Dog Mopes around and wont eat

Question
Thank you for all your info. My wife gave her some raw burger and she scarfed it down.
someone also told me to get some probiotics ,digestive enzymes because all the meds and treatments might have her GI tract all fouled up.
Is this a good idea??

Thanks a million!!
Bill
-------------------------------------------
The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hi , Thank you for your response. I didn't think you got my last post.
So I should mention to the vet about worming her every 3 months? Or should I buy my own and start now?
I gave her an Interceptor Worm Pill yesterday. It is a once a minth pill.
What should I do about my back yard, is that off limits to her now?

She hasn't vomited in a while now. I just can't get her to eat but a few bites a day. I have changed her food to a more organic food from the grocery store brands.
She won't eat any of it. We did get her to eat some cooked hamburger yesterday and she didn't gulp at that.

Thank you Karen.



-------------------------------------------
The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
I would re-treat for the whipworms as it sounds like they either were not eliminated entirely or she is reinfesting herself from the yard. Whips can be *VERY HARD* to get rid of. Bitches who are hormonal do not lose weight, have watery stools, and not eat. Something is seriously wrong with your dog. Don't wait on this!
Karen


Hi Karen , Thank you for your recent reply. I just want to know what I can do to my yard if my dog is reinfesting herself?
I bought Interceptor worm treatments from my vet but I haven't been able to give her because of vomitting. I just gave her first one today. It is suppose to treat and prevent Heart,Hook, and Whip Worms. The vet doesn't open on weekends. What do you suggest I do at this point?
I can't get her to eat anything. She has mostly slept all day.
I am very worried about her.

Thank you again!!
Bill
-----Answer-----
I'm sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner, but I had computer problems last night and couldn't get it resolved until tonight. If you hadn't contacted me again, I was going to try to reach you. I should have been more specific yesterday, but I didn't want to alarm you and I was hoping you would get your dog back into the vet.

Frankly, I have seen dogs die from this, and the treatment needs to be very aggressive to bring the dog around. She needs meds to stop the vomiting, and she needs fluids, preferably sub-q, to maintain hydration. If you lift the skin up on the back of a dog's neck, in a hydrated dog it will go back to normal very quickly. If the dog is dehydrated, it will go down slowly or not at all.

For now, try to get her to lick an ice cube every hour to hour and a half, or get some pedialyte (or something similar) and freeze that into ice cubes for her. Since she has been vomiting, it is important to try to bring those electrolyte levels back up, but you do not want to trigger the vomiting again.

And, of course, she needs to be wormed ASAP, again without triggering the vomiting. The best drug for getting rid of whipworm is fenbendazole, and you will probably have to worm her every three months as it really is impossible to clean up a yard short of excavating it. As I said, whipworms can be difficult to get rid of.

Once the vomiting stops, you need to try to get food into her. I usually start out with rice with a bit of Gerber strained chicken (yes, the baby food) mixed in for flavor. Start out with something like a teaspoon at a time every two hours, As the day progresses, you can gradually increase the amount a bit, and lengthen the time in between each meal. If the dog starts vomiting again, then back off and start over. Within a couple days, you can start adding kibble to this mixture, but very, very slowly.

Now, here is the problem. She may not want to eat at all. *IF* she has stopped all vomiting, try raw hamburger rolled up into tiny meatballs and force-feed her. Go very slowly with this... SMALL amounts... like one small meatball initially. If that stays down, try two small ones the next time. Go very, very slowly amount-wise so as not to retrigger the vomiting. I am not an advocate of feeding raw, but I have found this easy to force down and it seems to get some dogs eating again better than anything I have tried.

Good luck with this!
Karen
-----Answer-----
Since Interceptor is given every month, that should work just fine. Keeping the dog out of the backyard really isn't too practical in the long run, but try to get the stools picked up right away.

At this point in time, go with the raw hamburger rather than cooked. It really does seem to work better and it is easy to force-feed. *YOU MUST KEEP THE DOG EATING.* And she will not want to.... and she will definitely not want to eat kibble.

Too long a story, but a few years ago I had a dog lose the tip of her tongue, and she totally did not want to eat. After fiddling around for a bit with different diets (quite unsuccessfully), I went to force-feeding the raw hamburger meatballs, and then after a few days started mixing into the meatballs ground up Eagle Fish kibble a little bit at a time to improve the diet. In her case, it took me three months to get her back on straight normal kibble. (One woman told me that she herself had lost part of her tongue, and she totally had no appetite for six months.)

For whatever reason, your dog also has no appetite, and you must keep getting small amounts of food into her until her appetite returns. This is the critical part of this recovery (other than dehydration).

http://www.greatlakesbcrescue.org/HealthNTraining/Whipworm.htm

Karen  

Answer
At this point, I think you should try anything that sounds reasonable! You MUST get her eating again. I really doubt that the meds are what have her screwed up; I truly feel everything is from the whipworms. BUT you absolutely *MUST* go slowly with the food and water as you **DO NOT** want to start her vomiting again or you will back to Square One. Take the probiotics and enzymes and mix a tiny bit in with the hamburger meatball(s) each time you feed her.

The fact that she is eating the raw hamburger willingly is an **EXCELLENT** sign! Just remember... PROCEED SLOWLY! Frequent *small* feedings is the key.

Karen