Food along with medication..help please

Hey, everyone. I just ot back from the vet, and (yikes) they found a parasite. Get this though, they didn't even know what is was! Freaky, huh. Anyways, they successfully removed it and gave me some antibiotics to help keep any other parasites from infesting him. All I really need to know is how can I get him to eat food before I give him his medicine? He won't eat the dry food, and we have no "wet" food available. Is there any human food safe to give him that he'll eat?

 

Bread and meat? Or somthing else?

I was thinking maybe some bread and some turkey. Does that sound okay? I'll double check to see if we have canned food..lol

 

Or maybe you can just moisten a little dry food to make it mushy. A little turkey would be fine but it may cause a little digestive upset.

 

parasite and food question

Your a bit vague with this, was it an intestinal parasite? skin parasite? what is the name of the antibiotics? Does the dog have to have the antibiotic after eating? I never like recommending a change in diet and definitely try to stay away from human food, if you could be a little more specific I'll help if I can. In the meantime it wouldnt hurt to add some warm water to your dogs dry food, let it soak in a bit to make the food softer, the warm water usually makes it smell better so they are more likely to eat it.

 

Ok, thanks, I'll try that!

 

Re: parasite and food question

Sorry, vague because I don't really know what it was. The vet didn't either, so we never found out. Sorry! I can tell you though, it was on his neck..if that helps any...
The medication to ease pain is Rimadyl, and the antibiotic is Clavamox...

 

When you say it was on his neck, do you mean on the surface of his skin? Or had it borrowed into his flesh? Do you know what it looked like? I have an idea of what it may have been, but need more info on what it looked like.

As for getting him to eat, you can add warm water or broth to his regular diet. You could also feed him some cooked chicken or turkey with rice. Mix a small amount of that with his regular food, and serve it warm.

As for human food, most foods that are good food for humans are also fine for dogs. Avoid chocolate, onions and grapes, as these all contain substances that are toxic to dogs. Avoid sugars; they provide needless calories and can lead to diarrhea and gas, among other problems. As with humans, the closer a food is to nature, the better it is, so avoid highly refined foods.

I personally won't feed my dogs raw meats for the same reason I won't eat them myself. Raw vegetables must be ground or crushed if you want to get the nutritional value from them. Feeding whole raw vegetables as low calorie treats is fine, just remember the dog isn't getting the full nutritional value from them.

 

Are you thinking Cuterebra?

 

Nern! There was no need for that! :lol:

I'd say along with a few others that a little chicken and rice is the way to get him to eat. I do Floob some every time his belly's off and he can't resist. It's always stayed down and never given him the runs. I have to say that his food is pure chicken and brown rice dried food tho, so he's used to it (of sorts)

 

meds and feeing problems

Thats a creepy looking bug, worse than a maggott :shock:

I would just stick with the dogs regular food and try the warm water or as someone else said warmed chicken broth. As for human food unless its something like just a small piece of hotdog (take the skin off as this can wrap itself around the pill in the stomach and prevent the meds from doing the job properly, or a piece of cheese or cream cheese works well as the pill will stick to it, I wouldnt give a bowl full of human food though, if the dog isnt used to diet changes too much human food can lead to pancreatitis. Personally I would sooner hand feed and use a lot of encouragement to get the dog to eat its regular food than switch diet if possible, sometimes you have to adapt though as you dont want the dog to starve.

Most antibiotics have the potential to cause stomach upset and loss of appetite.

 

I give my dogs scrambled eggs if they are off there food and they seem to love it, My youngest Shepherd when she is having an off day will only eat chicken or tuna.
Tuna in oil is best as this also adds oils to the dogs fur and skin and helps protect it.

Also my vet told me i could feed them cornflakes aslong as i watered the milk down or used a milk like lactol or whelpi to cover them my dogs love those too and i usually give my oldest Sire those when he needs to take his wormers as he will not take a pill at so i make his cornflakes and when he is almost finished i drop the pill into the rest of it and he eats it without even knowing hehehehe.
Good luck and hope you can get him eating so he can take his pills.

