Dog lost will to eat

Long story short Alaskan malamute, 4 years old, spayed, suffering from depression after loss of her older malamute sister, ongoing 3 months now, went off food and water for awhile, is drinking again, only eats specific snacks, around 100 g a day on walks, refuses food inside, when I bring it out same story, raw, cooked, pressed kibble, toppers, cans, nothing works. She's been on two antidepressants to help stimulate her appetite for over month. Took her off it. Her ultrasounds and xray are perfect. Her blood is perfect. Clinically okay. Doesn't lose weight. Very active, uses dog stimulation toys, I play with her alot, has routines.. she has eaten maybe 10 times from what I've cooked off my hand and just plays with food and leaves it entirely. She's gotten supplements of all sorts from vets to holistic places and getting acupuncture and bioresonance I mean we've tried it all. Her will to eat is just gone. Yes I did try to just give her food at certain time and move it away. Asking for ideas and suggestions what to look into or for ? Thank you kindly..

Hello - and first of all, I am so sorry to hear about the miserable time that you and your dog are going through. It sounds as though your dog is off their food, but will eat some particularly tasty snacks when tempted.  It sounds as though you have been concentrating a lot on the type of food and trying different things in case she reacts any differently.  I understand this - sonetimes when I'm feeling lousy, I also don't want to make myself eat.  But if someone puts one of my absolute favourite foods in front of me and it looks appetising, then I might say 'Oh, go on then.  I'll try a little bit.'

However, respectfully I wonder whether the type of food is not the main thing to focus on.  After all, a healthy person or dog will be up for trying a reasonable range of familiar food.  So while you sound to have a good appreciation of how to persuade her to eat, I am more interested in understanding WHY she doesn't feel like eating in the first place.  In dogs, there are two main reasons;  nausea and pain.  One disease that can cause both and is relatively common in malamutes, is called pancreatitis- inflammation of the pancreas.   This often requires a combination of blood tests and scans to diagnose correctly - and contrary to old fashioned theory, is not ruled out by 'normal' veterinary tests, so it's an important one to ask your vet about.  Cancer can require scans;  although when it comes to likelihoods, age is definitely on your dogs' side here, this certainly isn't unheard of.  Other possibilities are underlying medical disorders such as Addisons, arthritis, liver disease (again' normal liver enzymes dont rule everything out) and kidney disease.  Remember that normal bloods dont show that nothing is wrong; there is no blood test for pain, for a foreign body or for mild to moderate ulceration.

So what can you do?  My advice would be to stop trying to treat the symptoms by changing the diet, and be mindful that rich foods - while tasty and thereby encouraging patients to eat in the short term - can also cause or trigger lots of diseases including pancreatitis.   A diagnosis would be helpful in order that your vet can use the right treatment for your dogs specific case.  Ask them to list possible causes and then to discuss a plan in order to rule each one out.  Remember for example that not all tests for pancreatitis are reliable and multiple approaches might need to be tried.  Not all dogs that feel (nauseous to the point of not eating) actually vomit.  Obviously chronic refusal of food has wider implications, so it would be a good idea to address this with your vet sooner rather than later.    I do hope that something here turns out to be useful.

PS;   having read this again, I think that most vets would begin by checking how much you expect your dog to be eating.   If she doesn't lose weight, I wonder whether one more possibility is that you are expecting her to eat more than she needs and that she simply needs to eat less that you expect or is gettting supplementary food from somewhere; again, your vet ought to help to assess her weight and food intake as part of your consultation.  It may help to record this over several days.  Please will you let us know how you get on?

My main worry was she was always keen on eating her pressed kibble and raw meat and snacks, she just flat out refuses. She ate some cooked chicken in-between and she's overall just on those specific 100 grams of salmon snacks a day she gets during the walks and eats those fine when outside as I worried it's something with mouth. They tried nausea injection on her before and it didn't help her eat so they thought its not nausea related. However due to it starting to happen as soon as my older dog has died they assume she's just depressed and is clinically okay.. they wanted to try give her some seizure meds to increase appetite but I refused as I said no antidepressants helped so I'm not having her eat more not even knowing what her diagnosis is at the end of the day.. I asked for hormones to be checked by they said it isn't necessary because she has a good coat.. she however isn't losing weight. I am just so used to her for four years to be happily eating absolutely most stuff I'm worried sick and really trying hard with all sorts of varieties of food and snacks. She seems in way better mood than let's say month ago. Just doesn't get back in her kibble and wet food or any snack routine. Being so highly active I'd assume she'd be hungrier too. Pancreas/ amylase levels from two months and month ago were relatively normal as they assumed it's off from not drinking much either first month I've had to force her with hydration drinks as she won't have any food on her own. I truly hope she's luckier and whatever is going on can be resolved and figured out and not cancer by any means or anything bad, losing my other malamute was already bad enough and she's only been 9 too. Thank you for your time If I find anything new out I'll write here

Been at vets, they said they asked and called around and nobody has a clue what could be happening besides psychological. And how further testing for pancreas liver and kidneys is just wasting money and all I can do is wait it out a bit longer and then have no choice but to do a full body ct.

Pics of all blood last montns

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I am assuming that this is vomitting and not regurgitation; regurge is dealt with differently but your vet shpuld have checked.  Please remember that I do not know this case and there may be factors I am unaware of.  However in general, in-house profiles like this one contain no tests that are capable of ruling out pancreatitis and I can only repeat that dogs vomit for a reason - they seldom if ever do it randomly or through anxiety like humans do.  Therefore from what you have told me, I wonder whether your vet feels that pancreatitis has been appropriately ruled out and if so, whether their laboratory staff would agree with them or whether further testing is reccommended.  Otherwise, if your vets have reached the end of their knowledge,  I would advise against giving up and instead seek a specialist or internal medic's input by referral because this does not sound normal and deserves to be got to the bottom of.