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Food Refusal

What is food refusal and how to handle it?

Purpose

A dog who refuses food and loses significant body weight is a medical emergency in our care. This SOP covers how to catch it early, what to try before it escalates, and when it becomes a vet visit.

At a Glance

  • A dog who loses more than 5% of body weight from food refusal is a medical emergency and needs to be watched carefully.
  • Gingr's weight reports flag this automatically under weight reports: yellow at 5% or more change, red at 10% or more.
  • Tell the manager or the lead on duty as soon as a dog skips a meal, then log the miss and every food change in the kennel system.
  • The responsible instructor (RI) notifies the client to check for a history of this behavior or other options.
  • Work through the feeding tactics below in order. If none of them work, take the dog to the veterinarian.
  • For how a vet visit itself is handled, see In-Person Vet Appointments.

Steps

  1. Tell the manager or the lead on duty that a dog has skipped a meal.
  2. Log the lack of food intake and each change in food in our kennel system.
  3. The responsible instructor notifies the client to see if there are other courses of action and if the behavior has been seen before.
  4. If the dog eats dry food, add a small amount of high-quality canned food or chicken broth. This may entice them to eat.
  5. If the dog eats canned food, try warming it. Warming increases the aroma of the food and stimulates the dog's appetite.
  6. Try a different brand of food to see if it's considered more palatable by the dog.
  7. Try hand feeding the dog.
  8. Try a different bowl. Most pets are not accustomed to eating out of a stainless-steel bowl at home.
  9. If none of the above work, take the dog to the veterinarian.

Edge Cases

  • Before assuming a dog won't eat at all, remember most pets aren't used to a stainless-steel bowl at home. Try a different bowl before ruling out appetite as the problem.

Who to Ask

If you are unsure at any point, ask the manager or the lead person for that day.

How often should staff check a food-refusing dog's weight in Gingr?

As soon as a dog refuses a meal, notify the manager and log it and any food changes in the kennel system. From there, follow Gingr's own weight-report flags: yellow at 5% or more change, red at 10% or more, so a flagged dog stays on your radar until the trend reverses or the situation moves to a vet visit.