Why has my senior dog stopped eating and drinking? What can I do?

Poor girl. She may have an internal illness that is causing her to not want to eat and have excessive drinking. Several things could be causing this including a bacterial infection, liver or kidney disease. I would recommend offering her some canned dog food or boiled plain chicken and rice to see if that entices her to eat. However, if she has not eaten after 24 hrs, or seems to be declining at any point, its best to get her seen by your vet for a proper exam and some diagnostic tests (i.e. bloodowork) to help identify the underlying problem so that we know how to best help her. I hope that your fur baby Minnie is able to make a full and speedy recovery from her illness. Best wishes and take care.

She is getting to be consider a senior pet. Due to that they can develop diabetes or kidney disease or cancer or some other metabolic disease causing the weight loss. A vet is the best option to run blood work to check for these disease as some are more manageable than others. If she goes untreated, you may notice the weight loss continue and even vomiting or diarrhea ensue due to advanced disease. On average it is more economic to treat and manage a disease when they are healthy, so the sooner the better you can find a way to take Roxy in the better. Different clinics might accept different forms of payment, so it may be worth checking around

Hello, sorry to hear about Rocky. It sounds like he is feeling unwell but these signs are non-specific. It may be caused by multiple reasons, most often a dietary indiscretion, ingestion of foreign material, or in puppies this young an infection with a virus or parasite may cause this. If Rocky is not eating by tomorrow, or if he begins to vomit, have diarrhea, or lethargy then he needs to be evaluated by his veterinarian immediately. You can offer him a bland diet tomorrow of plain white rice, skinless and boneless boiled chicken and cottage cheese low fat. Hope this helps and best of luck.

I would definitely recommend some blood work, if this hasn't been done recently. Older dogs are prone to a number of health issues that can cause decreased appetite along with being less active - chronic kidney disease and hypothyroidism are two possibilities that are both very common. In many cases, these issues are treatable (at least to some extent) once a diagnosis is made, so it's well worth checking for them if you can - hopefully, there are some things you can do to make him feel better for as long as possible, even though he's getting older.

Since he’s a senior dog and this has been going on now for several days I recommend a veterinary exam and treatment to control the diarrhea. They may give fluids to prevent dehydration which can become very serious. Once the diarrhea is controlled and he’s not dehydrated then I expect he’ll feel better and start eating again. He must have a sensitive stomach so stay with the food you know he does well with. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Harley.

Refusing food can be caused by a huge number of things. Urine gets much darker when a patient is dehydrated. So, since Cody is not eating or drinking normally, we would expect his urine to be darker than normal. Dehydration alone can make a dog nauseous and refuse to eat. Dehydration can also make a number of conditions worse. I would recommend having your vet examine Cody ASAP to see if they can figure out what is causing Cody not to eat. They may need to check some blood work to figure that out. Depending on what they find, at the very least, they will be able to give him fluids to correct his dehydration which will make him feel better and maybe give him anti-nausea medication which may allow him to start eating again. Good luck! I hope that was helpful and that Cody feels better soon. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Dakota! I would have her seen by a Vet today due to her age. There are many things that can cause an older lab to stop eating and start panting. I worry about heart failure, pneumonia, cancer or anemia from a bleeding mass in the belly. Even a fever can cause these signs. I would have her examined and see if chest and belly X-rays needs to be done. They may also recommend blood work as well. I hope this helps and I wish Dakota the best!