Elderly greyhound not eating

[lurcherlou]

We've got a 12 year old greyhound, Josh, who has always been a picky eater and we've tried many foods - wainwrights, james wellbeloved etc etc , all of which he thinks are wonderful for a few weeks and then he stops eating them.
He has had many upset tummies / runny poos and has freqently been back to the vets for antibiotics etc, now he is on Purina HA hypoallergenic canine dried food as a last resort (recommended by the vets) this cleared up the runny poos, upset tummy BUT he has decided he nolonger wants to eat it ! I tried mixing it with the james wellbeloved grain free soft food - yummy yummy but when we went away for a fortnight and he went into his favourite kennels he stopped eating completely for 4 days = vets visit, antibiotics, tray of ID hills prescription diet (which he apparently wolved down)and a worried kennels owner. We collected him this morning - looking very skinny - and I'm at my wits end as to what to feed him that won't lead to upset tummy and runny poo and that he might actually eat ? Its costing me a fortune with these half eaten bags of expensive food. Does anyone have any suggestions ? I'm trying to keep him grain free as wheat etc definitely aggrevate his digestive system.

[Ted]

Some Greyhounds do not like Kibble. None of my four Hounds, nor my three previous Hounds like kibble as their meals. So I feed all of mine Naturediet Chicken or Chicken and Lamb, which I buy from Berriewood. If you order four boxes the cost is £12.99 per box of 18 cartons and free next working day delivery by DPD who give you the hour's delivery time slot. If you want to try Naturediet you can buy single cartons from Pets at Home, I think they charge around £1 per carton which runs at £18 per box of 18 cartons, obviously a lot more expensive than via Berriewood. You can find Berriewood online and you pay via PayPal or you can phone them Mondays to Fridays between 9am and 5pm. If you buy it online then it is 24 hours every day, but they pick up the order when they come in on the next working day.

Some times one or more of my present four Hounds will not eat their meal unless I hold their food dish for them - spoilt Hounds.

Your elderly Hound may have a tooth problem, best to have your vet to check your Hound out. However please ensure that if your vet decides to inject your Hound with a pain killer that they must not use Vetagestic. Vetagestic is one of those pain killers that are released slowly. However it goes into the dog's body fat which Greyhounds do not have meaning that in Hounds like Greyhounds with very little body fat compared with other dog breeds, this means Vetagestic is released all at once. I have had three hounds who have had extremely bad reaction to this drug. My first one appeared as if he was having a Heroin overdose reaction, we had to pull close all the curtains, only have light from a candle and no TV or radio. My second one had a very bad reaction to a vaccination booster made worse because the vet then decided to inject him with Vetagestic, it took at least 24 hours for this drug to get out of both of these Hounds system. My third Vetagestic reaction occurred when Kelly (Greyhound) had been spayed and given Vetagestic, she screamed loudly all the way home some 15 miles and then the next 24 hours. Kelly was also given Vetagestic when a locum vet repaired a bad cut on her body, he did not read her vets notes which stated that she should not be given Vetagestic, written in her notes by my vet. Again she screamed all the way home, this time less than a mile, but again it took 24 hours for her to recover from this injection.

[lilypie]

My old boy became very picky but also had very sensitive tum and we tried zillions of kibbles over the years. I found Sues (Andywillow) recipe for dog meat loaf mixed in with kibble (or on its own) was always wolfed down. Cheap mince, egg or 2, glug of oil and cup of oats mixed together and baked, made it regularly to try and keep his weight up. Good luck its so worrying.