Feeding A Temporary Limited Diet

sivyaleah

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Casper, our nearly 12 year old DSH, was at the vet yesterday for testing due to daily vomiting this past week - about 3-4 days of it.  This combined with his appetite being off and a couple of bouts of what sounded like a cough/hacking.  He does have a history of bringing up his breakfast now and then, but this was also happening later in the day now which concerned us and it really never happened day after day. The vet also noticed that his hind legs seems to have lost muscle tone, which explains why he appeared to be having difficulty going up the stairs for a while now (down, no problem though).  

Everything else looks good though, all vitals were fine.

The vet put him on medication for gastric reasons, 2x a day and we need to wait an hour before feeding him.  He mentioned feeding him HIll's special food which I declined rather forcibly.  I have no desire to support their company.

The vet said I could feed him a mixture of ground boiled beef mixed with rice.  Well, that was a big fail.  He refused it completely.  I even tried recooking another portion in the microwave without draining as much of the fat so it wasn't as dry.  Still, no go.

So, now I have a problem because he won't eat what he suggested and I'm not about to purchase Hill's.  

What else, is an appropriate diet to feed for about a week which won't upset his stomach/esophagus?  It was also suggested that plain skinless boneless chicken breast would be ok, but my concern is that because there is no "flavor" in these things, he is going to keep refusing the food.

Are there other canned foods which are safe for him to eat, with extremely limited ingredients?

Would love to hear with others have figured out in these kind of circumstances.

He's behaving really strange this morning, probably because he's really hungry, doing things he's never done before like jumping on chairs, and going from each chair to chair.  I'd ideally like to be able to get food into him by this afternoon because he hasn't had a meal since Friday evening.  He brought up his breakfast Saturday, and the vet didn't want up to feed him last night, and wouldn't eat what I presented this morning.  

Thanks!

Laurie
 
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sivyaleah

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FYI - in general, his usual diet consists of good quality canned food in the morning; a rotation of various varieties of Blue Buffalo,Chicken Soup for the Soul, Natural Balance and Before The Grain. A couple of those are hairball formulas because he's now sharing with Cocoa, who is long haired, but that works out good because even though he's technically a DSH, his fur is a bit longer than most, and he sheds quite a bit.  In the evening he gets kibble, currently Blue Buffalo, might be the Spa Select, don't remember off hand. Grain free for sure, whichever it is.  
 
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sivyaleah

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Ok never mind!  Peaches suggested in my other thread to try the chicken.  I seared it quickly leaving it pink in the middle.  That, he loved.  So, I'm going to go out and p/u more chicken for him.

I should have just done that to begin with.  Guess we'll be eating up the other package of the organic beef instead of him.  Yay! Hamburgers!
 

Willowy

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Yeah, I was going to say that I know very few cats who will pass up cooked chicken :D. Hope he feels better soon!
 
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sivyaleah

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Oh yea.  It did the trick. I also picked up Weruva's Paw Lickin' Chicken.  I'm very impressed by how it's really only shredded chicken for the most part.  I figured it would be fine, plus I know he really does need the taurine provided by the canned food, plus whatever vitamins they add in.  So, I'm now cooking up the fresh chicken (barely) and mixing it with some of the Weruva.  I figured this would suffice and be considered bland enough.

He really does seem off though.  If he isn't right near us, he's been sitting in a cardboard box he likes that we notice he does when he doesn't quite feel well or wants us to pay attention to him with pets.  Which also happens to be in the kitchen lol.  I think maybe, aside from whatever tummy troubles he's having, there really may be something happening with his hind legs.  He really seems to be walking cautiously to us, slower than usual.  I guess we'll see what the vet says when he calls with results tomorrow.
 
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