tried the ID dog food (which she hates). I even gave her tiny bites of peanut butter on bread which she has held down so far. Please give me some suggestions on what I can feed her that will be easy on her tummy. I think my biggest mistake has been trying to feed her to much to fast so I am only hand feeding her small bites (so she can't wolf it down) and doing this every hour or so. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!!!!

[drubaby]

It sounds like she should be hospitalized. If she's not holding anything down I fear she will become terribly dehydrated which will only make matters worse. They can give her iv fluids and something to help with her nausea. Did you tell your doctor how bad she's doing?

[redbird]

well

I am no expert and as old as she is these may not work, but these are
some things I did for my terrier that was very ill when we got him from the pound.

First of course the vet, it took two to help him. They have to be proactive on stuff like this, but its costly.
Bloodwork of course, and a barama set of exrays to make sure things are
going through as they should. You could also scope the stomach for
cancer and check for ulcer.

For acid tummy, generic pepsid, my dog is 18 pounds and I gave him half a ten mill tablet about an hour before eating. Helped.
I think its call fomatadine or something similar.
Then for the nausia, Metroclopamide, this is perscription only so ask your dr about it.

We ended up putting him on ultra zd where the protein is broken down and it is super easy to digest. Loves it too, mostly chicken liver broken down to the molecular level and most dogs don't react to it.
We weaned him off both meds in about 6 months. He is now shiny as patent leather and a real stinker. Took time though.
There is no guarantee any of this will work, but the generic pepcid would be worth a try.

Other than that, I would feed whatever the dog would eat at this point.
Watch the weight and don't let it go to far down.
Sounds like you have your vet involved so, I wish you all the best.

[Maggy]

My parents and I have always used turkey babyfood. For whatever reason they seem to like turkey the best, we would stock up and I can only imagine the cashier wondering why we bought 15 jars of only turkey flavored babyfood. lol You can try it alone or maybe mixed with rice, pumkin is supposed to help though it gave Brenna the runs when I tried to use it to firm up her formed but soft stools.

My dad used to also cook for Lily, they have one of those panini/george foreman type grills and he would grill chicken on there with no oil, Lily loved that. Sometimes I wonder if she would stop eating because she knew dad would cook dinner for her.

I hope she gets to feeling better!

[RoosMom]

I agree with Drubaby. Is she holding down water? If not, she's in BIG trouble! If it's only the food she can't keep down, call your vet and say she needs an injection to calm her tummy down. I just went through a 'vomiting bout' with my old toy Poodle, but it was only a couple of days worth. The injection really seemed to make the difference. You can also try giving her a little bit of plain vanilla flavored yogurt, and add something like Pedialyte to her water if she's still drinking. The antibiotics could be causing her tummy troubles. Good luck!

[Helly]

The antibiotic may very well be the source of the problem. Some of them are extremely hard on the tummy, and will cause diarrhea, too. Some antibiotics are so strong they can lead to a condition called C-Dif. We used to call it terminal diarrhea. Too many of the good bacteria in the digestive tract are killed by the antibiotic, and the Clostridium Difficile bacteria takes over. It can be fatal if not treated.

Have you had any bloodwork done to check liver/kidney fuction? Failure of either system would lead to anorexia and vomitting. Diabetes and pancreatitis should also be ruled out, if you haven't already done that.

If she's getting dehydrated, the vet can teach you how to give sub-q fluids. It's not difficult, and you can avoid hospitalizing her. Fluids can sometimes "jump start" failing kidneys, too. This works better in cats, but I've seen it help a dog in kidney failure a time or two.

[sheilabgroomer]

She did have bloodwork when all this first started and it came back okay. I wondered about the antibiotics but figured they would be okay since they were prescribed to help the problem which was vomiting and diarreah. She had a good few days w/no vomiting and only limited diarreah and was getting friskey again. Then on Saturday PM she started up w/the diarreah again.

I am going to get her back to the vet today and see what he says. Unfortunately w/her age I don't think invasive tests like scopes or what-have-you are feasable......that and to be honest I can't go to far into the hole w/vet bills for her. Before I get bashed, rememeber she was a drop off that I have cared for and loved the past three years. If I was rolling in dough I wouldn't hesitate to pay for expensive tests, but unfortunately I am not. I will let you know what the vet says.

[hairdevil]

so how is she doing now? update??