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Any suggestions or recommendations for healthy senior food for a picky eater?
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Member Since:
20 September 2015
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18 November 2015 - 10:51 pm
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Hi Tripawd Friends,

 

When we found out that Maggie had cancer I decided to kick her food up a notch in the healthy department.  Guiltily, I feel I should have been feeding her a more natural/less processed/less grain food all along, but no time for regrets here.  The issue we have been having is adjusting her diet to something healthy, maybe geared toward senior dogs, that she will eat and digest appropriately.  Pre-cancer/surgery/crap, she was eating Iams dry senior food (reluctantly) with Iams canned random chicken/beef on top.  After her biopsy surgery we did chicken and rice, ground beef and rice, etc. for a few days and then switched her to Science Diet dry and canned.  [Probably about equivalent in quality but I felt it was step in the right direction and hadn't had time to research all the uber healthy options.]  Then we had amputation surgery a couple weeks later and were back on chicken, ground beef, salmon, whatever we could get her to eat for 2 weeks.  She turned up her nose on the dry and canned  stuff we had been feeding.  I did some research and headed to a local pet shop for their advice, and came home with Canidae senior dry food and a variety of Merrick grain free cans.  She devoured both - for exactly a day and a half.  Now she will eat one variety of the canned chicken meal, but not with much enthusiasm. 

Maggie's been to the vet and doesn't appear to have any other issues that would affect her diet.  She has occasional diarrhea, which I can't really correlate with anything in her diet (but I know nerves/stress has a lot to do with it, so vet visits and rain storms are known causes).  The vet gave us a probiotic to put on her food and she's been taking that for 5 days, can't really tell any difference.  She had diarrhea once yesterday, but I blame a storm that stressed her out all night.  I also know that switching food brands and types 4 times in 2 months is not great - especially since we didn't do it gradually what with the surgery interruptions.  But I feel I have to keep trying something different until I find something that she loves to eat and that she can digest well.  She was 55 pounds before amp, then about 51 right after, and has lost another 4-5 pounds since then.  I know slim is good, but she's eating much less than she should be and I'm sure the tummy upsets aren't making her any happier.

I know food preferences can be totally random, but I would love any suggestions that folks here - especially those with picky eaters - are willing to share.  Thanks!!

 

Cindy and Maggie

Member Since:
20 September 2015
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18 November 2015 - 10:54 pm
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Oh, we also fed Fresh Pet's bagged chicken variety for a couple of weeks after surgery.  As with others, she seemed to love it at first and then not-so-much.  Yes, I've just been messing with the poor girl's diet for months now!  what-ever

Michigan
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2 April 2013
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19 November 2015 - 9:14 am
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We found out the hard way that going straight into grain-free food will cause diarrhea what-ever That's why they suggest changing over slowly.   Good thing we have a carpet cleaner! lol

Murphy's gotten picky, too, and I blame the fact that he knows he can get away with pretty much anything.  We were feeding him Blue Buffalo, then we changed to another brand we found at Pet Supplies Plus - I think it was Nature's Recipe.  What we've found that he loves is adding gravy to his food...just regular jar gravy.  He's been gobbling up his food the past few weeks since we've been adding that!

Donna

Donna, Glenn & Murphy 

Murphy had his right front leg amputated due to histiocytic sarcoma at 7 years old. He survived 4 years, 2 months & 1 week, only to be taken by hemangiosarcoma at 11 1/2 years 6/12/17  
Read about Murphy's Life on Three Legs

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On The Road


Member Since:
24 September 2009
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19 November 2015 - 10:26 am
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Cindy don't feel badly about what you fed her, we all do our best. Sometimes it just takes finding the right combo of foods that they like, her behavior isn't unusual at all, especially for a dog who's been fed the same food for most of her life. Have you looked at our Nutrition blog? We have tons of great food recommendations there, all of them are high quality ones that we feel good about. We also have appetite stimulant suggestions, as well as a few holistic remedies for diarrhea there too. Check it out!

Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
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