[Agiraldi29]

A few months ago i posted about my doggo having a bout with HGe. He is doing great now. But my dude is getting skinny, I have noticed that some days he refuses to eat.
I understand that with the HGe diagnosis I cannot drastically change his diet and I have to go with what works for him as well.
He's a Huskey and Belgian mal mix. Which makes all this even harder because he is by far the pickiest dog i have ever had.

(Back story on him)
I found tucker on snapchat and scooped him up immediately.
He was said to be about 6 weeks old when i got him March of 2020.
He was severely underweight, pooping leaves, sticks and blood the whole first week i had him.
After all that was cleared up he turned into a normal happy puppy.
He does have major separation anxiety now though. (working on that).

Back in December is when the HGe happened and its been a constant battle since.
the past couple of months i have tried several different options.
Eggs- he hates eggs, he will not eat them.
Peanut butter (in small amounts) he'll only eat it by itself, if it is mixed into his food he either eats around it or wont eat it at all.
Coconut oil ( as a little treat or supplement) If he smells it or knows it is in his food he will only eat that and nothing else.
So i stay away from the coconut oil by all means unless im giving him a bath because i smear it on the bathroom wall and hes as happy as can be for a good 30-40 minutes.
right now i am trying pumpkin and sweet potato (pure with no additives)
he would not go near it at first. But today was the first day in a good couple of weeks that I actually watched him clear his food bowl.
He's fed in the mornings and at night.
But what i can say is ive watched him slowly lose weight over the past three to four months. It was not drastic or anything but he did drop from 72 pounds
to 53 and this is starting to scare me. Ive explained this to the vet and he has been cleared of everything. They said he may be depressed or really stressed out
and recommended science diet again. Which im sorry i cannot afford science diet.

I have cleared all this with my vet. In the event something does happen they have it documented what i have given him.
Allot of people have told me to go old school and boil boneless chicken down and then rice and give him that, but have said to give him that and
only that. to be honest im not really comfortable with just giving him rice and chicken.....
Any and all advice is welcomed and will be taken into consideration.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Lillith]

You're giving him the pumpkin/yogurt/cocounut oil/whatever as something to entice him to eat on top of his kibble, right, and not as his stand alone food? If you're just giving him those things alone without a commercially developed food, that is not at all a balanced diet and would be why he's losing weight.

Rice and chicken would also not be a balanced diet, so you're right not to follow that advice. It's meant more as a short term, bland diet to get some sort of calories into a dog that has been experiencing a temporary digestive upset.

What other kibbles have you tried? There are many limited ingredient diets that would be gentle on your dog's digestive system. Have your tried mixing in some canned wet food to the kibble to entice him to eat?

 

[Agiraldi29]

Oh most definitely giving it with his food to entice him to eat more.
I would never give that stuff to him as stand alone.
he has been on the Purina kibble since the hge bout.
I do mix the wet and dry together and keep his feedings balanced.
right now I’m adding pumpkin to that as well.
when I got him from the vet (he was there for 4 days)
They had him on the canned science diet only and like I’ve stated that’s just not feasible for me.
so I properly moved him back to his food.
right before the hge I was trying to put him on blue wilderness and he would not even attempt to eat it. It’s sad but purina and gravy train are the only two kibbles he likes.

 

[Agiraldi29]

Oh most definitely giving it with his food to entice him to eat more.
I would never give that stuff to him as stand alone.
he has been on the Purina kibble since the hge bout.
I do mix the wet and dry together and keep his feedings balanced.
right now I’m adding pumpkin to that as well.
when I got him from the vet (he was there for 4 days)
They had him on the canned science diet only and like I’ve stated that’s just not feasible for me.
so I properly moved him back to his food.
right before the hge I was trying to put him on blue wilderness and he would not even attempt to eat it. It’s sad but purina and gravy train are the only two kibbles he likes.

So basically his diet right now is purina kibble with purina wet (I get the pouches that way there isn’t opened cans left) and pumpkin purée

 

[storyist]

I understand the not being able to afford some foods. However, when you're calculating costs, don't forget to consider the cost of 4 days in the vet hospital. When my most beloved Schara was having digestive problems that landed her in the ER for several days (after a couple of less serious bouts), I decided that a very expensive diet probably wouldn't be any more than the vet bills and would be emotionally easier on me and physically easier on the dog.

 

[Agiraldi29]

Oh I have, but it’s more or less figuring what I can get him to eat that he’ll actually eat and not go 3 days without eating again because he’s stubborn.

 

[Lillith]

Run it by your vet, of course, but I would be researching limited ingredient kibbles if I were in your situation. I like Chewy because it allows you to use filters to get rid of options that won't work quickly. If you find something you would like to try, you can usually order a smaller 5 lb bag to test. Make sure to switch slowly so you don't upset his digestive system.