Suddenly constantly hungry.

[Scrabblingforsanity]

I have an 11 year old border collie/GSD mix. Never been ill a day in his life... extremely obedient and generally an amazing dog.

Over the last couple of weeks he is constantly searching for food, to the point where I gave him a treat yesterday and he caught my finger as he snatched it (unheard of, always been ridiculously gentle) I’ve been monitoring his water intake and that seems to be on the up as well... not massively but I’m sure he’s drinking more than usual.

Fed a good quality dry diet.. no issues on walks, seems to be a bit more pacey than usually.

Booked in for vets on Tuesday.. anyone got any ideas? I’m worries about diabetes (not overweight or anything)

Thanks

It's sensible to take him to the vet. I'm sure there are several causes for it.
To be honest, the hunger reminded me of one of my dogs when he became senile. He had to be given lots of small meals at regular intervals. There were a few other signs though like barking for no reason when he'd never barked in the house before, so it probably isn't that with your dog.

I hope it's something easily dealt with.

Several possible causes, I meant!

The barking bit also makes Sense actually but we put it down to him being a bit deaf. We can be sitting with him and the dog goes and he doesn’t even move a muscle.. then 20 seconds later I get a text and the ‘ping’ has him up and barking.

Did you find out what's causing your dog to be so hungry?

Urine rest came back negative so we had a ‘senior blood test’ done. Temperature, heart rate etc all totally normal but he’s put on 7kg in weight in less than 6 months :(.

Results from bloods are due back this morning.... I rang and spoke to receptionist who looked and said they were back but that she would get a vet to call me.

Now trying to not convince myself it’s bad news :/

Thank you for asking!

It is a worry when they get older. I have a lurcher around 11 years old. She's fine at the moment and I like to think she'll be fine for a few years yet but of course that may not be the case.

The dog of mine who became senile started grabbing tissues from me to eat. I couldn't get to the root of it but it was probably the first sign of this hunger developing.

Vets just rang! Slightly low thyroid but apart from that everything is fine. She’s ringing the lab to see if they still have his bloods there to test the severity of the thyroid (something about one has to be low and one has to be high to warrant treatment) and is ringing me back but nothing major! Even more confused now

Hypothyroidism is tricky to definitively diagnose but it could certainly explain the weight gain. If the vet decides hypothyroidism is likely then it can be easily managed with daily tablets. Fingers crossed they sort it out for you

Day 4 of the medication and OH MY GOD he’s like a puppy again! I hadnt realised how slow and sleepy he had become! Yesterday we went out for a 40 minute walk and then we came back and he brought his ball for a game of ‘find’ he hasn’t done that in months! Today we took him to the market and my OH commented that he wasn’t struggling to sit as he has been recently! It’s like someone has switched his brain back on!

--Won’t mention the £45 on a new bed, ridiculous amounts of toys and treats I bought today-- 😂😂

(The second blood test came back to show he had extremely elevated results in TSH or something like that which meant his thyroid is not working at all and that his immune system is actually attacking the thyroid...

The medication is amazing! He actually didn’t finish his breakfast this morning in 5 gulps as he has been doing and instead has been nibbling at it as the morning goes on!

That's such great news. Your happiness leaps off the screen!