What to do if your dog is anorexic? Don’t panic, these methods can solve it

Sep 12,2024
11Min

Method of stopping food

Dogs cannot tolerate hunger but fullness. Starve your dog first and let it stop eating for 24 hours. Drink plenty of water during the fasting period (you can add a small amount of sugar to the water), and your appetite can usually be restored the next day. In order to ensure their strong appetite, they can stop eating one day a week.


Meal time control method

If you don’t want your pet to be interested only in fragrant food, you should let your pet take feed as the only staple food at meals from an early age. During meals, let your dog develop the habit of concentrating on eating. If you don’t finish the meal within thirty minutes, you will put the feed away and wait until the next meal time to provide it; don’t let the dog develop the bad habit of eating when he wants to eat and having to eat later if he doesn’t want to eat. .

In addition, the frequency of meals is recommended: dogs under three months old should eat four small meals a day, dogs between three and eight months old should eat three meals a day, and dogs over eight months old can eat once a day. Two meals a day.


Exercise training method

Strengthen physical exercise and increase the dog’s amount of exercise. After exercise consumes a lot of energy, the dog will feel very hungry and its appetite will naturally come. Generally, small toy dogs only need to prepare more toys at home, and usually make them run and jump to satisfy their exercise requirements.

However, large dogs must exercise outdoors more, especially hound dogs. Their ancestors made a living by hunting and are accustomed to strenuous exercise. Let it run at least 5-10 kilometers every day. Walking the dog is a good way. Running with the dog not only exercises the dog, but also exercises yourself; the dog's appetite increases, and you also get exercise, killing two birds with one stone!

Snack control method

Many parents like to feed their dogs snacks. In fact, puppies eating too many snacks can easily cause picky mouth problems. Especially for small dogs, you need to pay special attention. Giving them snacks is not as good as giving them love! Are snacks necessary? Physicians differ.

Some doctors believe that if the dog's nutrition is sufficient, there is no need to buy extra snacks for the dog. Some doctors believe that appropriate snacks can help build the relationship between the owner and the dog and are harmless.

Based on the advice of professional doctors, parents can pay attention to several principles when choosing dog snacks:

(1). Pay attention to the ingredients and appearance of the snacks, whether there are excessive pigments or additives, and whether there are too bright or unnatural colors in appearance.

(2). It is best not to let your dog develop the habit of eating snacks every day.

(3). The best time to give snacks is after they do something that makes you happy. Let them know that you will reward them for doing certain things, and let them know that you are the one who can decide whether they can reward them with treats.

(4). Excessive snacks may definitely cause dogs to become obese. When dogs and cats begin to lose shape, you must pay attention to whether the snacks should be reduced.Measure it.

(5). When the dog does not eat, do not give it snacks, or replace the meal with snacks.


How to change dog food

Generally speaking, it is not recommended that you feed your dog only one brand of dog food for a long time. Even if your dog likes to eat a certain brand of dog food before, you should occasionally eat it. For a different taste.

There is a saying that even if you eat "delicacies and seafood" every day, you will always get tired of it, and the nutritional content of one kind of dog food is not comprehensive. Changing dog food will help improve this situation. When changing dog food, do not change it suddenly. Sudden change of food can easily lead to anorexia in dogs. It should be changed step by step, for example, once every other day, so that the dog can get used to it, and then it is not too late to switch to new dog food after a week.


Variety of food method

Parents can use food to stimulate the dog's sense of taste to arouse appetite. No matter what the reason is for loss of appetite, they must find ways to constantly change food types to avoid a single food.

The best way to prevent dogs from anorexia is to avoid feeding dogs a single food for a long time. In addition to dog food, you can also occasionally give them some meat, boiled eggs, a small amount of vegetables, a small amount of sweets, milk powder, etc.


Do not mix medicine with food during illness

In addition, when the dog is sick, try not to mix the medicine with food and feed it, but try to give it through intramuscular injection or intravenous infusion to avoid causing the dog's disease. Anorexia in response to medication.


Trace element supplementation method

If the above methods are ineffective, owners should consider whether the dog is deficient in trace elements. It is not ruled out that some dogs are picky eaters due to the lack of certain trace elements in the body. Generally speaking, the most typical symptom of a dog lacking zinc in the body is anorexia and a significant decrease in appetite. Zinc plays a role in regulating it. The role of taste. After zinc deficiency, the sensitivity of taste decreases, and the metabolic rate of oral mucosa is shortened, which greatly affects their appetite.

If this is the case, feed some pet instant calcium vitamins. In addition to a variety of vitamins and calcium, there are also 12 kinds of trace elements. Timely supplement of trace elements can improve gastrointestinal function, increase appetite, and fundamentally Solve the problem of picky and anorexic dogs!


Causes of dog anorexia

1. Physiological anorexia

Generally occurs when dogs change their teeth, are in heat, pregnancy, and before giving birth. Generally, other than anorexia, there will be no other symptoms, such as mental, body temperature, breathing, and urination. It will all be normal. If you are anorexic during the teething period, owners can feed their dogs more semi-liquid food, and give their puppies more pet goat milk powder. You can also buy some pet milk replacer for puppies and cats, which can very well help the dog's tooth development and cure it as soon as possible. The tooth replacement period has passed. Estrus: Due to the increase in hormone secretion, the dog's appetite will decrease and there will be signs of irritability.

This kind of anorexia is relatively easy to solve. As long as you pay attention to hygiene and provide adequate drinking water, you can eat normally after estrus. If you are anorexic during pregnancy or before giving birth, you can feed your dog more easily digestible food, supplement your dog with more nutrients, and buy some calcium powder for it to eat.


2. Parasitic diseases and anorexia

The most common parasites in dogs are ascariasis, and the other is Fasciola hepatica. Both diseases will cause anorexia in dogs at one stage, but Fasciola hepatica often causes hyperphagia and ascites and other symptoms very quickly. Ascariasis, in addition to anorexia, can also cause chronic weight loss. Of course there are other parasitic diseases, so I won’t list them all here.


3. Endocrine disorder anorexia

The situation of transplantation is more complicated. Symptoms usually occur at the same time, and anorexia is only one of them. It is often accompanied by extensive hair loss, pigmentation, nervousness, mental disorder and other symptoms.


4. Other diseasesFood

When the dog suffers from other diseases, such as canine fever, parvovirus, viral enteritis, colds, intestinal dysfunction (intussusception, intussusception, enteritis, peritonitis, etc.), fractures, etc. Anorexia will appear in other diseases.


5. Normal anorexia

Dogs sometimes become anorexic when they are in a low mood or are tired of the taste of certain foods. Normal anorexia will not cause other symptoms except low mood towards food, and the spirit, body temperature, breathing, urination and defecation will be normal.

6. Overeating, indigestion and anorexia

If the dog is anorexic due to overeating, chewing more than it can chew, or indigestion, the owner can give the dog some helpful food. Drugs for digestion. Such as multi-enzyme tablets, gastric enzymes, Qingda and other oral medicines, it is best to buy pet-specific medicines for better results. Feed some pet probiotics to regulate the stomach and intestines, and let the dog fast for 24 to 36 hours.


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