Good food accounts for a good mood. Food has an important place in the lives of all that is living. Food drives us, and provides us with the energy to carry out our day to day activities. But sometimes, when pets’ tend to fall sick, or feel a-bit-under the weather, they end up refusing food. This refusal of food is not always a mood-based thing. Yes, some furry paws are extremely picky with respect to their food habits and will eat only those kinds of food items that suit their palate better. However, it’s not that difficult to figure out whether or not your pet is a fussy eater or they’re sick. Whenever your dog is sick, it will be anorexic. Anorexia is a medical terminology that refers to the disinterest shown by pets toward food.
What’s Normal And What’s Not?
Puppies tend to eat small bite size food every couple of hours. On the other hand, adults tend to eat twice or thrice a day. Good digestion not only involves the digestion- excretion process but also involves the emotional aspect, the anticipation aspect and the hunger aspect. When one or more than one of these intertwined processes is hampered, the entire digestion process gets affected. Anorexia is one such condition, wherein the anticipation-will aspect is hampered due to some ongoing medical/emotional condition. Let’s understand more about anorexia.
Anorexia: What Is It?
Your pet starts anticipating food when the usual feeding time arrives. When they observe their food bowl is filled with yummy treats and snacks, the fun ride of ‘Joy Train’ Tail wags, puppy eyes, and happy dance begins! No matter how repetitive the menu is, dogs and cats still fawn over and love to eat their favourite gravy and kibbles every day while cherishing it to their heart’s content.
The exact opposite of this is Anorexia.
Anorexia is defined as the complete disinterest shown by pets toward food.
There is little to no will to eat their usual favourite food. There are happy days and there are those gloomy days when your pet straight off refuses to eat food or drink water. This is driven by emotional and mental aspects. However, this is also largely dependent upon certain physical parameters such as health, disease status, immunity status and so on.
Anorexia has two types.
1. True Anorexia
In this type of anorexia, there is a total lack of hunger, lack of thirst and there is absolutely no will to eat. This type of anorexia is pretty much common in cases of inflammation, some sort of chronic disease, chronic pain, dental problems, and cancer.
Here are a few examples of cases where anorexia may be observed-
- Suppose there is an inflammation of the mouth cavity, due to any reasons. This is medically termed Stomatitis. This could occur due to some injury such as abrasion, cuts, burns due to hot food, etc.
- Gingivitis, or inflammation of the gums, causes excruciating pain while chewing and swallowing, making pets anorexic to a certain extent
- In cats, teeth problems are not that uncommon. The common reason behind this is due to a virus known as calicivirus, which causes swelling and reddening of the gums. This accounts for loose teeth, swelling and reddening of the gum sockets, causing intense pain while eating and chewing. Teeth loose their normal quality of grinding and chewing and thus, dental extraction is one of the ways to solve this problem.
- For cases of cancer, and chronic pain, there is no to very little will to drink water or eat food.
2. False Anorexia
False Anorexia is a condition wherein there is a will to eat, mentally the dog wants to eat, but is not eating optimally, or is not eating at all.
Here are a few signs-
The dog/cat tries to go near the food bowl.
The pet is drinking water but refusing solid food.
Pet goes near the food and water bowl and sits there anticipating food but is unable to eat.
Pet accepts your offer for food but then refuses to eat it.
Your pet is unable to eat due to some ongoing pathology such as infections.
Here are a few conditions which make your pet anorectic.
- Infection
Infection caused by a foreign antigen such as bacteria, viruses, or protozoa makes your pet nauseous. Concurrent signs such as vomiting, diarrhoea, and feeling low mentally all add up to fuel anorexia.
Liver infection/Inflammation such as hepatitis or kidney disease affects many different systems of the body culminating in anorexia, weakness and a further chain of events that starts spiralling down.
- Psychology
Stress, mental agony, hurt, emotional triggers all such psychological events can result in pets refusing to eat food. Sudden environmental changes, traveling, and transportation all can collectively add up and your pet might refuse to eat food for a while.
- Other possible reasons include- Toxins ingestion
Temperature fluctuations and changes
Medication side effects
Overall, pseudo anorexia is due to some secondary reason, collateral to some ongoing underlying issue which is not intially the cause of total inappetance and anorexia.
Inappetance Or Anorexia : How To Figure It Out?
Technically speaking, there are various levels of anorexia and inappetence.
Let us understand the difference between anorexia and inappetence.
Inappetance refers to the lack of appetite for a short duration of time. At the same time, anorexia is the consistent lack of appetite where your pet consistently refuses to eat food and starts losing weight. Anorexia is usually a prequel to and collateral of many different kinds of pathologies. Eating food and cherishing it, are two different yet intertwined entities. Hunger on the one hand is physically driven,whereas appetite is usually a mentally driven aspect. Your stomach rumbles a little, and gurgles a bit when you see a delicious food item, however only when your brain captures the food with the sensory organs such as eyesight, and smell, the physical process of digestion begins. However, the anticipation of food is equally important in triggering the food mechanism. And thus, we can easily conclude the fact that, yes, hunger and appetite are both different sides of the same coin and are related to each other closely.
What To Do In Case Of Anorexia?
Anorexia is always a symptom rather than a disease entity in itself. Always remember that anorexia is a secondary event in the course of events. Anorexia is not disease specific but is almost always present in cases of infections, inflammation and so on. Therefore, the main aim is to correct the underlying cause.
If the underlying cause of anorexia is infectious – Treatment includes treating the infection by giving specific antibiotics, supportive therapy etc.
If the underlying cause of anorexia is physical stress or mental stress – treatment includes providing the pet with a stress free environment, taking care of their emotional needs, taking them out for a walk, playing with them, etc.
If the underlying cause of anorexia is established as cancer, or other pathological conditions – the treatment protocol involves resolving these issues.
Anorexia can be managed effectively with concurrent management of the surrounding collateral disease process. PENTOFF DROPS is a homeopathic formulation exclusively for pets. It is very effective and efficient in improving anorexia in dogs and cats which could be due to any of the underlying causes like fever, vomitions, diarrhea, deficiency, anemia, anxiety, constipation, liver problems, or any unknown acute or chronic illness, etc.
Homeopathic remedies work on the principle of “similiasimilibuscuranter” which means “like cures like”, so is our PENTOFF, a superb homeopathic formulation exclusively for pets. It is very effective and efficient in improving anorexia in dogs and cats, maybe due to any of the underlying causes like fever, vomiting, diarrhea, deficiency, anemia, anxiety, constipation, liver problems, or any unknown acute or chronic illness, etc.
Anorexia therefore, as such, is not a disease process but is a PART of the ongoing disease process. To approach this in a 360° manner is important to help our pets recover better and resume their normal habits and rituals.
Happy Pets for a happy you.
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