My dog has nearly no teeth and refuses to eat soft kibble....?

so we've been feeding her canned food but that gave her diarrhea beacuse it just went right through her.. she's 15 years old rather old but she has a strong heart. she's a very skinny scottish terrier, we think she might have been a mix but she doesn't look to be. anyway we added oats to her canned food but that isn't really helping to much and she always seems to be in pain from straining to have a bowel movement. is there something i can feed her that keeps her full (she is also hungry all the time) and is easier to pass? plus she can chew it because she doens't have many teeth left

My dog has nearly no teeth and refuses to eat soft kibble....?
You can add some canned pumpkin (not the pie filling) to her food. This has a lot of fiber and it good at getting their bowels moving again.





You say that she is skinny and hungry all the time. Does she also drink a lot of water and pee a lot? If she does, you should get her looked at by a vet. She may have a metbolic disorder, like diabetes for one, that is causing the increased hunger and weight loss.
Reply:how about combinations of chicken, vegetables and rice cooked from scratch. maybe an egg here and there and a spoonful of natural yogurt to help with digestion.
Reply:Expect tummy trouble the first few weeks of offering a new food. Especially older pets. Try switching back to the old food and gradually changing over the course of 2 weeks.





If there is a kibble that agrees with her, pour warm water over it.


Same idea as soggy breakfast cereal. Nutritious and soft.





You can give her a "boost" with products like Nutrical. It's a nutritious paste that is given it sick dogs and puppies. Inexpensive at all pet stores.





Good luck.
Reply:When we have dogs like this at the clinic we suggest a few types of food, and of course, they're the food we sell... not that I agree 100% BUT if you plan on sticking with your canned food, instead of using oatmeal, use Heinz Oatmeal pablum, mix it with your canned food as you did the oatmeal. Start with 1 tblsp and work your way up if she gets loose stool.





Make sure your dog has plenty of fresh, cold water to drink.
Reply:mix dry kibble with the canned food. Or wet dry kibble with warm water so it will be soft for her. Whenever you change a pup's food, transition slowly. Also do you have her on a senior (old pup) quality food?
Reply:I am very surprised your vet doesn't have her on a prescription can food. You can add cooked vegetables (NO ONIONS), they would be soft and you could cut them up for her and they should be easy to pass. Rice would be good too. Some dogs will eat fresh fruits too, but check with your vet on that one and never GRAPES or RAISINS. Good luck.
Reply:I'm a bit confused - by soft kibble, do you mean kibble that has been softened in water? If not, you might want to try that, but also either add some juice from a can of tuna or chicken broth - something much more pungent than your dog used to get.





All their senses get dull when they are so old, and you have to try and compensate for that by giving them something stinkier..but it is best to try to keep with the original recipe of the kibble, so that everything else is balanced. You can soak it, and marinate other things with it to make the stuff more interesting. Dogs won't eat what they can't smell.





Many times I put old dogs on puppy food, as there are extra vitamins and fat, and old dogs don't assimilate as much from their food. The extra fat seems to also make it a bot more appealing.





The other thing that works wonders is to give your dog some vitamin B drops, available at health food stores and pharmacies. That will increase her appetite quite a bit. It also will help her deal with the stress associated with old-dog disorientation.





You could try putting a few drops of cod liver oil or salmon oil on her food, it has anti-inflammatory qualities that will also help her hearing loss, in addition to smelling like garbage (at this point, that's a plus).





Anyway, I hope some of this helps - it's tough getting old!
Reply:we gave our old dog gravy train. dont know if its still on market. you put warm water on the dry food and it made gravy.
Reply:How about grinding up the kibble in a strong food processor. Be careful though, the kibble can fly if you don't hold it down good. The only thing bad about this is you will have a lot of crumbs at the bottom, but if you mix a little pumpkin or something that will aid in bowel movements it can maybe be pretty tasty. My pup needed smaller kibble for a few days and he really liked it but now he is back to full kibble size.



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