Great Dane Not Eating

Question
QUESTION: My male (almost 2 years old) great dane has almost completely stopped eating.  This has been ongoing for severtal months now.  We have taken him to the vet several times.  He has had blood tests ran and his fecal checked, and everything has came back fine.  He is only 110 pounds.  He weighs less now than he did at one year old.  He acts completely fine and is active.  He literally does not even eat a cup of food a day.  We have tried switching his dog food, we have tried various dry dog foods, various canned dog foods, and combinations of both.  We have tried putting gravy on his food.  These various things will work for two or three days, but then he just goes back to not eating again.  His ribs and hip bones and spine stick out extremely.  He is nothing but skin and bones.  Do you have any suggestions?

ANSWER: Liz,

It seems that you have basically tried every measure possible to help your dog gain the weight that he needs in order to be healthy. Could you tell me how tall he is? Have you ever tried a raw diet for him? Either one that is already pre-made at the store or one that you can make at home? I don't think that I have ever heard of a dog being able to sustain themselves on one cup of food a day, even at only 110 lbs. How old was he when the weight loss began? How much did he weigh at the time that the weight loss started? Did anything unusual such as an illness spark the weight loss? You mentioned in your question that he is an active dog, could you elaborate on how active he is?

Please get back to me when you have a chance. I apologize for taking so long to respond, I did have my vacation setting applied but apparently it did not kick back before you asked the question.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------


Marshall   QUESTION: He is 36" tall at the shoulders.  We have not tried a raw diet for him.  That is a possibility I will check into.  The whole problem started when he was around 14 months.  There was no illness at the time.  He weighed around 115 lbs then, so there was not a major weight loss, but he has not been eating or gaining weight like he should be.  The vet told us he should be around 140lbs.  He is not super active, but he does have plenty of energy.  When we let him out to go to the bathroom, he will run laps around the house, and he is always playing and jumping around.  He has plenty of energy even though he hardly eats.  I have attached a picture of him so you can see how underweight he looks.

Answer
Liz,

Yes, the picture that you sent me definitely confirms your concern. He is on the thin side. I would suggest that you try him on the raw diet. You can buy it pre-made, it is expensive, but I think in all it will benefit him to at least gain weight. What I would personally try to do is mix the Raw patties with dry food. This is how I have gotten some of my more picky eaters to gain weight as well. I am going to put some links in here of different raw diets and foods that I like, especially for the issue you are having. My suggestion to you is to stick with pre-made raw diet, if you miss a key ingredient you can really mess up their system. These foods are formulated with the dog in mind so they include all of the ingredients a dog will need for a healthy life. Please let me know how he does on the food, and update would be great.

http://www.primalpetfoods.com/

http://www.naturesvariety.com/InstinctRaw

http://www.frommfamily.com/