Lack Of Appetite In A Pregnant Bitch/any Ideas?

[shilo]

I have a four week pregnant bitch that has gone off her food. Had her to the vet who could not find anything wrong with her.She appears in good health ,has no temperature ,no gastric problem,seems bright and willing to play but will only eat about a spoonful of food.Have tried Nutrigel which helps but she does not eat her usual amount of food.I realise that some bitches have a type of morning sickness but this appears to have gone on for so long.She is a maiden bitch and I have not had this problem before and am at my wits end

please can anyone offer some advise on this?

[Rysup]

I would not worry terribly. Some bitches just go off their food. Offer high quality food, and maybe try some human tempters like BBQ chicken. My best litters have always been ones where the bitch hardly ate a thing. As soon as they whelped the bitches ate like horses.

[shilo]

I would suggest this topic was moved out of the Palliative Care Forum.

sorry puggy puggy but this is a Health/Nutrition/ Grooming Forum and I am rather new at this and was rather stressed at the time of entry.

Thanks Rysup for you advise.I have had the little bitch back to the vet and there is a possiblity that it might have been worms as I forgot to worm her prior to mating.Apparently ther have been a few cases of hook worm around.She is fasting for 24 hrs and looks to be a bit brighter today.I will feed her tonight and hope she has her appetite back.Fingers and toes crossed!!!

[cowanbree]

Shilo, it is very common and while it can drive you demented the bitchs appear fine. My last litter Asya ate next to nothing her entire pregancy and nothing at all the last week. She was a bag of bones but had 6 healthy puppies that she reared by herself with no issues. The minute she had those puppies she started eating again and I basically free fed her as much as she wanted. It took me 6mths to get her back to a res[pectible weight but she and all the puppies were fine

[TashaBailey]

I ahve just had a litter with a Sheltie bitch that has done the same thing. Decided that she could not stomach dry food right through out the pregnancy. I was able to get her to eat tiny bits by mixing with some very mushy mince. This bitch probably only ate well for about a week of her entire pregnancy ( she commenced eating like a horse for the week after I had the vet confirm the pregnancy). She has existed on an allmost entirely meat diet for most of the pregnancy. Her mother was the same for her first litter. and she would only eat diced rump steak.

The vet told me that whatever the bitch would eat let her. If that meant BBQ chicken then so be it. This vet had one that the only thing that she would eat for the pregnancy was some sort of Pate. If feeding a mostly meat diet ensure that the bitch is getting enough calcium do you may need to supplement her diet with a calcium tablet.

This same btich last night within asn hour of finishing whelping almost too my hand off because i was not quick enough when feeding her some left over BBQ Chook.

TB

[Cockerlover]

try not to worry some bitches do this !!try giving her food @ room tempreture this sometimes appeals.

[shilo]

Many thanks to Cockerlover,Tashabailey,cowanbree,& rysup,for your kind advise.I am comforted by your thoughts and am pleased to let you all know that Missy is once again eating well.

I think perhaps it was because of worms the she was off her food.The day she had a wormed tablet ,she was fasted for 24hrs and next day she came looking for food.I was remiss in not worming her before mating.I have not had this problem before only with bitches not eating after whelping.I had a couple that would only eat chicken necks and Nutragel for the first few weeks after whelping.Only problem was that the puppies looked like fat little toads.