# how long can a puppy go without food??



## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

so following on from my two other threads  , puppy has been poorly following his worming/flea treatment on Monday he was abit rough Tuesday and Wednesday vomiting all day took him too the vets Wednesday night they gave us a syringe to give him water and some food for him , however the problem is he wont eat ...he hasn't eaten anything since Tuesday afternoon and im getting abit worried , weve tried him with abit of the food the vet gave us but he turned his nose up at it , also tried scrambled egg but he wouldent eat that either ..... have got a chicken cooking for our tea so will try him with that later , 

when should i start to worry , it seems a long time for a puppy to go with out food


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## sopott (Dec 30, 2012)

That seems very long for a pup to go without food. how old is the pup? i would ring the vet, and ask what he thinks, maybe get some glucose to add to the water? sometimes they get so low on energy that eating seems too much bother. if he is not interested in his favourite toy, or game, i would take him to the vet straight away.


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## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

sopott said:


> That seems very long for a pup to go without food. how old is the pup? i would ring the vet, and ask what he thinks, maybe get some glucose to add to the water? sometimes they get so low on energy that eating seems too much bother. if he is not interested in his favourite toy, or game, i would take him to the vet straight away.


he went to the vet last night , they told us to just make sure he's drinking (which he is ,though reluctantly) and they gave us some food to give him but he wont eat , should i mush it up and syringe it ?? he just wants to sleep  , he's 17 weeks btw


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## sopott (Dec 30, 2012)

i would put something really tasty (like chicken) on a human plate, just a spoonful, and pretend to eat it. when he shows interest give him the plate, where you normally put his bowl (you don't want him to get used to being fed from the table). if he eats so much as a mouthful, and keeps it down, that's great. if not, see if he will lick it of a spoon, i have had great success with that. also, you can warm wet food in the microwave (just about 10 sec) to make it more appetizing, read smelly. just test it as you would baby food to make sure it's not too hot, and stir it well.

i am wary of syringing because it can so easily go down the wrong way, leading to bad infections. 

i am not sure but at that age are they too young to play you? snoopy will go for days without food wanting something better. surely the pup is too young for this?


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## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

sopott said:


> i would put something really tasty (like chicken) on a human plate, just a spoonful, and pretend to eat it. when he shows interest give him the plate, where you normally put his bowl (you don't want him to get used to being fed from the table). if he eats so much as a mouthful, and keeps it down, that's great. if not, see if he will lick it of a spoon, i have had great success with that. also, you can warm wet food in the microwave (just about 10 sec) to make it more appetizing, read smelly. just test it as you would baby food to make sure it's not too hot, and stir it well.
> 
> i am wary of syringing because it can so easily go down the wrong way, leading to bad infections.
> 
> i am not sure but at that age are they too young to play you? snoopy will go for days without food wanting something better. surely the pup is too young for this?


thanks i'll try that later with some chicken , just getting abit worried as the last time he vomited it was just stomach bile so he must feel pretty hungry ...


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## Goblin (Jun 21, 2011)

Another alternative is to boil something like chicken and use the broth (no added salt). A lot of ready made broth has too much salt as does gravy.


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## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

Goblin said:


> Another alternative is to boil something like chicken and use the broth (no added salt). A lot of ready made broth has too much salt as does gravy.


brilliant thanks ive got a chicken in the slow cooker at the moment so i'll use the liquid off there


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## Goblin (Jun 21, 2011)

Not a replacement for eating though.. simply a method of getting some nutrients in. I would still contact the vet if he keeps not eating.


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## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

Goblin said:


> Not a replacement for eating though.. simply a method of getting some nutrients in. I would still contact the vet if he keeps not eating.


yes will do , i'll contact them if he hasn't eaten by tonight , its just worrying with him being so small


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## 1290423 (Aug 11, 2011)

Personally I think that your vet should be more concerned then it sounds like his is, is there another vet at the practise?

As others have said try the boiled chicken or even chicken mince 

Hope the poor little chap gets better soon.


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## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

DT said:


> Personally I think that your vet should be more concerned then it sounds like his is, is there another vet at the practise?
> 
> As others have said try the boiled chicken or even chicken mince
> 
> Hope the poor little chap gets better soon.


thanks i'll try him on some plain chicken once its cooked and if he wont eat that then i'll give the vets a call , he really looks fed up , he's been asleep all morning


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## sopott (Dec 30, 2012)

please let us know how he's getting on. it's horrible when one's baby is poorly...


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## koolchick (Apr 5, 2011)

What is his favorite food? Try him with that hand feed him a bit. Anything to get him to eat even a mouthful. Off plates or anything (I wouldn't usually let dogs eat off plates but its better than not eating.


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## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

koolchick said:


> What is his favorite food? Try him with that hand feed him a bit. Anything to get him to eat even a mouthful. Off plates or anything (I wouldn't usually let dogs eat off plates but its better than not eating.


his favourite food is cheese and he wont even eat that  he's still asleep ive been waking him up to give him water every hour or so , as soon as the chicken has cooked i'll give him some of the cooking liquid .


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## catseyes (Sep 10, 2010)

aww hun its awful when theyre ill we had this with zelda when she was 4 months.. she couldnt keep anything down after 12 hours she was taken into the vet hospital and put on a drip she didnt really eat for a week as they had her on fluids plus doing
blood work, x rays etc they thought she had pancreatitus or something. we now think it was seasonal canine illness.

I would really be getting him back to the vets and want more than just syringe him water, worming meds can upset tummies but sounds like this could be more.. both of mine suffer with worming med sickness but what he isa doing is what zelda did. wouldnt eat cheese or drink chicken soup etc..


