April 13, 2011

A Dog's Breakfast

I never really understood that phrase until recently. (If you are not familiar with the phrase, since it's mainly a UK thing and we heard it a lot in Bermuda, it basically means whatever you are describing is an unappealing mess.) I've always lived with dogs that ate dry kibble, maybe enhanced with a wee bit of water, so the "dog's breakfast" just looked somewhat like a bowl of, say, bran cereal without the milk. But now that we have an odd dog who is not at all food motivated, and whom we have to entice to eat (since her pills are to be taken with food) with all manner of added goodies in with her kibble, well... now I understand the phrase pretty well. 

Some of that canned food is way nasty looking. And it seems like the more expensive, more organic, more high-end doggy chow it is, the grosser it looks! (Especially the Newman's Own Organic Beef & Liver canned food she gets...) There is also the added fact that we nuke it for a few seconds (the smell comes out more, which is supposed to entice the dog to eat...) so you've got the "dog's breakfast" look plus the smell. Bleh. 

I talked to Dr. V. about her not really wanting to eat her breakfast and what I should do about it, because of the whole pills with food thing. He said it doesn't have to be a lot of food - just a little something. He suggested hiding each pill in a chunk of hot dog. Here's how that went:
Here she is, readily accepting her hot dog chunk! Yum!

And here she is munching the hot dog after spitting out the pill (yes, that little pink spot on the rug is the pill)
Anyway, he said not to worry about her not wanting to eat breakfast. He said some dogs just want to get up and get going and see what's happening and they don't really care about food until much later in the day when all the excitement has died down. (Lest you worry that her appetite is failing because of the cancer, she's been like this ever since we got her. Just not really interested in breakfast -- although she does usually eat it by dinner time. Then wolfs her dinner down shortly thereafter.)

She was keen on the hot dogs for a while, and I could at least get her interested in her breakfast if I threw some chunks in (then I'd give her her pills in the standard scoop of peanut butter) but now she's even bored with the dogs! Oy. I mean, what kinda crazy dog doesn't want to eat a hot dog??? Our special girl - that's who. Right now, at 6 p.m. there is still a bowl full of Blue Buffalo kibble, mixed with hot dog chunks and water, sitting in my kitchen and it looks like a total dog's breakfast. 

P.S. I found out there's a feature where I can designate a short list of people to get each blog post via email, so you don't need to check the blog - you'd just get an email instead when there's a new post. If you want me to put you on the list for that, let me know.  

8 comments:

  1. Put me on the email list. That way I don't have to check for updates every day.

    I wonder if she might like a little liverwurst with a pill? I just cannot relate to a dog who doesn't eat.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'd like liverwurst with my pills.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, please, for the e-mail notification. I'm going to have to stock up on liverwurst and other stinky, gooey things to eat before we babysit Abby next month! (Lou will love that!)
    Terry

    ReplyDelete
  4. Leo loves dogs when he needs to take meds. But he isn't a big breakfast eater either. Sometimes scarfs it down and sometimes has for happy hour when we are home from work. So different than Dannie. If you are still having trouble with her keeping you up hearing the critters outside, I read a suggestion that a white noise machine or a fan for noise helps drown out the noises resulting in your dog sleeping better at night.

    ReplyDelete
  5. She has been pretty good lately about sleeping through the night, so hopefully we are done with the squirrel-guard-duty thing. Liverwurst is a good idea - I'll have to get some. Terry, I'm hoping just having Lou there will motivate her to eat!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You might also want to try something called Braunschweiger. I'm really not sure what it is, but it works! You can get it in the deli section at your grocery store; it comes in thick patties. I think it's a form of liverwurst. Anyway, we used it with Max for the pills, and it really worked. Either way, good luck, and tell Abby to start cooperating. I'm really glad to hear she's still doing well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ah, yes, braunschweiger. I'd forgotten about that stuff. We used to eat it, well - 'be fed it' - as children. From the German, braun meaning "brown," and schweiger meaning "don't ask." It's mushy and stinky - I'm sure she'll love it! Will try to pick some up today.

    ReplyDelete
  8. If you want to talk stinky food from our childhood, there's always Daddy's Limburger cheese with saltines. Yum!!

    ReplyDelete

We love comments - even just a smiley face or a LOL will make my day. (Yes, my days are pretty easily made.)

PLEASE NOTE: Comment moderation is turned on for posts over 2 weeks old, so if you comment on an older post and don't see it show up right away, that's why.