I didn't wish to hi-jack cracar's post ref her spaniel losing body but I have similar questions about my 13yr goldie.

She's become very thin in the last 6 months, at her last vet check she was just touching 30kg but now I would be surprised if she made 25kg, she's a smaller built girl anyway.

In the past 6 months or so there has been occasions of vomiting frothy yellow bile looking stuff, we have increased her food to try and keep her tummy full but it has made no difference to weight gain/loss, she will now not eat kibble and will only eat soft food and sometimes we spoon feed her to get more in to her, she loves cat food pouches  :(  so I wonder if there is a sore mouth going on. She has all of her teeth and vet says for her age they are excellent.

Her coat looks dry and sad despite regular grooming and I notice recently that over her lower back over the pelvic bones (which can be felt) on both sides the fur looks thin and as though she loosing it.

I can feel all ribs and spine when I run my hands over her

She is still happy to go for a walk and will have occasions of fast trotting, arthritis allowing.

She's going for an OAP check at the vets tomorrow and I have to collect wee, that should be fun, any suggestions cos she's a very very low squatter.

Any ideas on what it might be other than old age.

> suggestions cos she's a very very low squatter.
>
>

An old clean frying pan.

Got an excellent wee sample, we have a ditch in our garden and as she squatted across it OH slipped a large flat pasta bowl under her, he was well chuffed with himself ;)

i often ust the lid of an ice cream container as it is shallow enough to slip under my girls

Hi Pinky, you should have hi-jacked away!!  I have taken mine to the vet (and I will post on my topic too).  My vet has suggested that it could be a combination of things.  I have switched my lot onto raw meat and this doesn't seem to be agreeing with Ruby's metabolisim after all these years of complete.  Also a change in the weather and just age deterioating muscle tone.  We are going to try giving her big portions of complete for a week and see if it builds a bit of fat back up but if not, we have to start bloods, etc which she absolutely hates.
I hope you get a good diagnosis.

Hi, I don't really have any suggestions, but hope all goes well for the vet check up.

I would say though that cat food is definitely not good for dogs. Mine will clear the cat bowl up if it's within reach, but I heard many years ago that it's not good to give to dogs - something to do with salt levels??

The appointment got cancelled yesterday, OH got to the vets and they had needed to cancel the OAP clinic as they had 3 emergencies in, so we've got another appointment for tomorrow, more wee collecting ;).

I'll watch your post with interest and I take note of itsadoglife's comment on cat food, I did say to OH that it's cat food for a reason although all of my dogs will pinch it given the chance.

We'll have to see what our the vet says tomorrow.

Mine love cat food and will steal it given half a chance. Unfortunately they seem to like it pre-digested and will clean out the litter trays for me if I am not careful - disgusting creatures then want kisses lol

>I notice recently that over her lower back over the pelvic bones (which can be felt) on both sides the fur looks thin and as though she loosing it.<br />

My 13yr old Bearded Collie has the same problem, and she has been on thyroid tablets for some years.  I find she does better on several smaller meals a day, and her dry brittle coat altered when I put them on Fish4Dogs.  I feed half wet, half dry.  The vet reckons it is the omega 3 that has improved the look of her coat. 

Has your girl been checked for thyroid problems?

She's going to the vets tonight and no she has not been checked for over active thyroid as yet, but looking at the symptons of that I'm not sure if that is her problem.

She is not eating ravenously if anything she has to be encouraged to eat  nor is she drinking excessively, her poo's are perfectly normal maybe even a little firmer since refusing to eat kibble, she's not restless, over active or irritable and at her last vet check her heart rate was said to be excellent and steady.

She does seem better with smaller meals more frequently and is less likely to vomit the frothy yellow bile stuff when we feed her that way, but I will get the omega 3 for her coat, will human quality be ok or is there a doggy variety?

>but I will get the omega 3 for her coat, will human quality be ok or is there a doggy variety?

I don't feed it in tablet form.  It's the fish in her food that's supplying it.  Fish4Dogs.

Well we've been to the vets and it seems that everything is age related plus she's developed a sensitive stomach.

She does now only weigh 25kg, her eyes are a bit cloudy, she is feeling pain due to inflamed joints he says she has severe osteoarthritis,  the balding patches are where she nibbles due to discomfort.

She's got quite a lot of muscle wastage round her back end, she was good enough to throw up in the vets surgery,  he promptly scooped up the frothy yellow gloop sniffed it, stuck a litmus paper in it and said 'nothing wrong with that other than a sensitive stomach and hunger' he says she has thickened intestines common with age, her wee is also fine, she's also got a bit of ginginvitis but her teeth are good.
Her heart and lungs are excellent.

He said that everything is basically age related which made us feel a bit better.

