Advice for Feeding a Sick Pug, Please

Hi friends. I'm in need of your wise counsel again. I haven't wanted to talk a lot about this, but Millie has been very sick for a couple of weeks. Here's the shortest version I can tell... She was diagnosed with the early stages of kidney failure in January. Then (unrelated) she had a dental during which almost all of her teeth were removed. The trouble started when we tried to switch her food to a kidney treatment food. She loved the new food, and I may have made the switch too quickly. It seemed so easy. Well, she got a terribly upset stomach with diarrhea and vomiting. In the middle of that, she got an infection in her mouth at the site of one of the tooth extractions. That infection caused a lot of swelling in her face, which caused an infected sore in her nose roll. Then, of course, she became dehydrated. So she had to spend a couple of days in the hospital last week so that she could be hydrated and have both the infection and the stomach issues treated simultaneously.

That brings us up to date. The stomach issues are resolved. The infection in her mouth and on her face is very slowly getting better. The swelling is going down a bit. But now she doesn't want to eat anything...except chicken. I have tried all kinds of canned and dry food, green beans, baby food, cheap fatty puppy food...you name it. She only wants chicken. So here's my question. The doctor says that Millie is playing me for a fool and that I should give her some chicken and some dog food and just wait her out until she decides to eat the dog food. I find that so hard to do when I know she is sick and hungry, so I end up giving her more chicken. What should I do? Should I just give her a little chicken and keep putting down the dog food and then throwing it away after it gets nasty? I really hate this.

Sorry this is so long. We're in a fix.

Well, crap, Michael. You've both been having a hard go of it. She may be playing you for a fool, but she's got some good reasons to given what's been happening to her. I can tough love a dog around food for a bit--but it's hard to do and you have to feel okay about doing it. There's nothing inherently wrong with her eating chicken,except it's not total nutrition.

Can you mush the chicken into canned food for a bit and decrease the amount of chicken? Will she drink chicken broth--you could flood her food with chicken stock and see how it goes. I have a hard time with a sick dog telling if I'm being played or if they really are just completely freaked out and now associate the food with the illness--which can happen.

Have you tried some rice pablum? I can usually get a dog to eat that with some chicken or canned chicken baby food and then gradually add in her kidney diet stuff.

Canned tripe. Full of nutrients and rather stinky, but i use it on the sick/scared/stressed dogs at the humane society all the time no problem when they're not eating.

I like the Tripett brand but Before Grain by Merricks and Solid Gold also has tripe.

It sounds like it's been a rough month for you and Millie. I'm sorry to hear it.

So is the goal to get her to eat the kidney treatment food? Is is it kibble or canned? I feed The Jones Boys kibble with a couple spoonfuls of ground turkey/rice/peas/carrots. I make it in a large batch and freeze them in weekly sized portions. Then I just add a couple of spoonfuls on top of their kibble. They think it's a super, special treat. Would something like that work for Millie? Make a batch of that and add it to her kidney food? Just be sure that none of those ingredients are bad for her. I use the 93/7 lean ground turkey. There's virtually no grease and I rinse in hot water after cooking before adding the rice/veggies.

I am so sorry to hear this. No fun at all. Poor Miss Millie, and poor you.

I recently went through a battle of the wills on a food strike with my foster. He had just been surrendered, and two days later we put him under for a lump removal and a deep clean of sores (allergy related) covering his face and random parts of his body. He went two weeks without eating hardly a thing. It worried me.., but I knew I needed to wait him out.

He did eat the baby food, just the chicken or turkey stage 1 baby food.

He now happily eats (mostly) his kibble, which I water down and top with a generous scoop of Wellness 95% turkey or chicken. He will not touch it if I do not add that canned chicken.

I'm not sure the dietary limitations for kidney failure... so I would not want to encourage you to give her something she doesn't like, but since she likes the chicken so much, maybe try the Wellness 95%. And, very slowly add kibble. It helped when I hand fed (let him eat from a spoon). I would do two bites of pure meat, then one with a few pieces of kibble, then more meat.

Bugger, Michael. My response to being played like a fool in cases like this is "so what?". Let her play you like a violin if she needs to.

