Antibiotics = loss of appetite

[Donna Warmer]

Our sweet Ziska has a UTI and is on Chloramphenicol - Viceton 500 mg, 2 tabs every 8 hours for 10 days. We are on the 2nd day of med and she will not eat her normal kibble that is incubated with enzymes. Last night we got her to eat a very small amount of canned food with enzymes incubated on it. She weighs about 55 lbs is and is a petite German Shepherd Dog. She only weighed 30 lbs when we decided to foster her after our Onza passed away. Ziska is estimated to be 10-11 or so years old. She loves every dog, cat, and human that moves. She currently has DM and cannot walk at all on her back legs. We assist her with a Help-em-Up Harness and she goes on short walks and plays a little bit outside with her big 2 y/o brother German Shepherd Dog, Hanzel. Anyway, if anyone has any tips on getting food 'down the hatch', we'd appreciate your advice!

[jilbert57]

Hi Donna, thank you for rescuing your pup. Here are the side effects of the antibiotic you are using. If the appetite doesn't increase I might ask the vet to change antibiotics.:

"Vomiting, diarrhea, and anorexia (a decreased appetite) are quite common side effects. With prolonged treatment, bone marrow function can be affected. Chloramphenicol should be used with caution or avoided in animals with blood disorders, such as anemia.
VCA Animal Hospitals › chloramph...
Chloramphenicol | VCA Animal Hospital"

You can try stinkey toppers like tuna water, parmesan cheese, etc.

Jill

[Olesia711]

Hi Donna,

So sorry you are going thru this with Ziska and hopefully these drugs can FINALLY knock out this persistent UTI..... i know Izzy had one about 2 years ago and we had to treat it 3 times before we finally got rid of it. Those UTIs can be nasty!

Were you able to try putting the powdered enzymes in a capsule to see if she didn't taste any enzymes at all, if that would help her eat a little better?
Call me today if you can with an update on possible CREON, if need be.

The other thing you might want to do, if the vet prefers not to change the antibiotics like Jill suggested ....which, if her inappetence goes on for too long, may be necessary... thanks Jill for a great suggestion... and for looking up the side effects!!!! Is try giving her just 1/2 the amount of food you normally do in one sitting..... sometimes when they don't want to eat, but if you offer much less food, (i am not sure what really goes thru their minds) but sometimes then they want to eat it...maybe concerned that they may not get anymore???!!!! anyway, worth trying.

Also....with Lulu (my non-EPI dog) we used to have trouble with her not wanting to eat...... turns out (in addition to low B12) she was picking up on my frustration/angst at meal times cause i was so concerned with her not eating. My old timey vet (at that time) told me to laugh and sing to her when feeding her so that she wouldn't sense my frustration.... and sure enough..... that helped!!! Just saying............

[Olesia711]

P.S. Just a FYI..... Ziska was featured in the Epi4Dogs Seminar that was presented to veterinarians in the Nashville TN area a few years ago.

Check out the 2nd presentation "Olesia C. Kennedy “EPI from the Pet Owner’s Perspective and observed EPI patterns”" on this page: https://epi4dogs.com/epi-seminar/

[Jean]

the one thing I found was feeding from your hand, the food is slightly warmed, by doing this and it worked for me when my Kara was struggling with food, you could try pan frying some liver, add some garlic . all of mine would kill for it !

[Barb]

Donna, thank you so much for taking Ziska into your home and your loving care. She has conditions that would scare many people away and it is so wonderful of you to do this for her.

I was going to suggest what Jean suggested.....hand feeding. Our Bridge German Shepherd, Kolby, (with EPI) had a lot of appetite issues over the years and he usually always responded to hand feeding. The other thing that really worked for Kolby was canned food, which I am sorry to say we didn't discover until the last 6 months he was with us. We always hesitated to try new things because his stools would always go south with change, but we decided to try the canned food and he loved it! I am so glad he had 6 months of really enjoying his food.

I hope you find the "key" to helping Ziska enjoy her food. I know how stressful it is when they won't eat.

Barb

[Donna Warmer]

Thank you all for your responses and helpful information. UTI is an on-going issue with Ziska and even if we are able to clear it up, a new infection occurs within several months due to her bladder being so elongated. With her last UTI, after intolerance of 2 antibiotics, we had to administer injections twice daily for 6 weeks, which was critical to mix and inject correctly (needless to say ridiculously expensive).

We've tried several different food options and this is what's working right now .... In order to get food in her at pill-time (3 times per day), we give her 5 to 6 (a 'hand-full' of food per vet) chicken & apple 'sausage bites' (shaped and size of a sausage pattie). She loves them and so far = so good epi-wise. Also we have temporarily switched to canned Science Diet I/D "Stew" and incubate enzymes on it, and she has been eating it well. Even with EPI, her system is very, very tolerant of food/snacks ... even if they are not grain free... for the course of antibiotics. Hand-feeding does work sometimes for us. We'll try the laughter and joy -- great idea. Maybe not sing - she may freak out and think things are REALLY bad! haha !

Olesia, Thank you for including the link to the EPI seminar. We will watch it. Again, thank you all for your continuing support and love of all epi pups!

[Jean]

to be honest we were able to give treats and anything else to Kara for the last 3 years of her life, but she had to have grain free

But that is only one dog

and thats the rule

IF YOU KNOW ONE EPI DOG, YOU KNOW ONE


Jean