OMG Nerm that is the ugliest bug it looks lik lavae grose glad my dogs have not had anything like that they only thing they have evver had and it was only 1dog was a sheep tick thing and when vet took it off i was nearly sick i do not like bugs and creatures like that yuk yuk.

Mike

 

Nerm, that's exactly what I'm thinking. Nasty looking critter, isn't it?

DeLa, cutarebras are maggots. They're just really BIG maggots. We see them most often on rabbits, but sometimes dogs and cats get them too. I've even seen them on a couple of horses. Once the cutarebra is removed, the hole usually closes up and heals without incident.

I don't agree that feeding some human grade food along with the regular diet leads to pancreatitis unless it's highly spiced or too high in fat. Boiled chicken and brown rice is neither. Vegetables like carrots, green beans and pumpkin are low fat too, and most dogs enjoy them. Pumpkin has the additional benefit of helping the anal glands to express naturally when the dog has a bowel movement.

One thing I forgot; when giving antibiotics it's a good idea to add some probiotics or a tablespoon of low fat yogurt with active cultures to the dogs food. The antibiotics kill off the good bacteria in the intestinal tract as well as the bad bacteria in the wound. One of my dogs develops a urinary tract infection everytime she gets antibiotics if I don't give her some yogurt for a while.

 

I'll have to remember to not eat breakfast while reading posts. Due to my new found association, I think I'm off buttered toast forever!

 

Mixing a small amount of human food in his food to make it taste better is usually not a problem. I have a Great Dane pup who is seven months old now, and eats well, but when he was younger, he was very picky and didn't much care if he ate or not. I'd mix a small amount of cottage cheese, cream cheese, vegetable beef soup, or gravy in his dry food. Read: SMALL amount. I tried just about everything with him, even peanut butter, and this worked pretty well. Every dog is different, and what one will find yummy, another will turn his nose up at. So experiment with several kinds of foods. Satin Balls works especially well, and not many dogs will turn away from them. If he gets diarrhea, you'll know you gave him too much. Eventually you'll find out what makes him start drooling! My Great Dane, by the way, now weighs 130 lbs at seven months, so he's gonna be a big, big boy!

 

Food along with meds

My apologies shineillusion for my sarcastic comment, I know what maggotts look like, I will admit that Im not too familiar with finding lone maggotts as they usually come in batches, maybe it depends which area one resides in. As for the human food, I always air on the side of caution, I have seen and treated dogs that have 'occasionally' been on...even a bland human diet...that have come down with pancreatitis to some degree, it doesnt happen in most cases but as the dog in questions history was not discussed and as no one on these boards has professionally examined the dog is it not more beneficial to the dog and owner to keep the advice as simple as possible, we dont know if the dog has food allergies therefore I dont think that I was giving bad advice when I suggested trying a slight variant with the dogs regular diet before trying a complete change in diet bland or otherwise. I think when people post a question on the board they are looking for different opinions and will then make up their own mind, just because 'you' may not agree with someones opinion doesnt mean that its wrong.
As for the parasite, going by the information given I was thinking it was a tick.

 

DeLa, I also appologize if you thought I was suggesting you are wrong. We all base our opinions on our personal observations and experiences, and where opinion is concerned, no one is ever right or wrong. We just differ in our experiences.

Most maggots do occur in groups. Sometimes HUGE groups. Cutarebras aren't your normal, run of the mill maggots. They're the larvae of one particular type of bot fly...not the bot flys that lay those little yellow eggs on horses.

The larvae of this type of fly get's huge. The size of your thumb. They usually occur on young rabbits, but like I said, they can be found once in a while on dogs, cats, and other animals. Even humans.

The reason I was thinking cutarebra instead of tick is because ticks are pretty common, and I'd hope that a vet would reccognize a tick, even an unusual species of tick, whereas cutarebras are less common, and some vets in some areas may not have run across one before, and be stumped as to what it is.