Skinny Irish setter won't eat

[Melody Rodarte]

Hi Everyone,

I have a beautiful 17 month Irish Setter female that refuses to eat no matter what I feed her.

She's lost some of her luster in her coat and has a bald spot on her thigh. I've been to many different vets and no one can tell me what's wrong. Can anyone help shed some light on what the problem might be. The vet bills are in the thousands now from tests done and all come out negative.

Worried mom,

Melody

[Melinda Auld]

I have had two setters here who were very fussy about their food, to the point where they wouldn't eat it unless I hand fed them.

Is it a medical condition that it making her not eat? Or do you think she might be playing games with you? Some Setters can be very good at wrapping you around their little paw, especially when it comes to food.

To cut a long story short, with mine in the end, what worked with one of them was to be fed between my two other dogs (in crates) to create the feeling of having to compete for his dinner.

With the other, it took me throwing their dinner in the bin right in front of them for them to realise it wasn't okay to play food games with me. I threw the food in the bin twice, and never had a problem again.

[John B. Hughes/Absinthe]

Melody,
First of all- Welcome to ES. I think the reason that no one has commented on your post is due to the complexity of your situation and the lack of knowledge concerning your bitch. What was she eating previously? Was she eating alone or with others? Is she your only dog or are there others in your home? What have you tried? Etc..........
Just saw your post and didn't want you to feel neglected, but the answer to your problem lies in understanding and you haven't supplied sufficient info for anyone to help. OK?

[Melody Rodarte]

Thanks for the comments. Right now she is eating Science Diet d/d for skin support. The last vet seems to think she has a gluten intolerance. I'm not so sure. She started having eating problems since she was a pup. We thought maybe she didn't like her food (Nutro lamb and rice) so we switched her. We've since tried Merrick before grain, Nutro high energy, Solid Gold large breed puppy, Wellness, and Natural Balance. I've even tried homemade food. She eats like she's starving the first day of a new food and by day three she's back to not being interested. She doesn't eat alone she eats in the kitchen when people are around. If she's alone she won't eat at all until someone usually me is around. I've tried hand feeding which works for a few bites. We just got a new puppy 6 months ago which eats like a little piggy but Nani's problems have been going on long before puppy. She fluctuates between 48 and 51 pounds and she'll go up to two days with only a bite or two. If it's a medical condition three vets can't figure it out. If she's playing games I'm not sure what to do. If I'm eating she's staring at me like she's starving but she's never had food off my plate so I don't know why she would be begging. Is this enough info? I'm not sure what else to put down.

[Chantal McIlveen-Wright]

Melody, one more question. Does she behave differently after a good day out and plenty of exercises?

[Peter Hennig]

Hi Melody
Can you track this problem in the breed line, I'm led to believe that this can be a disorder that can be tracked sometimes a long way back. I hope you can solve it soon

[Cheryl Gorey]

Hi Melody,

My first Irish, Reny was a very finnicky eater. He would eat new food on the first day and appear to enjoy it a great deal. The next day, he would look at me as if to say "You don't expect me to eat that again". It was very frustrating and I did resort to hand feeding to make him eat some food. I spend so much time and effort trying to cook and prepare different meals without much success. I remember I spent a lot of time trying to find food that he would eat and throwing a lot of food away!! His eating habits didn't settle until he was about 4 years old. His breeder looked after him for a week while I was away and she wouldn't hand feed him and when I returned he was eating and I was very strong to not get back into the same bad habit.

I am not familiar with the products you mentioned, but do you feed any raw meats? My current boy,

Clancy sometimes doesn't eat his breakfast meal. I always put his food down and if it isn't eaten within 15 minutes it is taken up, put in the fridge and not offered again until his next meal. He always eats his next meal. I never leave food down for them to pick at during the day.

Not sure if any of these strategies may work. It is so hard and I understand how frustrating it is. Reny's son was even worse than him and he wouldn't eat for days at a time. They never starved themselves and they never seemed to lose any energy. I often wondered whether Reny's problem stemmed from his very bad tonsills as it was undiagnosed for a while and they were so rotten they had to be removed, so by then it had become a bad eating habit as well. But, his son never had that problem with his tonsils.

All the best. I hope you find a solution to your girls' problem.

cheers
Cheryl

[Melody Rodarte]

Hi Everyone,

For the past month I've been putting Nani's food down in the morning, leaving it for 20 minutes. If she doesn't eat it comes up and goes away until late evening where sometimes she'll eat and sometimes she wont. I haven't tried any raw diets. I'm a little wary of them and living out in Hawaii there isn't a lot of places to go to get it. She has bounds of energy and is always a super sweet girl whether she eats or not. She goes to dog parks several times a week to run her little tail off and it doesn't seem to make any difference on her food intake. I'm lucky if she'll eat a cup of food a day. She'll eat treats if I offer them but I don't want her only eating treats. I've never had her tonsils checked so on her next checkup I'll ask the doctor to look there.

Unfortunetly I bought Nani from a pet store. I've never seen any other setter on this Island. There are no breeders and I fell in love with her when I was only suppose to be "window shopping". I have all her paperwork and I know she comes from Australia. Her pedigree goes all the way back to her great grand parents but theres no contact info for her breeder for me to ask.
I'm a dog trainer myself and other than her eating habits she's an amazing dog. It sounds like she's might just fall into the the finnicky eater catergory but it sure is frusterating. I see the beautiful setters with fabulous flowing hair and great body weight and wonder how come my girl is so different.

[Astrid Landsaat]

Hi Melody,

check out this topic: http://irishsetters.ning.com/forum/topics/dry-food-help

[Astrid Landsaat]

Eukanuba is a brand that I would not advise.

[Astrid Landsaat]

Hi Viv, my girl was an epileptic and I knew that the quality of food was very important so I started reading. Feeding raw was not an option because she also had MO. I had to find a better quality of food and I found Orijen and Acana. She was doing so much better on those brands. Comparing the labels on dogfood I understood why she was doing better. I took my cats of the Iams and they are also doing better on Acana.