Appetite (Lack of) and Diets Options

  Three Main Reasons why your dog doesn't want to eat:

  • Nausea
  • Inappetance
  • Pain
Rx, herbs, and foods for nausea/appetite 

  • Cerenia (maropitant citrate) for nausea and vomiting
  • Zofran (ondansetron) for nausea and vomiting
  • Entyce for appetite stimulation
  • Probiotics for the GI tract
    • Happy Earth, a Chinese herbal blend for digestion.
    • Concentrated Wei Qi Booster, a Chinese herbal blend for stimulating appetite
    • Ginger for nausea
    • Green bananas are good for upset tummy
This article gives good explanations for dogs with cancer who don’t want to eat, I've pulled a couple of key points out to highlight them…  but the full article is definitely worth reading Why is my dog not eating - Dr Trina hHzzah Deep Dive  

  • When a dog receives chemotherapy their taste buds can change because some chemotherapeutics can create a metallic taste in their mouth. No one talks about that because our dogs can’t tell us “Hey mom, you know that great beef and veggie dish, you used to give me now tastes like metal”.
  • A food aversion occurs because they were eating the beef and veggies while they were getting their chemo. And it tasted like crap, and then you offer it once they’re done with chemo. But that thing is always stuck in their head.
  • We’ve all done this, where we’ve gotten sick with certain foods and we never want it again. And so don’t forget that that can happen. So one of the tricks I oftentimes tell my pet parents is why not try to give it in a dish that’s not a metal dish because that actually will make that metallic taste even worse. 
The type of bowl you feed them in can make a difference! 

  • Glass/ceramic bowls are good options.
  • If the not wanting to eat is bad 
    • Try a paper plate (see tip in Roscoe's Journey)
    • Try hand feeding
    • Try feeding with a plastic spoon
    • Try feeding in a different room, or switch inside/outside
    How to tell if your dog is nauseous:

  • The signs of nausea can be subtle, and not everyone picks them up. After all, a dog doesn’t speak English, so they can’t tell us when they feel sick to their stomach.
  • So, you have to look for signs. Here are some behaviors you might see if your dog is feeling nauseous:
    • Refusing food or not eating as much as normal.
    • Acting like he is hungry, but turning his head away when he gets close to the food.
    • Smacking or licking lips more frequently than normal. 
    • Excessive salivation.
    • Lethargy, laying around, not as eager to go for walks as normal.

Basically, dogs will behave the way we behave when we feel nauseous.

  • Think about the last time you felt sick to your stomach. 
  • Even if you were hungry, and food smelled good at first, once it came close to your lips, you probably didn’t want to eat it after all. 
  • You felt sluggish and weak, your mouth watered in weird ways, and you either didn’t want to eat at all or could only stomach a few bites.
Tip - warm their food!  Warming helps bring out the wonderful, and sometimes stinky, smells that they love 🐾💙.  I use a microwave when I’m short on time, and usually put the bowl in a both of boiling water for 1/2 hour and it warms up nicely. 

Bland Diets

  • Boiled chicken and rice, with no seasoning, or anything like that. 
  • Very, very bland. 
  • The blander you can go that they’ll eat it is probably the better and the safer way to go. 
  • Roscoe's Journey has instructions on how to cook rice, also a couple of variations on bland diets.
  • Magic Meatballs" recipe kinda like a bland diet in meatball form, Dr. Scott (TCVM vet) says that she has had good success getting inappetant patients to eat these:
    • Ingredients
      • 1 to 1.25 pounds of ground turkey
      • 1 medium to large sweet potato
      • 1 egg
      • ½ cup cooked rice
      • 32 oz of either dog friendly chicken or beef broth
    • Instructions:
      • Cook the sweet potato in the microwave and mash, you can either keep or discard the skin
      • Heat the broth on medium to med/high heat
      • Mix the ground meat, sweet potato, egg, and cooked rice together to form meatballs
      • Gently drop the meatballs into the broth to cook
      • Feed once cooled, or make a large batch to freeze some
Smelly Foods 
  • Open up a can of tuna or sardines no salt packed in water.  
  • Baby food, certain baby foods can be really strong
  • If you cook, like if you grill meat or you boil meat or you broil meat. I mean, whatever you do, the smell of meat can be very strong, and it depends again on how severe the anorexia is and the cause again, behind it. 
  • If your pup is in horrific pain and you make him meat, he really doesn't  care. He hurts, right. So treat his pain and then give him the meat
Massages
  • Dr Hale (our TCVM vet)  showed me the tummy massages below can help soothe the tummy as well as maybe help them poop


  • A trick used with acupuncture to help stimulate appetite 
    • “Here’s a picture of an acupuncture point that TCVM vets often use in-hospital for appetite stimulation. It is called Shan-gen, and it's located on the top part of your pups nose, right on midline where the hairline stops at the nose. You can tap that point with your fingernail 5-10 times, quickly. You can do this 15-30 minutes before they eats to see if it helps them work up an appetite.” 



Not every recipe in the links below are appropriate for cancer!  Please check each one for ingredients...

Skip if these are included:

  • Peas, chick peas, carrots, etc any veggies that are high in sugar
  • Potatoes (sweet potatoes are ok but only in moderation)
  • Starchy grains like white rice, wheat, etc
Look for these ingredients:
  •  Cruciferous veggies
  • Beneficial grains (Brown Rice, oatmeal, quinoa and/or barley)
  • Pumpkin
  • Dark Berrie (blueberries, cranberries,  blackberries and raspberries
A few complete diets (fresh, frozen, freeze dried), some also have base mixes:
Sites to help make a complete, balanced homemade meal for your dog:
Nutrition Counseling is offered by these Universities and companies 
  • Ohio State University: To schedule a consult email osuvet.nutrition@osu.edu.
  • University of Tennessee: https://vetmed.tennessee.edu/.../small-animal-nutrition/ 
  • PetDiets: https://www.petdiets.com
  • The Possible Canine Cat Lane is great, I use her for Daisy Jane.  She does diets and herb consulting
  • Dolce's Legacy 
    • She does alternative therapies as well as food therapy and herbal consulting 
    • She says "Metronidazole can easily be replaced with Coptis. And omeprazole can be replaced with Bao He Wan ❤️‍🩹 I use Plum Flower brand with my clients. Always make sure to crush the pellet. ❤️‍🩹"




          

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