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## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

catseyes said:


> aww hun its awful when theyre ill we had this with zelda when she was 4 months.. she couldnt keep anything down after 12 hours she was taken into the vet hospital and put on a drip she didnt really eat for a week as they had her on fluids plus doing
> blood work, x rays etc they thought she had pancreatitus or something. we now think it was seasonal canine illness.
> 
> I would really be getting him back to the vets and want more than just syringe him water, worming meds can upset tummies but sounds like this could be more.. both of mine suffer with worming med sickness but what he isa doing is what zelda did. wouldnt eat cheese or drink chicken soup etc..


that sounds scary , I really hope its not something more serious  the vet said it was probably the worming stuff but he had that on Monday and he's still not right  I cant think what else it could be ....if he hasn't eaten by dinner time i'll call the vets back and ask them what we should do... I kind of feel like they should've done something last night....


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## catseyes (Sep 10, 2010)

It was scary... we nearly lost her.

She had constant vomiting and diarhea would eat or drink all day i got her into the vet at 6.30pm and she was then rushed to the hospital where it took 10 days to get her back to strength.. she went from 8kg to 6kg in that time.

Only prob is now every time she is sick we panic.

I would have expected more from the vet to be honest esp with such a young pup once they start to dehydrate thats where it goes wrong, thats what zelda went through.

I would at least talk to your vet again, i dont want to worry or scare you but i know if we hadnt got zelda in the ending would have been much different.

Hugs, feel free to pm if you need to chat x x x


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## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

catseyes said:


> It was scary... we nearly lost her.
> 
> She had constant vomiting and diarhea would eat or drink all day i got her into the vet at 6.30pm and she was then rushed to the hospital where it took 10 days to get her back to strength.. she went from 8kg to 6kg in that time.
> 
> ...


thanks , luckily he is drinking so he hopefully shouldn't get dehydrated .. we are just really worried that he wont even attempt to eat .... he is only a small dog anyway I think last time we weighed him he was 3.8 kg and they weighed him last night he was 3.5 kg


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## catseyes (Sep 10, 2010)

Its great he is drinking i was syringing water into zelda and it was being puked back up.

what is he normally fed? dry or wet? we struggled with zelda after her illness but found naturediet a miracle food being wet it didnt agrivate her tummy anything dry or lumpy made her ill.. could you try some wet realy watered down?


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## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

catseyes said:


> Its great he is drinking i was syringing water into zelda and it was being puked back up.
> 
> what is he normally fed? dry or wet? we struggled with zelda after her illness but found naturediet a miracle food being wet it didnt agrivate her tummy anything dry or lumpy made her ill.. could you try some wet realy watered down?


ive been syringing water every hour to make sure he dosent dehydrate 

he is normally on naturediet wet trays and dry jameswellbeloved kibble as training 'treats' throughout the day , the vet gave us some 'royal canin gastrointestinal lowfat; wet tinned food which he has turned his nose up at I mushed it up with warm water to try and tempt him , also tried some scrambled egg as ive heard that's ment to be good...


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## catseyes (Sep 10, 2010)

Thats what zelda was on the gastro stuff... we kept her on it for a while but it makes their poops awful like foam, i looked up the ingrediants and its like 60% water.

could you try microwaving some naturediet? being warm makes it smellier, maybe add some warm water so its softer as well?

Hope im helping not hindering just know how hard it is when they wont eat!


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## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

catseyes said:


> Thats what zelda was on the gastro stuff... we kept her on it for a while but it makes their poops awful like foam, i looked up the ingrediants and its like 60% water.
> 
> could you try microwaving some naturediet? being warm makes it smellier, maybe add some warm water so its softer as well?
> 
> Hope im helping not hindering just know how hard it is when they wont eat!


will try warming up some of his naturediet  thanks its very helpful , this is our first dog and we are really worried about the little fella


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## catseyes (Sep 10, 2010)

Yea they are a worry esp at that age... being sick can make their tummies get aggrivated, we found even chicken or cheese if she did eat it it came back in one lump so squishy was better.


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## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

well he's drank some chicken broth and a pea sized piece of scrambled egg (only when I dipped it in broth) and then 10 minutes later he did a horrible watery poo ....


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## sopott (Dec 30, 2012)

at least he ate something!!
try it again. his little gut is empty so it went "food - i have to work?! and rejected it. it will soon get the hang of it again. if not, vet again. but some chicken broth, and scrambled egg sounds great. try and mush up a little bit of wet food with the chicken broth into warm mush, like they get when they are being weaned. it's kind of comfort food.


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## catseyes (Sep 10, 2010)

well done at getting some food in.. we found zelda had awful poops from the gastro food, figured its coz it contains so much water, keep at it and hopefully hes on the up x


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## Symone (Dec 3, 2012)

Congratulations on getting some in him! 

Have you tried probiotic yoghurt? My pup loved it. I gave her some when she was ill and didn't eat her boiled chicken. 
Since yours hasn't really eaten I would stick to only a tablespoon full (If he has it at all that is)
Good luck x


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## SixStar (Dec 8, 2009)

I wouldn't be happy with him at all  I think he really, really needs to see the vet again before they shut this evening.



catseyes said:


> Thats what zelda was on the gastro stuff... we kept her on it for a while but it makes their poops awful like foam, i looked up the ingrediants and its like 60% water.





catseyes said:


> we found zelda had awful poops from the gastro food, figured its coz it contains so much water, keep at it and hopefully hes on the up x


It doesn't have any more water in than any other wet food - Naturediet that you're mentioning is 70-77% moisture 

It's not water added, it's the moisture content in the meat used in the food.


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## hippymama (Jul 26, 2012)

well he's eaten some plain chicken  , he has done another load of sloppy watery poo .... bit happier that he's eaten something though


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## sopott (Dec 30, 2012)

great! 
keep it up. although i fear you might have a bad night, poo-wise. at least he is not a big dog...


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