When Goliath got here in December he would eat every meal in a flash.
Just scarf it down.
A few weeks after his arrival he started slowing down, taking his time.
Some days he wouldn't eat at all.
He would have terrible gas.
I figeured he wouldn't eat because either A.) He didn't like the food or B.) He was holding out to see if I would feed him human food.
I tried leaving his food on the floor for 15 minutes, if he didn't eat I would pick it up and he would have to wait until the next meal time.
It's a technique that worked on my parent's dog, Sunny, so I thought I would try it on him.
Nope, he would still ignore the food some days.
I tried switching the food...
When he got here I started feeding him Iam's Large Breed formula...
Read the label and dogs that will weigh over 90 pounds need the Large Breed Puppy formula until they reach 2 years.
So, then came a switch to the puppy food.
Still no change, so I switched him to Iams Natural.
Nothing.
Then I tried Purina One Large Breed.
Nope.
Finally it was Purina One Lamb and Rice.
There was a bit of a difference with that food...
On days when he ate, there was little to no gas problem.
But lately it seemed to be getting worse...
When he didn't eat, his gas was worse than ever before.
His stomach started making weird noises on those days and he would also vomit water and stomach vile.

So, Monday I called the vet's office.
I told the receptionist what was going on.
She said she would talk to the vet and call me back.
About an hour later I got a call back.
They said they wanted to see him...
If it had just been gas, it wouldn't be a big issue,
But since he is vomiting and not eating, they wanted to check him out.
They scheduled Goliath for an appointment Tuesday at 1:30pm.

I took him there at 1:20-ish.
He was so well behaved there, especially compared to the last visits!
Before he would whine and try to see everyone and every animal.
This time he just sat next to me, patiently waiting for someone to pet him.
They weighed him... he weighed 99.6 pounds.
Last visit he weighed 84-ish I believe.
He could still gain some weight though.
You can still see his ribs a little and you can feel his spine pretty well, although it isn't too visable.

His temp was normal, he didn't exibit signs of being in pain in his abdominal area.
The vet that checked him out isn't his normal vet, but she's a very nice lady.
She told me there were two possible causes...
Either he has a parasite, or he just has an extremely sensitive stomach.
The drew his blood and did a panel to check for parasites.
If it isn't the parasites, then he will likely be on a prescription dog food the rest of his life.
They also gave me Famotidine, a pill that will keep him from becoming sick on the days when he doesn't eat...
It just knocks down the stomach acid so he's not throwing it up.

They also wanted me to collect a fecal sample, so they could test that as well.

Today I took them the sample and the test results had just come in.
He has high levels of a few different things that I can't remember the name of right now.
Those things being at high levels is a sign of parasites.
I'm going to be glad if they call be back after running the next tests and say, "It's a parasite, come down here and get these pills and he will be all better!"
That sounds a lot better to me that having to fork out $50 for a bag of prescription dog food every couple weeks for the rest of his life.
I thought $40 for a 40 pound bad was a little expensive, even though it's the good dog food, but those prescription bags aren't that big!
And they are expensive!
We will see what happens from here...
It's not a life threatening illness or anything, but it is a little annoying waiting for test results to come in instead of starting a treatment today!