We've got antipepsin for the sickness, Previcox 227mg for the arthritis and 15 tins of Hills i/d canine gastointestinal health just the tins was £30. This is all she's now allowed to eat if she'll eat it which she wouldn't this eveing, I think I'll have a look to see if I can get it cheaper on-line, although I don't think she's going to be keen on eating that all the time :(

all in all that sounds like good news to me :-) most of it can be eased to make her a happy old lady.

Have a look on line at Royal Canins stuff, they do the same ranges as Hills but I've found my old cat loves the RC renal but won't even look at the Hills one.

">Have a look on line at Royal Canins stuff, they do the same ranges as Hills

Will do, actually the vet did say if she doesn't take to the Hills then Royal Canin is another good option

My vet usually recommends chippie in tins for sensitive tums too.  I hope she perks up after some pain relief.

Well she's had 2 of her tablets and seems brighter already, she even managed a small trot out on the morning walk, she's not keen on the Hill's stuff I'm having to spoon feed it to her but I will persevere with it for the 5 days like the vet said and then take it from there.

She won't eat the Hill's, I've managed to get a bit of it into her but that was more push on my part than desire from her, despite what vet said about the hill's only for 5 days I bought some Chappie today, she did eat half a standard tin of it when I hand fed it to her.

I've got fish to steam and chicken to boil and I'm very tempted to ignore what the vet said and give her a bit of fish, she keeps following me into the kitchen and I know she's hungry she just doesn't like the vets prescribed food.

Should I ignore the vet and go with my gut feeling for my girl.

My goldie at almost 25kg looks dead thin and a bit sad

Cat food has a much higher fat content

>Cat food has a much higher fat content

Also a much higher protein content.

When I had problems with Ben's eating I used Build Up, which is a high calorie human food supplement, it is also very easily digested, available in chemists and large supermarkets, I always used the vanilla one, your supposed to make it up with milk or water, obviously milk will up the calories even further but won't be tolerated by a lot of dogs. I also used cottage cheese which always went down well.

When my girl had an upset tum whilst feeding pups (turned out to be an infection), as an alternative to boiled rice, I was advised to boil floury type potatoes with their skins on to add to the white fish she was having. I had never heard of this before, but it worked really well for her. Just make sure the potatoes are well boiled.

I hope your girl picks up soon.

Tanya

Twelve tins of the Hills still in the vacuum pack will be going back to the vets for a refund as she will not eat it. I managed to get a few mouthfuls of steamed fish into her this morning and later I boiled a chicken and she ate the meat from two thighs and a leg, but it took encouragment from me, it concerns me that she seems so un-interested in food.

The vet said he was more concerned about her muscle loss on the back end than her sicky stomach, and that she works her body from the shoulders and pulls her back end and I can see what he means, it's not nice to see her back end wobble or flounder underneath her, I do feel however that if I could get some decent nourishment in to her she may feel a bit better about herself. A Goldie under 25kg looks very very sad.

I have today bought lots of fish and chicken to boil up, I have spuds and rice, I don't know what else to do.

She is at her brightest in the morning and I've said to OH that this is the best time to catch her for feeding and plumping up so we are going to change the way we feed her and pack the food in early in the day.

We'll see how she goes.

The silly cow is on the settee at the moment next to daddy and doesn't even realise that she is a worry.

Who'd have dogs and I wish they could talk

She maybe doesn't want to eat because when she weighs more, it's more of an effort to get up?  I know the body shape as that's how my old girl went in the end.  She was still fine once she got up and still wagged the tail and wanted to eat and walk but when the time came where she wasn't having fun anymore and stopped eating, I decided she'd had enough and let her go.  It seemed like a relief for her at the end as she was so tired.  It's really hard to see our pups getting on, isn't it.  Sending you best wishes.

We're back off to the vets tomorrow, she's still reluctant to eat, her appetite was waning a bit when we first took her but now it seems less since being on the Previcox, but I think there's some sort of mouth issue going on.

She will get up and follow me to the kitchen when I am preparing all of the dogs tea and she will sit keen and eager like the others, but when I present her with food she tries and give up, (no it's not my cooking), there is a lot of mouthing of food and if too lumpy she doesn't want to know.

So we have changed our feeding regime with her

She will drink up lactose free milk poured over a weetabix :(  or a heavily gravied tin of Butchers with the chunks mashed   :( :( :(   and she will eat freashly boiled and still warm chicken and fish or a mashed sardine albeit in very small quantities, I am putting her bowl on a little step so that she doesn't have to drop her head to eat that seemes to help a bit.

We're seeing our favoured vet tomorrow, the practice is so big and so many vets you rarely see the same one twice so maybe with the favoured vet we will be able to sort our girl out