leilanianne
January 20th, 2008, 12:31 PM
My 3yr old ****tzu stopped drinking water right around the time I got pregnant. But just the water in the house. He will drink the rain water outside. He will drink it if I hold the bowl for him. After a few weeks of that he also started not eating his food either. He will eat it from my hand and now from the floor. He did this as a puppy. But it wasn't hard to get him to eat and drink. So I have dealt with this before. This time he isn't giving in. Does anyone have any ideas. Is it just because of the pregnancy? If it is I won't be able to stay on the floor with him. I would like some answers please.
hazelrunpack
January 20th, 2008, 08:53 PM
My first step would be taking him to the vet to rule out any medical problem. If he's not eating or drinking, he might be ill. :shrug:
bethaliz
January 20th, 2008, 09:30 PM
Agreed, I would make sure with a vet that nothing is wrong with him. Beyond that leave food as normal, Do not give treats or hand feed. He will eventually eat. Shih Tzu's can be stubborn.
We have 5 in our house and one came down with food allergies so we had to switch food. With this many dogs it's easier to put them all on the same food. After we found a food that worked for the dog with allergies, Pixie decided to go off her food for a while. We took her to the vet because it's not like her not to eat. It was around the time of a death in the family. The vet said she was just reacting to the tension in the house. So as our vet instructed we feed everyone the same as always. It only took a couple days for her to decide to eat on her own.
Luba
January 21st, 2008, 12:34 AM
Maybe something about the bowl as well, try to put down a different bowl.
Maybe dental pain?
My dog has a severe undershot jaw and her bottom canines were pressing into her upper pallet. This is also common with your breed. We had dental incline plates installed to adjust her bite for that purpose, but she needs to eat out of shallow dish and have it raised up higher because of her undershot jaw (lower jaw much smaller then upper, she looks like a shark LOL)
Some things to consider.
TKW
January 21st, 2008, 04:15 AM
My dog had this problem when he's a puppy. If you are using plastic or stainless steel water bowl, try switch to ceramic. Give him bottled water or Brita (filtered) water to eliminate the chlorine taste presented in tap water. Out of desperation, we'd pretend to play and let him drank from a running garden hose with some success. We also tried chicken broth. To this day, we still give him filtered water in a ceramic bowl only.