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He's never had any issues eating or food fallout. Weird to me that it started now at 3 years old. Just wouldn't have thought it would be misalignment since he's old enough now that would've come up earlier.

 

Awesome of y'all to do this.

 

Yeah, I agree, but dogs can get slab fractures of their teeth without it being obvious. An oral exam is where I would start. Boxers, god love em, aren't known to have the greatest dental alignment.

 

Very true, thanks.

 

My 11.5 year old lab almost completely stopped eating a couple months ago. He seems to be on the mend now, but I was convinced he was going to starve himself to death. Started a little bit this summer, he was getting picky with his food some days, he wouldn't eat and would just look at you until you put another scoop of wet food on it. Some days he wouldn't eat in the morning, but then would eat double in the evening type of thing. I'm a teacher so I am home during the summer, but went up to school in the morning for coaching. While I was gone, I would bust through our baby gate and go down stairs or he would get into our closet and rip clothes off the hangers etc. He's always had some separation anxiety, but it was never this bad. When I went back to school in August he almost completely stopped eating, every once in a while he would eat a meal, but there were several days he would have no interest in food at all and would just pace around the house. My wife said it would get really bad once I left and he would try to bust out into the garage. He is normally around 80-85 lbs, but got down to 66 lbs at one point. Our vet thought it could be an issue with anxiety and put him on Prozac, we also had his teeth checked and they were good. They gave him an antibiotic before his dental in case he had an abscess. After a couple days on it he started eating better. Bloodwork was all normal. He was also put on Rimadyl due to some stiffness. I know it wasn't the best for him, but he went about a month were the only thing we could get him to eat was rotisserie chicken from walmart or lunch meat. Then one day about 2 weeks ago he ate our other dogs food. Ever since he has been eating dog food again, but you have to put a little bit on your finger and let him lick it off and then gradually he will eat his food, but he seems like he is not licking up his food instead of chomping down on it like he used to. Which is why I thought he may have teeth issues. Just yesterday I went back to his old can food that is almost like a turkey and gravy and mixed it up and he at it like normal. I didn't have to hand feed him at all. He is also interested in food again. When we are eating he is once again at our feet waiting for something to drop. For a long time he had absolutely no interest in any food that fell on the floor. At the end before he started eating again, you could tell he was starting to get weak from not eating. But through most of it, he behavior was completely normal, would go out and run around the yards, wanted to go for walks etc. Now that he is eating again, his strength has returned.
We are still at a loss of what caused this, any ideas what may have caused him to completely stop eating and now almost 2 months later it seems like he is gradually getting back to normal? Anxiety and the prozac is now helping? Some sort of arthritis or other pain that the Rimadyl is helping with? Did he have some sort of bug that the antibiotics helped with since he started eating after taking it for a couple days?
Our vet had told us the next step would be to do an ultrasound to see if there are any tumors or anything, but at his age, I probably wasn't going to treat him for any kind of cancer since I've seen what it did to our other dog and I didn't want his last months to be miserable so I decided not to spend the $300 to have it done.

 

It does. She has been on pred for two years now. Doccyclin as well and recent was given vitamin e and omega benefits.

She is losing her toe nails all the time but they grow back. Her hair on her stomach is coming back in as well

 

So, the Doxycycline is effective against most tick borne diseases. Your vet is doing exactly what I would do, but 2 years is a long time on Prednisone. Have a discussion with your vet about the next medication step - Azathioprine, cyclosporine, etc.

 

Couple of thoughts - just about every Lab his age is going to have arthritis, and the Rimadyl may be helping with that. Dogs in pain will sometimes start picking at food. You also mentioned heightened anxiety. This can cause GI upset and even gastric ulcers.
i would recommend starting him on Famotidine (Pepcid AC) if he's going to stay on Rimadyl. Rimadyl is not the greatest thing for GI upset, and you may want to consider Galliprant as a Rimadyl substitute. I would also start him on a quality oral joint supplement.
I think an ultrasound is a good idea if this persists. Gastroscopy may also help determine a cause.

 

He was on Cosequin DS this summer, it did help with his movement. He was always able to move good, but would take him a minute to get moving after laying down. The Cosequin seemed to help with that, but when he stopped eating, I read that sometimes it can lead to upset stomachs so I stopped giving it to him. I may start him back up on it since it doesn't seem like that was the cause and maybe we'll be able to take him off the Rimadyl. He was on Pepsid for a week or so, didn't seem like it really changed anything. He does seem much more relaxed lately, he's not pacing as much and doesn't try to barge out the door anymore. He's either gotten back into his routine or the prozac is helping him.

 

Yeah, I wonder if the Prozac and Rimadyl are helping. I would just go with both for now. Sounds like he is doing better. Sometimes dogs will go through issues and we're left scratching our heads. As long as the issue is resolving, I say go with both of those meds for now.

 

Thanks, any suggestions for getting him to gain weight? He eats, but he will stop eating when he is full so I can't just give him more food. I feed him in the morning and then in the afternoon. Our vet said unfortunately most pet diets are geared more for over weight dogs. Are there any foods that have higher calorie content? I would like to put at least 10-15 lbs back on him. He is at a good weight around 82 lbs and is currently at about 69 lbs.

 

@bsktball55
Royal Canin makes some GI foods that are higher in calories. GI Moderate Calorie might help. Talk to your vet about Royal Canin. They make excellent, highly palatable veterinary diets. Keep in mind, though, that older dogs often lose muscle mass as they age.

 

Yee haa!!

That's great news! About Coconut head, not the bill.

