High Calorie, Highly Palatable Foods For Sick Dogs

[JulesP]

Glad to hear things are sounding more promising Aidan2.

I remembered another sneaky way to get dogs to eat. Grind up some kibble (maybe half a cup). Add a couple of egg whites, add some milk or water. Mix up well. Cook as a pancake! You could add some cottage cheese too. Applesauce is popular too apparently.

[Aidan3]

Thanks Jules, is Amber traveling well at the moment?

[JulesP]

Thanks Jules, is Amber traveling well at the moment?

She is going pretty well thanks.

[mace]

Oh Aidan so sorry to hear of your situation, my thoughts are with you and fingers crossed for your girl's recovery, I am having some minor fits with my old Lab it seems they are worrying times when age sets in. 10 or so years sounds like a long time when you first get a new pup, but those years reaching old age when the time arrives pass so quickly unfortanately, feels like only two or three years have passed since they were pups, time creeps up on us so fast.

I wondered by your posts Adian, are you saying that your other dog became suddenly ill and passed and now your GSD is sick, like a related illness between them or just a coincidental thing where an illness has met both of yours in a short time frame?

I know what you mean with having the opportunity of spending time with and appreciate an older dog, my last Lab at 10 years old was a bit off colour and quite bloated looking, but just thought he was old and lazy feeling a bit crook and took him for a check up, he had liver failure and had to make the tragic call suddenly, never entering our minds he was so sick and didn't get a chance to prepare for what what was happening.

Best of luck for you girl

[Aidan3]

I wondered by your posts Adian, are you saying that your other dog became suddenly ill and passed and now your GSD is sick, like a related illness between them or just a coincidental thing where an illness has met both of yours in a short time frame?

That's correct. At this stage we're regarding it as an unfortunate coincidence, having investigated the possibility of poisoning. Environmental toxins are always a concern, for example broad-leaf herbicides, but we don't use these and they break down very quickly once used. The probability of two older dogs having cancer is very high (the probability of any dog over the age of ten having cancer is somewhere around 0.5), the timing is just very unfortunate. The stress of losing Django could have triggered symptoms in Sabella.

Django was 11 years old, very fit, had never really needed veterinary attention before. The most likely diagnosis (by ultrasound) is metastasised tumours in his liver, it was a very short battle (or rather, he was asymptomatic for however long those tumours were there). Sabella will be 10 next month, her tumours are in different places and so far there is no evidence that they have metastasised, or even that they are malignant for that matter. There is a growth on her left adrenal which could possibly cause high blood calcium, similar to Addison's disease but not Addison's (we did an ACTH stimulation test to rule out Addison's).