Help! My elderly Irish Setter has lost a lot of weight, he's seen the Vet and except for for muscle wastage and a bad back there's nothing else wrong with him.  Except that he has lost a lot of weight and l'm pulling my hair out trying to get him to eat, what foods can l give him that are high in calories but not wheat based if possible as this makes his poop runny.
Despite Sallysima.

You want to try and get more fat in his diet, ideally.  What's his main diet now?

Thanks for getting back to me.  His weight loss started when we had the heatwave last year, until then he was quite happy eating Harrington's dry kibble until then. Now his main diet is basically whatever l can get him to eat e.g. today he ate 2½ x 400 dog food cans - 1st time in 2 months - that's the most he's eaten since Sunday; l was thinking of getting puppy food, would that upset his stomach though?

He will eat Pedigree kibble various flavours, Harrington's and l'm waiting for a 3kg Royal Canin to arrive; to get him to eat any kibble l usually have to add a sachet of cat food - l know it's not good for him but l'm almost at the end of my tether!  You mentioned "fat" where/how do l get it from?

One desperate dog Mum.

id the vet do any blood tests?

Adding wet food isnt bad for him but dog food would be better than cat food.

Be careful with adding too much fat, it can cause pancreatitis. A small amount can be useful - even a Tbsp or two of salmon oil or some fatty lamb mince

Thanks about the warning on pancreatitis. He wouldn't eat his food this morning but thankfully the Royal Canin turned up and he ate that with no problem; let's hope he'll eat some more.  Ref. lamb mince, were you cook it first; he's seen the vet.

I had a poor eater years ago and Arden Grange Prestige was great for her, it si more nutrient dense than many.  You could top that with some canned food as an appetite improver.

Simpsons (which I now use) do some very good foods which include wet. https://www.simpsonspremium.com/dogs/sensitive

Hi Barbara,  The Royal Canin turned up yesterday and he ate it all up but come the afternoon feed and he turned his nose up and again this morning; that's after l added some rice and gravy, good job l only bought a 3kg bag.  I going to order a small bag from Simpsons and see how that goes.

My downstairs toilet has been renamed the dog food cupboard! :-)  Cross fingers and hopefully l find a food he'll eat before he completely fades away.

Sally

I had a pointer/whippet some years ago who ate the same food for years but then as he got older he turned into a pain with food. By the time he was about 10 yrs I had a GSD happily eating JW every feed and Freckles !!!,

I never bought more than a 2 or 3 Kg bag of anything as he would eat A for Monday supper and Tues lunch but come Tues supper you were trying to poison him! so on to the next, I think 3 meals of the same food was the most but usually 2 max. It was normal to have at least 3 different bags open and keep switching ( He never believed that 'you should always change food slowly over a week or so' )
I didn't add any wet so if he turned up his nose it went back into the bag for another day and we went onto the next.

We used to do a lot of exemption shows and as he got loads of placings he kept himself in food for about 6 months of the year!!!

I also had quite a few 'discussions' with food stands at Crufts, they said he should be on Veteran food at that age- until I pointed out that as he ate about HALF the suggested amount it was surely better to give him high level protein food like the puppy or junior food - oh yes well maybe!
We lost him aged 15 yrs 8 mths so for him at least it worked

Hi there,

He wouldn't eat this morning but it could have been because the food was a bit soggy - l had added some gravy and rice to it  - anyway when l came back late afternoon, l brought with me a "doggie bag" and gave him half just in case l needed some for tomorrow, that mixed with dry biscuit and he ate the lot; probably because he was "starving".

Tomorrow morning he'll get the just dry, l hold back on what l had leftover and either feed that to my other dog or give it to Danny if he turns his nose up at the dry food; wish me luck.

I used to love showing him but that had to all stop 5yrs ago, as l'm unable to drive anymore.

Sally

Does he like vegetables? You could try adding a bit of veg or potato/pasta. It might just tempt him.
I have a fussy dog who would starve herself if left, so I end up hand feeding her sometimes. If she doesn't eat she ends up vomiting bile, so it's necessary unfortunately.

In a kibble fed dog you'd usually look at the oil content of the food to get higher fat/calories, and that could make it more tempting, too.

I'd be looking at the higher end kibbles that have a high meat content as I find many dogs find these more tempting and they often put weight on (so many dogs have to be fed less of them to stop them getting fat), and I'd look at what you could then add to it to make it more palatable - e.g. tinned sardines or mackerel, various wet foods, maybe some cooked mince.

Hi there,  today l gave him his Royal Canin plus a chicken thigh - deboned and diced - and the little darling ate it all up without any delay; hopefully he'll eat his afternoon meal just as well. :-)

Sally (Dannyboy, Kara and Abbie)

l hadn't thouight of veggies or tinned sardines (should l use the oil or tomato sauce ones?) l sent a reply to someone earlier on today mentioning that he'd eaten, lets hope l haven't put the mockers on it for this afternoons meal.
Sally

>should l use the oil or tomato sauce ones?

Vegetable oil would be best but I tend to take the fish out of the oil first and tip surplice oil away. There will be enough oil on the fish without emptying the contents of the tin. Fish in tomato is quite high in salt, so if you want to feed sardines in tomato, tip the tin into a sieve and wash off (most) the tomato. The fish will still retain a tiny bit of the tomato to make it taste.

Thank you Admin, I'll buy the sardines in oil from now; l may add that the dogs don't have sardines as a rule and certainly not, now that l know they have a high salt content.

Sally

Tripe and pasta is a great short term solution for weight gain.

It's the tomato sauce that has the high salt content more than the sardines.

>It's the tomato sauce that has the high salt content more than the sardines.

Thanks tatty-ead, I should have made that clearer!

Whilst thinking of "human" food, l've been feeding Danny cooked chicken - obviously no bones - along with his Royal Canin, we all know dogs - well my dogs anyway :-) - love sausages, would you recommend these?