 

@jaredmillerdvm@Kerch71

thank you both! Really informative. It’s nice having multiple experienced dvm’s input to put my mind at ease. My vet did give us a very detailed recovery plan. I just wanted to gather more info and tips. Thank you again!!

 

We did TPLO on our 6 year old lab a year and a half ago. The surgeon had commented how they had difficulty with the metal wire they ran thru/around his knee. He has not seemed to fully heal after this. Before this he used to be able to handle 5+ mile hikes no problem. We waited well over a year before trying a 4 mile hike and had been building him up. When we took him on that hike, he was hurting pretty badly the next day. He also favors it a little when laying down and getting up. Is this arthritis? Any suggestions? Thx in advance

 

This is cool that you're doing this. Thanks in advance.

Disappearing tumor..... I found a tumor on my current dog that felt just like a fatty tumor. She is half Yellow Lab and half Catahoula. My previous dog was a Yellow Lab and I am very familiar with fatty tumors. Both feeling them as well as removed and biopsied. Thank God all were benign.

This brings me to my question... See pic. It felt just like a fatty tumor with a center that was harder than the surrounding tissue.

How could it disappear? Two days later it was gone and had not come back. It was against the rib cage and there is nothing left whatsoever of it that I can feel.

 

I'm a bit confused about a wire being used on a TPLO. TPLOs use special plates that realign the forces in a knee. If they used wire through his knee, then maybe it was for added stability, I'm not sure. It may be that your Lab has a torn meniscus, the hips may be painful, or the other knee might have an issue. I recommend talking with the surgeon and doing a follow up orthopedic exam, radiographs +/- arthroscopic exam.
Orthopedic disease can be complex, especially in the knee. Though we try the best we know how (I do knee surgeries all the time, just not TPLOs) there are always going to be a percentage that have complications and don't fully return to normal function. It's unfortunate, but a reality. There are MANY factors and forces at work in a normal knee joint.

 

I've had this happen before. It's likely that the tumor didn't disappear, but migrated back into the abdomen. Freely movable masses in the abdomen can poke through the abdominal wall, especially near the ribcage, and then can return to the abdominal cavity. Other times, tumors can spontaneously disappear. Depends on the type and if the body can mount a defense against it. The only way to see if it's still in the abdominal cavity is with radiographs or ultrasound.

 

Any experience with Apoquel?

My rat terrier is constantly itchy. Paws and ears especially.

He currently takes 12.5mg of benedryl once a day and I spray his feet with Gentaved at night.

I saw a commercial for this and was wondering if it is any good but didn't really like the list of possible side effects.

 

^this^

We had nationwide on our 3 year old pound puppy for like $40-60/month (i forget) for the 90% reimbursement after the $100 deductible, which even covered flea/tick etc, and it was great. Super easy to file claims online, quick payment, never had a hassle to get the claims approved like i expected. The catch is that it went up like $10/month after the first year and started to border on not being worth it in my opinion. I called and said "if this goes up $10/year, then by the time the dog is 10........" the rep said "this is a larger than normal increase. they're usually very small incremental increases. The next large increase isn't until the dog turns 10".

So unless your young dog needs expensive surgery, my vote would be to set aside your own savings each month. Ally online savings has a good rate and makes it easy to set up a separate sub-account with an automatic transfer each month.

 

@jaredmillerdvm @Kerch71

You guys are AWESOME to help out the Tundra crew in this way !!

My wife and I don’t have children just your Dogs who we love unconditionally as they do US !!
Also have a messy- noisy African Grey parrot
That’s a hole other story

Have had several dogs -
Currently a 4 year old 300mph BOXER and the complete opposite a 4 year old Fat lazy English BULLDOG that we adopted from OPH Virginia

Boxer has been battling a skin allergy we’re he eats his paws like he’s chewing on a ham bone - seams to be worse when it’s wet outside( a former Bulldog also had same issue and never really figured it out ) - have changed foods several times to no avail

Recently put him on prednisone ( which previous Bulldog was also on ) even though we did not want to because of previous experience with spaced out Bulldog and excessive urinating- but decided to try now because I’m off work from my own foot surgery and can be here to let him out ALL Day. Almost done with prednisone- and his symptoms will probably start all over soon !(pred is only thing that helps my psoriasis when it gets bad but starts all over again )

Have read several articles about “grain “ food allergies but my wife is reluctant to use “grain- free” food because of what she has read with it being not good for Boxers and there HEART issues ( lost a previous Boxer due to Heart problems)

Any ideas / suggestions would be GREATLY APPRECIATED !!

Thx again

 

Doxy is good for onychodystrophy since it has immunomodulating properties. Next time you can potentially ask about adding another immunosuppressant with fewer side effects and begin weaning Pred. Just a thought.

 

My differential list would be: pain(tooth, TMJ pain, Masticatory, Muscle Myositis, anxiety/stress. Start with oral exam as @Kerch71 mentioned.

 

Stay away from grain free food. If he is food allergic it is likely the protein not the grain. Short of pred, I would change to Royal Canin Ultamino food and nothing else by mouth. Change heartworm prevention and flea and tick to topicals or proheart. Takes 8 weeks for food to work. Also apoquel or cytopoint instead of pred would be my go to if money isn’t a concern.

 

Apoquel is great, I would definitely give it a try. Cytopoint if no improvements.

 

Gentlemen - Fantastic that you are doing this for the members here. We all need good advice (from trained experts) from time to time as our pets are important to us. I'm fortunate to have excellent Vet care where I live but I always have questions.
Cheers,
Bill

 

I concur, doctor

 

More than likely it’s osteoarthritis. Start dasaquin advanced or cosequin as a supplement. Talk to your vet about a NSAID for OA.