[Emeraldwolf77]

Hi. I'll start with a little background info.

I have a 4 year old alaskan malamute/german shepherd mix named Dakota. We got her when she was a puppy from our neighbors. She came into our yard with a 6 year old german shepherd named Molecki. Molecki has been and still is a rather aggressive dog, not liking people OR dogs. We took it slowly, introducing the two, and it was soon apparent that Dakota was VERY submissive, and Molecki was most definitely the alpha. Molecki will not let Dakota eat until she is done, and constantly bullies her until Dakota gets tired of it. Dakota had gotten so skinny that we had begun feeding her wet dog food in our garage so that we knew for sure she was eating.

Now to the point. I just moved from Illinois to Ohio on Sunday, February 15th. I took only Dakota as she is the non-aggressive dog, and she is also mine to take care of. I also thought it would be good to get her in an environment where she has free range of food, when and where she wants it. It took a full day here just to get her to use the restroom. She will drink water and finally go pee, but she refuses to eat and will not poop. The last time she ate was 2AM Sunday morning right before we left. It was a 9 hour car ride with 3 stops as well.

I tried dry dog food when we first got in, and she would not touch it and still won't. So I tried wet dog food that she usually has and she won't eat that either. She used to be an entirely outdoor dog, eating, sleeping and playing outside with Molecki. I took her food outside to see if she would eat, and walked her around the block to let her explore, but she still will not.


I am very concerned that she will continue this and starve herself, but it was suggested that she will only do this until she gets very hungry, and will finally give in to hunger pangs. I'm also not sure she will just lay down and die because she is drinking plenty, and I would think she would stop drinking and eating altogether. If anyone has had this problem when they moved, please let me know of any methods you may have used to get your dog to eat.

 

[harrise]

That's a tough one. When I moved into my current house, my male Malamute stopped eating for four days. By day two I had spent a couple hundred dollars at the vet. I don't know if it was the time frame making him eat or not, but I poured chicken broth over his kibble on the fourth evening and he ate it. The other no eating experience I had was with the Husky. After three days of not eating after being abandoned here I tried something probably unrelated and gave him an hour long massage. He ate that afternoon. Even though your dog didn't have the "best" relationship with that other dog, she may be longing for the old system. I would have a vet look her over first before trying to entice her in any way.

 

[Emeraldwolf77]

I plan on taking her to the vet tomorrow afternoon if she still hasn't eaten. The only thing I'm hesitant about though is it will be a new vet and she was just starting to get used to our old one. I'm worried that it will put more stress on her and she'll continue to not eat even longer.

I'm definitely leaning towards the vet, though. I'm also worried it may be a tooth ache or some other oral problem that's causing her to not eat as well.

 

[hulkamaniac]

A vet visit to rule out any health reasons isn't a bad idea at all. It's only been a couple of days and an otherwise healthy dog won't starve itself to death. It's possible she's still adjusting to a new environment without a "bully" around. I think harrise's advice to make the food more enticing is a good one.