Waning appetite in a pet’s final months requires monitoring—and perspective

Many guardians discover as they tend to pets in their final months, their appetite just isn’t the same as it once was. It’s not a happy observation.

It’s important to understand that pets aren’t giving up or being willful about their desire to eat: it’s something that can emerge with that time of life. Disease processes can affect a pet’s appetite, along with medications and changes in physiology can impact how food tastes to them. Pain of all sources most definitely plays a role, in fact it’s the most common reason behind appetite challenges, with anxiousness following closely.

Pets who’ve entered the period that leads up to animal hospice supported natural death—usually three months prior, give or take—most certainly see a decrease in food intake, along with other signals, and that’s expected and interpreted differently. While that is a topic for another time, what I will be focusing in on here is that messy, grey area in those final months when families really struggle since death isn’t imminent, and sustaining life looks different for the pet. 

When assisting pet guardians who are in my concierge animal hospice & palliative care program with quality of well being (QWB) assessments, getting granular about appetite challenges is a priority. Being curious about any changes in the household and other stressors, whether or not they’re able to stay on track with their medications that are designed to address pain are my starting points. And then it’s always critical to ensure that we have perspective: that is, differentiate between dysrexia, hyporexia and anorexia. Honing in on that can tell us a lot about what’s going on, and what direction we need to go with hurdling that before getting in touch with the vet. In most cases, the family and I are able to pin down what’s going on and get the situation sorted.

Of course, there are times that the veterinarian needs to intervene to medically suss out what might be behind the change in appetite. There are times they determine the pet is eating plenty given their lower activity levels, it’s just way less than what they needed when they were younger, more healthy and active. And perhaps they just can’t eat as much due to various reasons.

Regardless of the shift, it’s always a great idea to ensure that the amount of food that a pet is eating—or will eat—is on par with their caloric needs (and nutritional requirements). The truth is, brands and recipes vary in their caloric and nutritional composition, no matter if it’s kibble, canned, fresh frozen, homemade and other types, measure for measure. And that fact highlights a valuable consideration that I learned years ago in my animal hospice training, and it has reduced the stress for many of my families: quantity doesn’t necessarily need to be the thing that should be considered with one food over another. A hard concept, no doubt, given that a certain amount of food feels reliable and telling that things are on track. And that's the kind of thing pet guardians need in this stage of their pet’s life. 

For guardians struggling to get their pet to eat what they deem to be a meaningful amount of food and they’re laser-focused on that, instead, they should consult with their veterinary team and have them evaluate the pet’s caloric and nutritional requirements against the specific diet or diets they are eating. From there, they can calculate factors like the number of calories (sometimes referred to as kilocalories, or kcals) that the pet needs to be at their best. It’s not that uncommon that a family discovers that the pet needs fewer of those than they expected. And with that, they can relax a little, have expectations of themselves that are more realistic, and have mealtimes less stressful for both guardian and their beloved pet. 

And, the veterinary team can even suggest solid alternative diets that are suitable no matter the changing needs, should a pivot be necessary. 

With over 20 years of experience in pet care and the past 10 of those focused on animal hospice, Lorrie Shaw is a Certified Animal Hospice Practitioner, Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Advocate and Certified Fear Free Professional. She is CXO of Telos Companion Animal Services, LLC. She can be found at lorrieshaw.com.

Study on homemade pet food recipes finds that most are nutritionally incomplete

Flickr photo by EraPhernalia Village

“I can’t believe that as someone who knows as much as you do about the pet food industry, that you don’t feed a homemade diet,” an acquaintance of mine asserted a few months ago.

“Doing otherwise is so risky…”

I think it’s safe to say that the topic of the diet of companion animals evokes a lot of emotion in pet owners.

It’s no surprise, really.

Although the pet food industry was branching and embracing a holistic, natural approach a few years ago, the largest pet food recall in history surely propelled the movement to consider what pets are eating everyday a bit more closely. Then, a far-reaching recall involving Diamond Pet Foods seemed to be the tipping point for a lot of people.

It’s one thing for quality control tests to occasionally find salmonella contamination in a batch of food, but as many of you have noted in your emails and phone calls to me, for one company to overlook such huge lapses in the safety and quality during production is alarming.

Months and months later, I am still getting telephone calls from people regarding the Diamond recall. Several of these calls involved pets that were believed to have died as a result of consuming food produced by the company.

People want to feel empowered that the choices that they are making on behalf of their dogs and cats are the right ones, so it seems natural that they’ll be willing to choose what they deem to be wholesome and healthy — and if they are controlling the ingredients, they feel, ‘so much the better’. There's nothing wrong with that, certainly.

Enter the popularity of feeding raw diets (especially with the availability of formulas that are now commercially available) or at the very least offering food that is made at home.

It seems that one can’t pick up a magazine geared toward pets or surf the web without finding at least one article or blog post touting the benefits of homemade pet diets, right along with recipes.

This prompted researchers at University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine to do a study on recipes for home cooked pet diets, and the results were released in the June issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Jennifer Larsen, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at UC Davis and Jonathan Stockman, a veterinary doctor and second-year resident in clinical nutrition at UC Davis, selected 200 recipes from more than 30 sources, including pet care books, websites — even veterinary textbooks.

The findings are bound to set off some fireworks.

"The results of this study, however, indicate that most available recipes for healthy dogs, even those published in books by veterinarians, do not provide essential nutrients in the quantities required by the dog," Larsen noted.

"It is extremely difficult for the average pet owner—or even veterinarians—to come up with balanced recipes to create appropriate meals that are safe for long-term use."

The conclusion of the study? Out of 200 recipes, only nine provided all essential nutrients in concentrations that met the minimum standards established for adult dogs by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). Eight of those recipes were written by veterinarians.

Only four of the 200 recipes could pass muster when it came to meeting acceptable nutrient profiles of the AAFCO and the National Research Council's minimum requirements.

Those four recipes were written by board-certified veterinary nutritionists.

Commonly found nutrient deficiencies were linked to choline, vitamin D, zinc and vitamin E and could possibly result in profound health issues like immune dysfunction.

Many stick to the idea that as long as recipes are rotated, any deficiencies that might occur with one specific recipe can be avoided with the "balance over time" concept.

Larsen, who is lead author on the study, says that’s hard to achieve, since most of the recipes share many of the same nutrient deficiencies.

So how can pet owners be empowered and equally mindful?

Larsen makes clear that "homemade food is a great option for many pets, but we recommend that owners avoid general recipes from books and the Internet and instead consult with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist.”

"These specialists have advanced training in nutrition to help formulate customized and nutritionally appropriate recipes."

Click here to read more on the findings of the study.

Lorrie Shaw is a blogger and owner of Professional Pet Sitting. Shoot her an email, contact her at 734-904-7279 or follow her adventures on Twitter.