My dog is freaking out!

Squirrel

Squirrel

100+ Posts
All of a sudden, she's afraid (it seems) of her food.

- 50 lbs black lab
- had for over 5 years, now
- same food (Pedigree) the whole time
- best I can tell, she's had about 1 complete meal in the last 4 days

She acts scared of her food. I thought maybe there was a mouse or something in the closet, where her bowl is, so I moved it away onto an area where she'd been laying for awhile. Also, tried adding some flavoring, thinking that a change might help.

Any ideas? Getting pretty scary.
 
Thanks.

I know there's better food (taste and health) out there, but that doesn't explain her reaction, all of a sudden, after 5 years.

We've tried the enticing part. She'll eat just about anything else we throw at her, but I'm not about to start 'spoiling' her with expensive/more human food. She needs to eat the dog food we give her out of her bowl.
 
Something like that happened to our dog once so we took him to the vet. Poor little guy was sick and could not smell his food so he was a little freaky.

But if your pooch has had only one good meal in four days you need to take her to the vet. She may not tell you,but she has to be feeling miserable.
 
Agreed on the vet. if that doesn't explain/fix the problemt, try using a different bowl. I once had a dog that was afraid of a particular bowl. It was downright odd.
 
Does your dog eat rawhide. That stuff is evil and not a great treat, there is much better. Many dogs, larger ones usually, will get too much and it does not break down well if it is a big chunk. This can get stuck in their body and make them not want to eat as well as back up their stool. Always get the rawhide that is small pieces but pressed so it enters them in tiny chunks.

If not rawhide, it could be a stomach illness. No matter what, this is not normal and your dog should be at the vet first thing tomorrow morning.

I second the crap factor that is food you buy at a grocery store. If you love your dog, get it good food. In addition to the names listed...try Nutro or even moreso, Innova, California.

Either Eukanuba or Iam's is not very good for them either, forget which one so check w/ your vet.
 
I've always fed my dogs Iams which is sold at HEB. It used to be only sold at pet stores and by vets. I noticed a reduction in the amount of poop in the yard which I attribute to the lack of fillers in the food.

I've never heard of either Iams or Science Diet being bad for a dog but I do know I have a 16 year old Lab that has eaten it all her life.
 
you might try putting the dog food directly on the floor. one day, my golden stopped eating just like this. he was scared of the bowl. now i just dump his food straight on the floor and he devours it. been doing it for years now.
 
Pet food in general is disgusting. About 15 years ago, one of the major companies (I forget which) 'fessed up to putting the remains of animals destroyed at shelthers (i.e. unadopted dogs and cats) in their food.


Look at the ingredients.

Here are things to avoid or minimize in pet food:

animal by-products - Here we are talking grounded up organs and **** that can't be used for anything else. Some brands will tout that "chicken" is the top ingredient, but by chicken, they sometimes mean chicken by-products. Most foods will have by-products. The less, the better.

ash - Ash from cooked meat is included in pet food. Cheap foods have a lot of ash. There isn't nutritional value in it. All dry pet foods will have ash. The less, the better.

corn/rice/wheat/oats - it's not unhealthy and all food will have some of this stuff, but food with more corn is cheaper to make and is less healthy for your pet. Stay away from food that has one of these as the top ingredient.


HEB does not sell good pet food. Science Diet and Iams don't qualify as good pet food.

Oh, and one thought on the dog.

Any number of things can cause your dog to stop eating like that. If he's not acting sick but just seems scared to eat, it's possible that the dog is healthy, but something traumatic happened. Perhaps ants got into his food and they stung the **** out of his mouth and he's just scared to eat because of that.
 
Off topic, but does anyone have an opinion of Eukaneba(sp.) dog food? We just started feeding our 1 yr. old Scotty that stuff. I don't know much about it other than you can only buy it at PetsMart and it's a little pricey. I figure it is quality stuff?
 
Thanks for all of the responses.

1) Again... I understand that there may be healthier/better brands of dog food out there - this does NOT explain the sudden/abrupt change

2) I'm not taking the dog to the vet - this is a psycological problem, not a medical one (more than likely). A vet's experience in this matter would be no better than a the various experiences by other dog owners (that's why I came here)

3) Nacho got it - she IS scared of the bowl - ******* weird - she ate every last morsel of food out of my hand that I just grabbed from the bowl.

corollary to 2) the experiences by many owners I find to be far more valuable than the knowledge of 1 specific vet, since the many owner's experiences/advice will likely be the result of input/diagnosis from many vets!
 
here's the deal on science diet (at least from what i've been told by someone in the know):

science diet is NOT a good dog food. the reason so many vets sell it and recommend it is because when they're in vet school, science diet strikes a deal with them where science diet pays for some if not all of their schooling, and in exchange the student agrees to carry and recommend science diet once they have their own practice.

pretty crappy and sneaky, considering your dog's the victim in all of this.
 
I've heard the exact same thing on Science Diet from a Dog Trainer we recently started using. She suggested Natural Balance or Wellness, which we started using a few weeks ago.

We've noticed considerable changes in our dogs behavior in a positive way. They are not nearly as crazy or hyper, and their breath is a million times better. It took them awhile to get used to the change, which I understand to be fairly dramatic, even coming off a supposedly good food in Eukanuba.

Say what you want about saving time or money by buying food at HEB, but we have way too much invested in our dogs emotionally to not give them the best nutrition possible.

On an unrelated note, I wonder if the poster would come to Hornfans for medical advice for a child instead of a doctor. It strikes me as really odd to forsake a trained professionals opinion in favor of a bunch of strangers that might have some experience in what you are dealing with. To each their own I guess.
 
try putting the good food in the old bowl and see if she eats it?
biggrin.gif
 
diamond is very good quality food, can be bought at Tomlinson's in austin, and is *less* than science diet. My dog is doing a lot better on it than he did anything by purina, science diet, or nutro. Not to mention you can buy it at Costco rebranded as Kirkland's for even less. I'm not saying its the #1 alltime best food evar!! but its up there with the top foods, and is popular with larger dogs for its high protein content and good quality.
 
Diamond foods have by-products as the main ingredient and corn as the secondary ingredient. Diamond is no different than the stuff you can buy at HEB.

Nutro Natural choice contains no by-products - or at least that's what they claim.
 
Anyhow, please let us know what happens, when things are normal again and what the solution is. Also let us know what food you begin to go with, lol.
 
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