Hello I am new to the forum and was wondering if anyone had experience/advice re CDD. My 15 year old staffy has recently been diagnosed with this condition and one of her latest symptoms is not eating her usually favourite foods. The vet has initially prescribed Activat and she has been taking these for 15 days.
Any suggestions to get her eating would be much appreciated. Thank you Liz

What does she normally eat ? Maybe feeding foods that smell.stronger  ? If she isn't eating at all  then it's probably going to be anything that might give her an appetite so foods like cooked meat scrambled egg fish .not exactly balanced but depends on how serious her lack of eating is ATM
Discuss with the vet but if it's lack of appetite vit b12 injections can help but given your dogs problem are  cognitive problem may not be appropriate

Hi she normally eats burns dry lamb and brown rice with wet food mixed in eg lamb and veg or salmon and veg. She loves her treats usually but is not interested in anything today she usually has some ham to take tablets with(she has hypothyroidism) but she won't eat her ham. Today I've tried her with Lily's wild boar also lamb. She took a small amount of of tuna and a couple of mouthfuls of steak mince I cooked for her. I wondered if she had lost her sense of smell. She keeps going to her bowl and seems hungry but no joy. She was tested for b12 and had low folates not that long ago and had a course of b12.

I know not ideal but I will try some sausages tomorrow she refused scrambled eggs this morning.
I guess I will need to consult the vet. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

If she really won't eat I would try anything to tempt her cooked or raw .warmed meat smells more so if she can smell things at all that will increase the scent
,I know people who have given things like tinned rice pudding just get  food into a their dog a little bit of string cheese in her wet food might work . Could she feel sick ? Not that it's part of her condition but just thinking of different things .I would happily hand feed her too if that helps
Otherwise another chat with your vet would be a good idea .

thanks for your ideas, will give them a go, I guess she could feel sick she has just had a small amount of yoghurt. if no interest in food again tomorrow I will speak to the vet again

As an owner of a 15 year old myself who recently had a load of teeth removed, could she have issues and pain with teeth.  Your breed like mine are very stoic, so pain could be an issue, oral or digestive.

Sadly if she starts deteriorating and loosing too much weight it just might be her time.

I agree with Brainless.  I wouldn't necessarily see refusing to eat as a sign of senility - unless everything else has been ruled out first.  In a 15yo staffie, there are loads of other issues which could potentially cause inappetence and rather than just trying to find foods she will eat, I think asking for more tests to be run (at least if they are relatively non-invasive like blood tests, urine tests etc) might be a good idea to see if anything else looks 'off'.

thank you for your reply I took her to the vets yesterday and because of her age they kept her in for fluid therapy, blood tests and an abdominal scan.

blood test  show major organs good, but she is anaemic and they don't know why at the moment. Abdominal scan did not show any tumours, but they say a severe enteritis. She has eaten food from hand feeding and has managed to pull her drip out overnight. They are given her anti sickness/steroids/antibiotic meds. She has been out for a walk and seems bright they are going to keep her in for the day and phone me again at lunchtime. So fingers crossed.

Poor lady . Sounds like u are doing everything u can .it's hard when they get old lots of tlc