But on to the subject of nutrition. I can only relate back to when my darling old LouLou was sick that Christmas I thought it was the end. Her menu was limited to chicken too, but as she began to feel better once the infection was on the run, her menu increased. It may be the same way with sweet Millie. Keep persevering with a wider selection and give it time. You've been given some other great advice here and I am pretty certain our Millie will start to want to expand her diet soon.

A ton of love and hugs to you both. You and your precious Millie are very special to so many of us.

I'm really sorry for what you're both going through. Personally I wouldn't be too concerned about feeding only chicken for a while. There are worse things (and most dog owners serve them!). She will eventually come round. Have you tried chunks of raw meat? Whatever you serve, make sure you add lots of water to help her kidney function. Hugs.

Aussie Witch wrote:
A ton of love and hugs to you both. You and your precious Millie are very special to so many of us.

No advice, but I do want to echo what Rona said.

I'm with everyone else on this one. Big deal if she plays you for a fool. It sounds like both of you have been through enough these last few weeks, let her have her chicken for a bit longer and see if she eats more as time goes by. Poor baby! I hope she's through the worse.

Rebecca and the Pugs wrote:

Aussie Witch wrote:
A ton of love and hugs to you both. You and your precious Millie are very special to so many of us.

No advice, but I do want to echo what Rona said.

No help from me either but I wanted to heartfully echo their sentiments.

Buffy is having the same problems. She does hate her KD tho & as she is so old, the vet said to go along with her & try to get her to eat some other food mixed with the KD. Mac/cheese, other pasta, low protein meat (I haven't figured that one out yet), even gravy. I mix some of this good stuff with her KD and she will slowly and reluctantly eat it. I also add water to the kibble & heat it in the microwave for 30 seconds. She is also getting chicken. She acts so much better now than when she was refusing the KD, both canned and kibble. Good luck!

Thanks very much, everybody, for the advice and for the cyber-hug. It has been a rough month for us. I will certainly try the things you all have suggested. I'll keep you posted.

PS... The goal is to get her to eat the kidney dog food eventually, but I will not do it if it causes too much anxiety. As I told the doctor...When it's Millie's time to check out from this life, I want her to go with her dignity intact, her tummy full, and her tail curled.

The reason the vets are anti-meat for failing kidneys is because they think protein is too hard on kidneys. But current research has found that it is not protein itself that is the problem but the quality of the protein. Things like meats filled with sodium (ham, processed meats) would be awful. Plain meat (chunks of beef, turkey etc.) would be fine. I would also stay away from canned or salt-water fish because of the salt content. I would not be feeding pasta and Mac/cheese.

Just want to say I'm sending good thoughts for you and Millie.

I don't have anything to add to the wonderful advice that you've already been given. Just wanted to say that I'm sorry that you & Millie have had such a rough time and I hope that she's feeling better soon.

Sending best wishes to you and the lovely Millie.

I personally would keep giving in to the chicken. However I would also try mashing up a little of the kidney food with some warm water to make a thick warm goopy "sauce" and try mixing chunks of chicken with that to see if she will take them. If you can get her more accepting of the taste of the kidney food then you can probably work on the texture (if you want to) and ratio of kidney food to chicken later on.

Here's a couple articles on protein and the kidney/kidney disease:

http://tailblazerspets.com/tailblazers_articles4.html

http://animalwellnessmagazine.com/art/aV65_58.htm

Mandy: On behalf of Buffy, I thank you for those articles. My vet told me to give her chicken skin too which I never thought I should do (don't want pancreatis) but the last article you listed has it as good. I will get some canned tripe whenever we can get out of our town (roads are snowed in & we can't even get out of our driveway). The squash and sweet potatoes sound good too. Buffy just turned up her nose at the plain KD but now I heat it with hot water and add all this stuff, she's eating like she hasn't eaten in days. I sure hope Millie will do the same. They may be old but they're not down yet.

Very interesting articles. And we will have Buffy as our inspiration!

Michael, just adding my hugs & well wishes for Miss Millie. I hope she's back to usual VERY soon!