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6 year old male neutered ridgeback, with history of two Type 2 mast cell tumors (which were completely removed with clear margins)
For about 4 months now, my dog will occasionally (once every 7-10 days) have a bout where he shies away from breakfast -- tail between the legs, nervous, like he really wants to eat but he thinks his bowl is poison or something. Instead, he wants to go outside and eat grass. Then in the evening, he will eat the same kibble for dinner without a second thought, and then he will be just fine for 3, or 7, or 14 days, and then same thing happens again. When such a bout of odd eating behavior occurs, I can usually hear gurgling in his stomach in the morning that is loud enough to be heard across the room.
My vet put him on a diet of some expensive Z/D hydrolized protein kibble, pro-biotics, and an antacid, as a preliminary troubleshooting step for 2 weeks, and we plan to do blood test and maybe ultrasound to check for intestinal lining swelling. On this special diet, he was doing fine for about 12 days, and then today, once again he had a bout where he was disinterested in breakfast, went out and ate some grass, and didn't want to eat any of his fancy Z/D kibble, nor his normal kibble (except he did ravenously consume yogurt). But dinner time, he gobbled it up. And I suspect tomorrow he will as usual be just fine, and will be so for another 7-10 days until another bout presents.
I know it's a shot in the dark, but I'm just curious if anyone has any ideas on what might be going on. Some interesting tidbits below. Due to the complete absence of diarrhea and vomiting, no bloody stool, and a lack of increasing severity of symptoms or onset of bouts, it doesn't seem like any of the bowel diseases or intestinal tumor diagnoses I've read, so I'm kind of stumped.
For about 4 months now, my dog will occasionally (once every 7-10 days) have a bout where he shies away from breakfast -- tail between the legs, nervous, like he really wants to eat but he thinks his bowl is poison or something. Instead, he wants to go outside and eat grass. Then in the evening, he will eat the same kibble for dinner without a second thought, and then he will be just fine for 3, or 7, or 14 days, and then same thing happens again. When such a bout of odd eating behavior occurs, I can usually hear gurgling in his stomach in the morning that is loud enough to be heard across the room.
My vet put him on a diet of some expensive Z/D hydrolized protein kibble, pro-biotics, and an antacid, as a preliminary troubleshooting step for 2 weeks, and we plan to do blood test and maybe ultrasound to check for intestinal lining swelling. On this special diet, he was doing fine for about 12 days, and then today, once again he had a bout where he was disinterested in breakfast, went out and ate some grass, and didn't want to eat any of his fancy Z/D kibble, nor his normal kibble (except he did ravenously consume yogurt). But dinner time, he gobbled it up. And I suspect tomorrow he will as usual be just fine, and will be so for another 7-10 days until another bout presents.
I know it's a shot in the dark, but I'm just curious if anyone has any ideas on what might be going on. Some interesting tidbits below. Due to the complete absence of diarrhea and vomiting, no bloody stool, and a lack of increasing severity of symptoms or onset of bouts, it doesn't seem like any of the bowel diseases or intestinal tumor diagnoses I've read, so I'm kind of stumped.
- Never has diarrhea, just normal poops 2x a day. Never bloody stool.
- No vomit.
- Fecal test revealed no parasites
- It seems to have started shortly after he was bitten by another dog 4 months ago, and received a Rx for Amoxicillin 500mg 2x/day, and Carpfroen 100mg. Coincidence? Not sure.
- Always wants to eat dinner -- it is only breakfast that he skips
- Constant supervision, not eating stuff he shouldn't be
- Bouts of not eating have occurred here at home in the mountains, during a camping trip in the desert, during a road trip 1000 miles away from home: Therefore, environment doesn't seem to play a role.
