Loosing Weight, Not Pooping Or Eating Very Much

I found this wonderful dog that was left for dead locked in a fenced in yard, the owners moved.  I adopted him at 30lbs Salvato was skin and bones, water poop and ate rocks.  The vet and I worked together and got him up to 96lbs and beautiful.  He's full grown almost 3 years old they think.  He is now  back sliding to losing 13 lbs in 4 weeks, not eating much or pooping.  He poops like a tiny little dog,  Come June he will be with me a year.  I love him and my other 5 dogs.  Has anyone had this problem with their Dane  He is on highly expensive Purina Pro Plan EM, dry and can, which he doesn't like.  Thanks, for any advice.  Ms. Bryant

I'm assuming the vet has checked that his health is OK.

 

If so and he doesn't like the food and won't eat it, try either mixing it with something else (canned food, raw meat, etc) to see if you can get him to eat something again and then change his diet. Cost is no indicator of quality or palatability for any given dog either, I'm afraid.  No one food suits all dogs.

 

It is not surprising that he is producing small amounts of poo if he is not eating, either.  Find the right diet for him and you will fix that.

 

Hazel

Have you always been feeding him the same food you started with? It's odd he would backtrack if he's been eating that diet but he could also be bored of it. Try changing his food slowly to see if he'll try and eat differently. Sometimes I sprinkle a little cheese on our dogs food when they're being picky and they go in nose first ha...but definitely have your vet check him out if he continues to have this behavior. Best of luck!

The pattern isn't a surprise given that he had been starved.  At first they will eat anything, and then once they learn that food is always served they will make their preferences known .

 

Hazel

Hope you get it sorted out. We feed our cocker raw diet but he has always had this since born. Our Dane puppy is on dry at the moment but we will most likely put him onto raw when able to.

Yes, raw here as well.  Have fed this way for a lot of years now .

 

Hazel

Yes his blood work is great and even when Salvato lost the first 6 lbs he was eating well.  I have a great vet but.......  The past two days I have been feeding him small amounts 3 times a day.  He eats one day, doesn't poop.  Doesn't eat the next day and poops.  He whines a lot at night as well as during the day and I have had to get up to take him out 3 or 4 times throughout the night and early morning hours.  He sleeps close to me in bed.  The vet has no answers and I am worried.  His digestive system was in such bad shape when I took him home.  I wish I could post pics of him to show how is was and then how healthy he got and now backsliding.  I don't even need a scale to see the weight loss.

This is a pic of the shape Salvato was in when I adopted him.

He is not quite 40 lbs last July.  6 weeks ago he was up to 96lbs and now is 83 lbs.

Bentley has always been a difficult feeder but currently has been eating well. The problem is he has not pooed for 3 days.  He isn't trying to and not being able to. He just hasn't been.  Any ideas