Member Since: December 6, 2006
Answers: 1
Last Update: December 6, 2006
Visitors: 490
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Hi,
We recently adopted a 3 year old male Saint Bernard. He was not eating at the shelter, and within a few days of getting him home, he developed pneumonia, which our vet is treating with antibiotics.
When we tried to give him dog food (pedigree dry, canned, and a mix of both), he backs away from the dish as if he's afraid of it. The only thing we've been able to get him to eat is food that I've cooked. Today he had a mixture of deboned chicken, homemade mashed potatoes, & lima beans. He has lost a lot of weight from his illness & not eating.
How can I get him to eat dog food?
Thanks for any advice you can give me. (link)
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Hope you have checked out all possible medical reasons for eating problems with vet first,however we had a problem with our hound dog mix similar to yours,food for him is an issue!!! When we found him he was starving; so close to death the vet who treated him said he would have been dead within days if we hadn't found him.As your dog is a rescue too you don't really know his history either. Once you eliminate the medical reasons for his eating problems you may be dealing with some of the same things we dealt with our boy.The fact that your dog acts afraid of the food tells me someone has mistreated him,taken food away,maybe hit him when he tried to eat,done something to scare him.Our dog was probably starved so he would hunt,we were told this by the vet.We had to feed him cooked chicken and rice mix for months and slowly added a little dry food and 2 years later he still gets a little sliced chicken hotdog and alpo slices mixed in the dry .Be patient & reassure him that eating is a good thing,it takes time to get through to him but we have rescued 10 dogs all with their own problems but they do respond quickly once they know they are safe and loved.Just make sure that there is no medical reason first,we had everything checked out with our vet .We feed our dog in a crate but that is to keep our dogs separated ,Buddy barks and growls but I think it does keep him eating so the others don't get it.Hope this helps ,he's worth it,our Buddy is .
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