# Finicky eater days after being stressed?



## IzzyNY202 (Jun 28, 2011)

Hello all,

My little one-year-old furbaby has a weird eating issue, and I was wondering if any of you had ever seen this before.

Simba is, generally speaking, a very good eater. We feed him twice a day, and he normally scarfs down both breakfast and dinner in 90 seconds or less. But I would say since about January or February, my husband and I have noticed something a bit peculiar. Whenever Simba is in a stressful or exciting situation, be it a trip to the vet, a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house, or even if we just have company over, he'll eat fine that day....but then about 1-2 days later, he starts to get finicky with his food. This usually lasts for about 4-7 days, and then his appetite magically returns. During these spells, he's usually worse with breakfast -- if he eats even most of it, we're happy. For dinner, he normally eats the whole thing, but even then it's not with his usual gusto; he'll take a few bites, then walk away, then come back and take a few more, etc. This past Saturday we took him to the groomer's, and sure enough, yesterday he didn't finish his breakfast, then he had to be coaxed to finish his dinner (which he did eventually), and this morning he barely took two bites out of his food.

I should note that, even during these spells, he acts 100% like his normal, playful self (knock on wood). He chews his toys, barks for my husband to play Fetch with him, and LOVES to go out for walks. There is no vomiting or diarrhea, he hasn't lost any weight and is not bloated, and he doesn't appear to be in any pain. We have tossed around the possibility that maybe he's slowly getting tired of his food -- we've been feeding him the same flavor of Blue since the Fall -- so we're going to try another flavor to see if that helps. He also has a vet appointment this Friday (annual check-up), so I'll definitely talk to the vet about it then. She does know about the issue and has mentioned the possibility that it might be Addison's, though she doubts it since he's not at all lethargic. But in any case, I was wondering if any of you have had experience with this sort of thing.


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## wilfiboy (Sep 18, 2010)

Wilf was always a finicky eater but never noticed that there was a pattern to it although there could have been and I missed it. The cure was getting a puppy


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## IzzyNY202 (Jun 28, 2011)

Haha as much as my husband would love that, I don't think we can afford that cure!


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## Dylansmum (Oct 29, 2010)

The only time Dylan has ever stopped eating well was after he went to a friend's house for the day and ate some of her dog's food. That gave him diarrhoea and he went off food for about 4 days, eating very reluctantly. But diarrhoea is not an issue in your case. Maybe the stress is upsetting his stomach but not enough for visible symptoms? Or is it possible that it's just a coincidence and he's just not keen on his food anymore? It's probably worth a food change anyway and see what happens. Sorry can't be any more help.


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## weez74 (Feb 9, 2011)

Hi, Rosie is 6 months old and got spayed last week. She had a very upset tummy after it, but that is par for the course with Rosie. What was new though, was that she didn't show much interest in her food until a couple of days ago. I presumed it was just the after effects of the operation, but it might be the stress thing too. The vet said that the stress of the operation is extended because of the use of the collar to stop her getting at her stitches. We only put her in her collar at night and we gave her some of her food in her Kong toy, like we normally do at bedtime, and she was completely uninterested. I put that down to the fact that she was not used to the collar and couldn't work out how to get the food, but maybe it was the stress of the collar. 

She didn't wear her collar last night and she gobbled down her breakfast like normal this morning. 

I think it is a normal thing (don't we all have some sort of food issue when stressed?!) and I'd certainly be wary of letting your vet diagnose an illness on the basis of it, when Simba has no other symptoms. If you trawl through this site, you'll see lots of instances of fussy eaters (try the BARF thread - lots of people switched to a BARF diet because their dogs just weren't interested in food).

I hope Simba gets back to his usual self soon enough!

Louise


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## IzzyNY202 (Jun 28, 2011)

Thanks, everyone! Last night after work, I bought the lamb flavor of Blue (he had been eating the chicken flavor since the Fall). When I got home, my husband told me Simba once again picked at his dinner but didn't eat it all. He emptied out what was left from the bowl, and I put in a small helping of the lamb flavor. Sure enough, he demolished it! And this morning at breakfast, the same thing -- that new food didn't stand a chance. So, at least in the preliminary stages, it looks like he was just getting tired of the flavor and wanted something new in his life lol. I can't say I blame him -- I'd get sick of chicken, too, if I ate it for breakfast and dinner every day. Of course, we now have a 16 lb bag of Chicken Blue taking up space in our closet lol, but whatever -- at least he appears to be eating again. Hopefully this keeps up!

