Any ideas
Do not force your dog to eat more than he is comfortable with. If he isn’t losing weight, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Make sure you are often weighing him to see if his weight is fluctuating.
How to Identify Common Pet Problems ?
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From age one to two, your cat or dog may begin to look a little yellow, and tartar may appear. Plaque turns into tartar, a hard brown deposit, when it remains on the teeth too long. Daily tooth brushing reduces plaque and prevents it from becoming tartar.
Dogs start to need more rest between the ages of five and 10 years old. According to Dr. Georgina Ushi Phillips, DVM, senior dogs sleep between 18 to 20 hours per day, much like they did as a puppy. If you see your older pooch napping for most of the day, it`s probably not a cause for concern.
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Do not force your dog to eat more than he is comfortable with. If he isn’t losing weight, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Make sure you are often weighing him to see if his weight is fluctuating.
You need to treat your home environment. If you use a pest control service, tell them you are having a flea problem and they can adjust their treatment. Use a premise spray that also contains an IGR, insect growth regulator. This keeps eggs and larvae from maturing into adults and helps break the life cycle. Also, vacuum EVERY DAY, throwing out the bag or emptying the canister every time into an outside receptacle and spraying the contents with insecticide to kill the fleas you’ve vacuumed up.
Treat your yard too, since fleas are opportunistic and will hop a ride into your home on your pant leg without you knowing it. Concentrate on areas under bushes, in the shade. Fleas are less likely to be located in open sunny areas where it gets hot.
If chemicals are a problem, you can use borax. Sprinkle it into rugs, into corners and under furniture, use a broom to work it into the fibers and let it sit for hours, days even. It won’t hurt you or your pet to have it present. Then vacuum it up, reapply as needed. Food grade diatomaceous earth can be gotten from a health food store and worked into the rugs and corners in the same way as borax. These treatments aren’t as fast and effective as chemical insecticides but they can help.
You might want to consider boarding your pet for the day at your vet, to give you the opportunity to flea bomb your house without having to worry about your pet being exposed. They can bathe your pet and give a dose of Capstar while you treat your home.
Be patient, you may have to repeat these steps multiple times 10-14 days apart to help break the flea life cycle.
Skin problems can have a variety of causes, sometimes more than one. It is important to have the problem checked by your vet to determine if there is a medical cause for your pet’s skin issues and treat accordingly.
In pets of all ages, fleas, food allergies and exposure to chemical irritants such as cleaners and soaps can be a cause. Any one of these may not be enough to trigger the breakouts, depending on how sensitive your pet is, but a combination can be enough to start the itch-scratch cycle. Finding out the cause and eliminating it is the best course of action. With flea allergies, if your pet is sensitive enough, a single bite can cause them to break out scratch enough to tear their skin.
Check for fleas with a flea comb. Look for fleas and/or tiny black granules, like coarse black pepper. This is flea feces, consisting of digested, dried blood. You may find tiny white particles, like salt, which are the flea eggs. Applying a good topical monthly flea treatment and aggressively treating your house and yard will help break the flea life cycle.
If you use plastic bowls, this is a possible cause for hair loss, though this tends to be on the chin, where their skin touches the bowl while they eat. If you suspect this to be the culprit, try changing the bowls to glass, metal or ceramic.
Food allergies are often caused by sensitivity to a protein in the food. Hill’s Science Diet offers some non-prescription options for sensitive skin as well as prescription hypoallergenic foods for more severe cases. Royal Canin carries limited protein diets that may also offer some relief. Your vet can recommend a specific diet that will help.
If there is no relief or not enough, consider getting your pet checked by a veterinary dermatologist and having allergy testing done.
I would suggest that you have your dog checked over. If it’s a small mount of blood and the dog is still eating normally you can wait until your vet is open. If your dog is having diarrhoea with blood or if he is not eating, or is in pain, you should have him checked over today.
If you’d like I can review your cats symptoms and labwork with you and I can try to offer more advice. Just select the “consult” button.
If this is an adult dog and you observe other concerning signs, such as diarrhea or decreased energy, you should see a veterinarian.
If the dog seems otherwise bright and stable, try offering different types of food: wet food, canned tripe, or cooked chicken and rice. Some dogs will go for canned baby food: chicken, turkey, or beef as the main ingredient. Make sure there are no garlic or onions in the ingredients!
Causes of anorexia in adult dogs can range from less serious to severe. Younger dogs are more likely to get into trouble- they tend to eat things they shouldn’t, and can get foreign bodies from eating things like socks, or stomach upset from getting in the trash. Any dog may stop eating due to stress, or just being a picky eater. Middle aged dogs can stop eating when they’re stressed and also have Addison’s disease, which can be fatal. Older dogs tend to stop eating when they develop cancer or renal disease.
There is no one-size-fits-all recipe to know when the right time is to take your dog to the vet. The moral of this story is, if it’s not getting better, your pup feels bad, or you’re worried – go see the vet!
If your dog has been vomiting a lot recently, either related to or unrelated to eating grass, then it is always a good idea to schedule a wellness exam with your vet to make sure there are not any issues causing illness. Grass, especially in areas where livestock may graze can also be a host for parasite eggs, which can in turn infect your dog with an internal parasite (and thus cause vomiting and diarrhea).
If your dog is not eating at all, this is more concerning and points further to some digestive upset causing his or her symptoms. Making an appointment with your vet as well as bringing in a sample of his or her stool is best for helping your pet feel better.
Blood that is dark or black in the stool can indicate a problem with the upper intestines such as the stomach or small intestine. This is usually considered more serious than bright red stool, however any blood seen is cause for concern. If the blood is seen more than once or twice, making a vet appointment is a must.
If your dog is not eating and is having blood in either her stool or vomit, making an appointment with your local vet is best. Illness, digestive upset or problems with internal organs can all cause these symptoms. In the mean time, a bland diet of plain boiled chicken and plain white rice may help to soothe minor digestive upset until you can get into the vet.
If the pus is really bad, and continues to get worse, see your vet again and let them know what’s going on. Maybe you could try a diet change, and then see if there are any improvements.
Remember, you should always gradually change a dogs diet. By gradually, I mean you put a tiny bit of new kibble in with a bowl of the old kibble. Reduce the old kibble by just a few bits of kibble. Throughout the course of at least two weeks (or as long as you want depending on whether or not you want to finish off the old food) you slowly add more of the new kibble while removing some of the old kibble. This makes the process gradual, and won’t cause any tummy-upset in your dog.
