This morning's eating wasn't quite as impressive as last night, though still much improved. This time we gave Thirteen lamb canned food, and mixed in some of the "little bites" Science Diet kibble. She ate everything we gave her eventually, with some coaxing. There could be a lot of reasons:
- she didn't like the kibble
- she didn't like the lamb as much as the duck
- she's less hungry in the morning
- her strong appetite last night was the result of barely having eaten for 36 hours, and this morning was more normal.
Plus probably other reasons I haven't thought of. She ate a half can of wet food plus a quarter cup of kibble and a dollop of Nutrical. I would have hoped for more, but it's still a big improvement over refusing to eat entirely. Tonight we'll try one of the other flavors of canned and see how she does.
I'm just catching up on the Thirteen saga, and I'm glad it's reached a better place before the next chapter...
Anyway, to echo a comment from someone else: Hypothyroid can depress *any* activity, including appetite. The combination of bad food, infection, and hypothyroid was probably making her too unhappy to eat. Good work in finding a better food for her!
As to whether thyroid treatment is hard on the system: No, I don't think it is, in a dog who is actually hypothyroidal. But having too much thyroid hormone can be as bad as having too little, so I'm sure they just want to make sure they have an accurate diagnosis before beginning treatment.