Jump to content
BC Boards

Comfortable feeding position


gcv-border
 Share

Recommended Posts

My husband noticed that our very senior dog, Ritz, was having trouble stabilizing herself when eating because she has the fairly normal senior issue of weak back legs. Her legs would shake harder when she put her head down to eat. This, of course, makes eating very hard for her - and she needs all the calories she can get.

 

Ritz eats on a carpeted floor, and in a closed off room because the chaos of 2 other dogs and 2 cats also eating (fast) and then surrounding her distracts her to the point that she will stop eating. I confess that I was not on top of this as I should have been because I would put her in the room with her food bowl, close the door and then come back 5-10 minutes later to see if she had eaten. My husband was the one who was in the room with her one day while she ate.

 

This morning, I put her food bowl up on an ~6 inch box, and watched her (and my husband watched too) while she ate. What a difference. No more shaking back legs while she dropped her head to eat at floor level. I think she also ate a little faster.

 

Just wanted to share in case someone thinks that elevating the food bowl might make their dog more comfortable while eating.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have one of those food bowl stands. Speedy won it as a prize in a raffle at a Freestyle competition. It was his, but then it became the property of the oldest dog. So, Sammie had it. Now Dean has it. Every dog who has had it seems to really like it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I raised Kat's bowl for about the last year of her life. I also set her up to eat in the bottom half of a plastic dog crate, and put something in the bottom (actually a memory foam bath mat covered with a towel) that helped to keep her feet from sliding out from under her, which is another problem she had. Even if they did slide, the crate was small enough that she could brace against the back/sides. It worked great for her. She had hind leg weakness due to an injury (spinal embolism) and vestibular. Some of you probably saw the pictures of the setup on Facebook.

 

J.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ritz is being fed on a thick carpet. I don't think that she requires being fed in a crate for stability purposes (but I don't want to completely rule it out). Regardless, she has always needed complete quiet and zero distractions to eat, plus she has never been fed in a crate. Crate-feeding would be a change in routine which she would not be able to handle ('sensitive' girl that she is, and always has been <_< ).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If she's on a carpet and not slipping, then no need to fix what ain't broken. I was just mentioning the kinds of accommodations I made when Tilly needed help. Ritz may not need as many and that's fine.

 

The point, especially for others who may read the thread, is more about looking to figure out what kinds of things may help than the specific changes made. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^^Exactly. Kat's feet slid on every surface. I was going to make some sort of frame for her to stand in, then someone suggested using the bottom half of a crate. At that time in her life, Kat would not tolerate being in a crate at all, but she ate fine in the bottom half of one.

 

But the point really is to just be creative to try to come up with solutions that help the individual old dog in question....

 

J.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is supposed to be a higher risk of bloat with raised food bowls (funny because some people use it as a supposed preventative measure), but I would say the comfort to the arthritic dog would outweigh that risk (for me at least). Just adding it because on these boards we like random information.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is supposed to be a higher risk of bloat with raised food bowls (funny because some people use it as a supposed preventative measure)

 

Interesting, as I've heard the same thing about raised bowls to prevent bloat as well.

 

I wonder how much the bowl is raised would make a difference? I've seen some folks using bowls that are raised so much that the dog isn't lowering its head much at all.

 

I didn't raise bowls that much for Tilly. The food bowl was raised about 6" and I just measured the water bowl, which I never lowered after she died, which is 3 3/4" higher than sitting on the floor. This for a medium sized border collie, so they're still lowering heads to eat and drink, just not as much.

 

My dogs are raw fed, so normally take their chunks of meat and bone outside to eat and choose their own positions, which is lying down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, when I have researched bloat and raised food bowls (not that I have ever had to deal with bloat in one of my dogs - knock on wood), I found arguments on both sides. Some people swore that raising the food bowl helped prevent bloat in their dog(s) - usually a larger breed. Others were passionate that it was only after they lowered the bowl (having previously used a raised feeding bowl) that their dog stopped having bloat episodes.

 

I think that I raised the feeding bowl only about 5-6 inches like Gentle Lake.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is supposed to be a 5 year study by someone called Glickman, of Purdue University, which found that the risk was increased for dogs eating from raised bowls, but my google-fu failed to find a full-text peer-reviewed version of the study to critique it or look at how much the risk was.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...