Cherokee doesn't feel good.

SHE is refusing to eat -- not that it's just coming up.  Has she been pooping?  (I know she hasn't eaten but ... ) Is she drinking?  That's critical.  If she's drinking but not eating then it's not quite so worrying.

Do you know how to tell if she's dehydrated?  with your thumb and forefinger pick up a pinch of skin on her neck until it 'tents'.  Let it go.  Does the skin snap right back as it should or does it stay pulled up like it's 'stuck'???

If she's dehydrated the skin will be sticky like that and won't snap back.  THAT is an emergency.  It's the first thing to watch.

Look at the gums.  Are they nice and pink and the normal color?  (even a dog with dark gums will have a healthy pink tinge to the areas not black).

Do you know how to do a capillary refill test?  Open her mouth or just pull her lip up.  Press the tip of your finger into her gum -- pretty hard -- for a few seconds.  Then release.  It will be white for an instant where you pressed but the color should flood right back.  IF NOT get to a vet. 

Chammomile tea will settle their stomach.  She likely won't drink it voluntarily -- so make some tea (pretty strong -- use two bags instead of one in a cup of hot water -- just let cool with the bags in).  Use a kids medicine syringe and squirt in her mouth.

That's not hard -- put your hand over the top of her muzzle and loosely hold her mouth kinda shut -- but lift her lip and park the tip of the plastic baby syringe behind her canine tooth and squirt it in -- she was work her tongue to swallow but it won't make her choke like just squirting it in their throat can.

Get as much of that down her as you can.  It will help settle her stomach if it's upset. 

Slippery elm will also help a GREAT deal.  If you can get it in bulk great.  But even if you have to buy capsules and empty them.  Take about a teaspoonful of slippery elm powder and dissolve it in 1/4 c. of very warm water (or pedialyte).  It will make a gelatin kind of sludge.  You can add just a tiny bit of meat broth but don't use ANYTHING 'smelly' -- the mere smell of food may turn her stomach.  Just slippery elm isn't bad tasting.

Just like the chammomile -- don't wait for her to volunteer to eat it.  Use the baby medicine syringe and squirt it in her mouth (you can use a turkey baster but it's kinda messy).  But again, get as much of it down her as you comfortably can.

Slippery elm is actually pretty nutritious.  She can live on that until Monday if necessary - it will coat and soothe the stomach and intestinal tract in a big way.

IF she can't hold down ANY of this, get her to a vet -- you could have an obstruction or something bad going on.

Nevermind. The little brat had to make a fool out of me, so literally five minutes after I posted this, she decided to eat. I gave her cheese, she ate that, so I gave her bread, and she ate that, then she went and cleaned out her bowl, and begged me for my lunch, which I shared, and she ate. Whatever.

Oh Callie, I was posting at the same time as you. I'll get that stuff to have on hand for next time, or if she goes back to not eating later. Thanks so much!

Glad she's feeling better.  Those are just plain GOOD things to have on hand.

   I'm glad Cherokee's feeling better. If Jessie hadn't eaten for that long I would have taken her to the vet but I'm a worry wart. Do you think she ate something that upset her stomach; this happens sometimes with Jessie, like when she eats deer poo, and she'll skip one meal but never more than that. I hope Cherokee stays well now.

jessies_mom

Do you think she ate something that upset her stomach;

Probably not. She's always had weird issues with eating, not eating, throwing up... When I first got her, she'd literally eat like 4 times a week. I'd offer her food twice a day, or sometimes just leave it 24/7, and she still only ate a few times a week, and threw up bile in between. Vets said she was just picky and I shouldn't give into her, but when your dog will only eat every other day, it's hard not to give in or offer them other stuff. But that was back when I fed Iams, Science Diet, etc. I don't blame her now for not wanting to eat that. But even when she did eat regularly, she had weird throw-uppy issues. If it was like 12 hours on the dot since she last ate, she threw up bile, and then wouldn't eat for another 12ish hours. So 24 hours without eating, or even a few more, doesn't concern me with her, it's just when it got past 36 and I noticed she was laying around more that I started to say hm, what's going on.

For the past few years, since I've started feeding her better foods, she rarely throws up, but occasionally if I'm a few hours late for feeding her, her stomach starts rumbling (not like hunger pang growls, but a weird rumble) and she won't eat unless I give her something reeeeally yummy..and then she's back to normal and eating. But since that wouldn't work this time, I started to get concerned. She's perfectly fine now though. This morning she harassed me until I fed her, and gobbled it up in 10 seconds. Right now she's jumping around like a lunatic trying to get me to play with her.

Poor Cherokee! I sympathize, I've been having tummy troubles lately too, and apparently (according to my doctor) excess stomach acid can cause a lovely bout of nausea. So you don't eat enough, have too much acid in your stomach, then you feel nauseous, so you don't want to eat. Great! Must be especially confusing for a dog who can't get her doctor to explain the symptoms to her.

Anyway I'm glad the bout of yuckiness, whatever it was, went away pretty quickly. In your shoes I would have been concerned, too :)