What do I feed a sick dog?

If you've got a dog who is recovering from a serious illness, or just a bit off-color, your main problem might be getting him to eat enough in order for him to be able to recover fully and regain his health and strength. If he hasn't been put on to a restricted diet by the veterinarian, you are generally advised to offer him a wide variety of foods in the hope that one of them will be appealing to him. The old rule of strictly feeding a dog only one kind of food and removing the bowl after a set amount of time even if it hasn't been touched, does not apply at times like these, when you just want the dog to eat and know that he doesn't really feel like it, for once. You'll be so glad to see him getting some nourishment that you'll happily feed him a sirloin steak if that's what it takes!

However, in the case of a dog that has an on-going illness, you might include some additional difficulties. Unlike a dog who is simply feeling “peaky”, or who is in recovery from an illness, a dog who continues to be ill over a longer period of time will need extra special care and attention. In particular, you may face the problem of a dog who has difficulty in keeping his food down. What do you do if your dog is sick, weak, in need of nourishment, but unable to keep food down for long enough for it to be of any benefit to him?

 

The best piece of advice for this situation is to cut out solid food completely. If you've already seen a few times that the food is not staying in the dog's stomach, there's no point in continuing with that miserable process. Instead, switch to a liquid-only diet which will hopefully be easier for the dog's stomach to cope with. Prepare some broths or use beef boullion. These will provide your dog with essential nutrients, and will also be easier on his stomach. Feed the broths or boullion about three or four times a day, in fairly small quantities. They smell good, so it's likely that they will appeal to even a very sick dog. If your dog is especially weak, you may have to hand-feed it the broths, which you can do using a bottle, pouring into the pouch on the inside of the mouth. All being well, the vomiting should stop eventually, and once you've had it under control for a complete 24-hour period, you can start to gradually introduce small amounts of solid food.

When doing this, choose bland foods that won't aggravate the digestive system again. Foods like Pablum, Cream of Wheat, or chopped meat, in very small quantities, should be bland enough for your dog to keep them down. Just offer tiny amounts at first, alongside the liquid diet, and gradually increase the amount you feed, keeping a close watch on how the dog seems to be responding to it. Again, if your dog is very weak, you can do this by hand, placing small amounts of soft food on the back of the tongue and stroking the throat softly to make the dog swallow.

If the problem is diarrhea rather than vomiting, you can obtain a commercial medicine (for example, Peptobismol) to treat the condition. This is preferable if the diarrhea is severe. In less serious cases, you can first try changing the diet to combat the problem – boiled milk and cottage cheese are two good foods to feed a dog suffering from diarrhea, and macaroni and rice can be good, too. If these don't get the problem under control, you should seek a veterinarian's advice, or consider a commercially prepared medicine.

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