Untitled - Update

[Lisa and Humphrey]

Hi all,

I'm wondering if you could help me, please. It's a bit of a long story, so bare with me!

Humphrey is now 6 months old and he really has been an easy puppy - everything has more or less been a breeze with the exception of food and recently being unwell. From day one he has been hard to get to get to eat kibble. Usually we would just add some tinned food to his kibble once a day and he was ok with that - wouldn't eat breakfast, ate half of his lunch and then he'd gobble up dinner and was still gaining weight and growing nicely. We got back from holiday about two weeks ago (he had been staying with some friends) and he had become unwell the morning before we picked him up. Initially just diarrhea - but pretty bad, that night he woke us up all night long and this is a puppy who has never once woken us at night! We asked the people he was staying with and they said he hadn't eaten anything new so decided it wasn't food related. The next day he started vomiting as well so we took him to the vet and he came home on metronidazole and proviable. Stool sample was clear. He had also become pretty skinny and the vet said he needed to gain about 4lbs (he was about 35lbs at that point). He was instantly ravenous after starting those meds and wanted everything in sight for about a week - needless to say he put that weight on easily. We were topping his food with pumpkin or yoghurt to help with his poops - which have slowly improved, and giving him the tinned meat too, per usual. So, fast forward to Saturday just gone and literally the day after he stops his medications we come home to him having vomited in his crate and take him outside where he vomits a few more times. The first was food, the rest just liquid. He was pretty lethargic the rest of the day, had diarrhea again, felt a bit shivery and ate nothing. Sunday morning we were just discussing what to do with him (he woke up much the same) when he suddenly perks up and wants to play. He proceeds to eat some lunch and his poops start coming right and he seems just fine so we didn't take him to the vet again. He just had a few small meals that day. Ok (sorry this is getting long..), onto the actual problem at hand... Since then, he just WON'T eat. He wakes up and won't even look at breakfast, might eventually have a couple of mouthfuls of lunch and the same at dinner. I can't even entice him with yoghurt anymore - he has definitely gone off this. If I put tinned food in his dinner he will pretty much just pick it out. We've been trying not to create such a picky eater so yesterday went cold turkey on the toppers and offered just kibble which he is less than impressed by. I am pretty sure he is at least a little bit hungry because he wants our food, but still won't go near his own. I'm finding it a bit stressful because of course he is back to losing weight and as his ribs start poking through I feel like I'm starving him! I'm sure he has less energy in the mornings because he is eating so much less - but he is always full of life later on in the day, so I'm struggling with knowing if he has simply just become as fussy as ever or if he is still not feeling right from being unwell. Argh! (he has gone from eating about 4 cups of kibble a day to about 1/2 a cup).

Does anyone have any idea where I can go from here? Humph has never had any stomach issues before and I just have no idea what the solution is. Also, how long does he need to remain on puppy formula for? He is definitely still growing and needs the extra calories but there just isn't a lot of variety it seems - aside from chicken, chicken, chicken! We are feeding him blue buffalo. Originally we had him on nutro but switched him early on. The other thing we did - stupidly, was begin transitioning to a grainfree (bb wilderness - still chicken as that's what's available in puppy) about a week ago (when we thought he was all better (i know, i know, duh!)) as I had read grainfree was more tasty - and the vet had suggested we food switch to hills or royal canin to get him to eat so thinking we knew better we opted for the grainfree bb but I'm not sure that was a good idea either. Don't get me wrong, he DEFINITELY prefers it - if i put down a bit of each (as i did yesterday when I couldn't decide which one I should feed him - he would probably be mostly through his transition if he were eating!) he will always choose the grainfree but still only for a few bites.

Any suggestions please?! I'm feeling desperate and I'm open to anything at all - thank you so much! And I'll even attach a pic as a bribe ;)

Thanks

Lisa

[Miss Ellie]

Lisa...I will leave the advice to the people who have more experience with this situation...but want you to know that I am keeping you and Humphrey in my prayers and hope that he will be feeling well again very soon.  Take care and sending big hugs your way!

[Lisa and Humphrey]

Aww, thanks everyone! Well, I left the pepcid alone for now and just fed him his boiled chicken, rice and sweet potato dinner which he ate faster than I've seen him eat in what feels like a long time. Didn't give him his whole portion at first but he clearly wanted more so I gave him the rest and after that he was still looking for more! Now he is full of energy. Go figure!

[Lisa and Humphrey]

Bit of an update - waiting for test results for Humphrey but the vet definitely thinks this is food related since when he came off his metronidazole his symptoms continued.  So, of course they want him to go on R.C. Vet GI diet for puppies. I've read enough on this forum to know it's not recommended at all. I told the vet as much, mentioning all the filler and found both him and his tech quite full-on and defensive about R.C and its triple testing where all the other O.T.C foods (eg bb) aren't scientifically tested and are just a bunch of marketing rubbish - where their number 1 ingredient chicken is actually chicken by product which is just as much a filler as the corn meal etc, etc, etc. It really is insanely difficult to disagree with the vet (out loud, at least).  So anyway, we were somewhat saved any further debate by the fact they don't have any in-stock right now and I told them we needed to decide which size we wanted them to order (knowing full well it's not likely going happen).  They also suggested Humphrey go back on metro & proviable because he ate so well on it previously - at least until Tuesday when the R.C would arrive. This seemed a bit silly to me if it is infact a food intolerance since he is eating the chicken and rice and no longer having diarrhea so I don't feel the need to give antibiotics just to make him eat. When I said as much suddenly they were optional. Anyway, I took the probiotic per the great advice here and the big question I have - assuming his tests are all clear, is where to from here food-wise? Any suggestions would be great. (Not sure if I should now move this to The Food Group now?) 

So just to be clear, Humphrey came to us on R.C, we transitioned him to Nutro Ultra Chicken & Rice (before we knew better) which he didn't like then moved to BB life protection chicken & rice which he has been on until this past week or so when we were trying a grain free (bb wilderness chicken) - he was still transitioning when he got sick again on Saturday, so no idea whether it would've been helpful or not (we had decided to try grainfree at this point because when he first went on the metro, the vet then suggested R.C or Hills as a more palatable option since Humphrey was on the thin side and wasn't overly keen on his bb kibble - we declined and opted to try grainfree instead. Probably bad timing).  

Thank you so much for any input, I really appreciate it.