Oh, and Helen -- what happened to Dylan also happened to Simba when he was just a little puppy. We brought him over to my parents' house -- they have an adult Maltese -- and Simba got into his food. Forget it -- to this day I've never seen him as sick as he was from eating that. It took a couple of weeks before his system fully returned to normal.


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## weez74 (Feb 9, 2011)

Oh good, I'm glad your plan worked! There is a post on here somewhere from Enneirda which contained a link to some report that showed how good it was to mix up your dog's diet regularly. If you can find that, I'm sure it will back up what you've found (and might even tell you to keep hold of that chicken flavour and feed it to him again in a couple of months!)


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## IzzyNY202 (Jun 28, 2011)

Hi everyone,

I have another update, but this time it's not a good one =( Simba ate his dinner with no problem last night, but when my husband took him out for his nightly walk, he acted completely strange. Normally he loves his walks, but last night he seemed petrified to go outside. He was literally scratching and clawing at the pavement to get back to the house. My husband didn't think anything of it, as the sprinklers were on in our development and Simba is easily spooked, so he just figured he was scared of the sprinklers and that was that. 

But this morning, when my husband took Simba out before breakfast, he acted the same way -- scratching at the pavement, desperate to get back to the house. When he finally did poop (as he usually does first thing in the morning), my husband said he was shaking like a leaf the whole time, staring at the house. Afterwards, my husband took Simba back inside and gave him his breakfast. Instead of devouring it like he did yesterday morning, he refused to even go near his bowl and instead ran upstairs. Eventually I did get him to eat it by taking the bowl away from its usual spot by the kitchen window and placing it next to him. But this is now beyond strange.

Simba has a vet appointment in about 45 minutes. We'll see what they say =/


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## Dylansmum (Oct 29, 2010)

Very strange. Hope everything's ok - let us know what the vet says x


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## weez74 (Feb 9, 2011)

Oh dear, the poor little man. I hope the vet works out what is wrong.


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## MichelleE (Apr 2, 2011)

Really strange....Hope he is ok. Keep us posted.


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## IzzyNY202 (Jun 28, 2011)

Hello all,

Just got some pretty disheartening news from the vet. Simba's bloodwork results from yesterday are in. Everything is normal (including his thyroid levels which pretty much rules out Addison's)....everything, that is, except his liver enzyme levels. The two stats that concerned the doctor were his ALT and AST numbers -- the other liver stats (albumen, urine concentration) were fine. But his ALT is at 112 (normal is 5-107) and his AST is at a whopping 158 (normal is 5-55). This is a stark contrast to his numbers from his pre-neutering bloodwork, in which everything was 100% normal.

The doctor seems to feel that, given his age and the fact that the other liver-related levels were fine, it's probably not liver cancer or pancreatitis. She thinks the greater probability is that it's either the result of something mildly toxic that he ate, which could have been a mushroom outside or even licking the spray bottle of a household cleaner, or inflammation of the GI tract or the liver itself. She also said it could be a liver shunt, but she thinks the other two possibilities are more likely. In any case, she is giving me a liver supplement for him, and I am to bring him back in about 2-3 weeks for a follow-up blood test. If the numbers go down, nothing to worry about. If they stay the same or go up, then it's time to schedule an imaging test.

I just can't believe this. This was the LAST thing I expected to hear today. My poor baby is not even a year and a half!


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## Cockapoodledoo (Feb 8, 2011)

Poor little boy! It does prove a point that any change in behaviour is worth checking out. Well done for getting him along to the vets. I'm sure the next three weeks is going to drag big time for you but lets hope by then his blood levels will be normal and it is put down to eating something he shouldn't have!

Do keep us posted and hope your little boy feels better soon.:hug:

Karen and Rufus


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## Dylansmum (Oct 29, 2010)

It's so horrible when there's something wrong with our babies. Let's hope that it's just a temporary blip and he's back to normal soon. Did the vet think that the liver problem would explain his strange behaviour?
Hugs from me and Dylan :hug:


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## Sarette (Mar 21, 2011)

Sorry to hear the news you received wasn't what you were expecting. I hope the next 2 weeks or so go well, and that his next check up bears good news. xx


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## weez74 (Feb 9, 2011)

Oh, poor boy! Let us know how things develop. Fingers crossed it is only a blip.


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## Wizbus (Feb 26, 2011)

Oh no, what a worry for you. Hope everything goes well with the blood tests in a few weeks. Keep us posted. x


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## ali-s.j. (Jun 6, 2011)

Hope Simba gets well soon x


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