Sometimes Health Issues Cause Issues

Chance developed aspiration pneumonia again before Christmas.  This was her 2nd bout in 25 months.  Her 1st bout was the reason we started grinding her raw food.

As she recovered, she decided she didn't want to eat her ground raw chicken anymore.  We thought she might be bored with chicken, even though it's always been her favorite, so I bought some ground turkey to try.  If she liked that, we could add it to raw ground chicken bone that still needed meat.  She ate a small amount of turkey then stopped.  She was still eating her ground red meats though and the canned dog food we were feeding so she was getting much needed calories since she was underweight and recovering from a serious illness.    Poultry is the only soft-boned meat she will eat so rabbit wasn't a substitute.

We decided that she didn't want the ground poultry anymore because it was so sticky and may have been causing issues with her megaesophagus pouch.  I had bought a couple of bags of Stella and Chewy's freeze-dried raw patties to have in case of an emergency so we decided to see if she would eat those.  She likes their meal mixers, which she has been eating as treats, and she loves the freeze-dried patties.  She also stopped eating her ground raw red meats unless they were mixed in with canned dog food.  Being almost 15 and needing to gain weight, we decided to let her eat what she wants.

We have tweaked and tweaked her diet in the 2+ months since her pneumonia diagnosis and have come up with a "meal plan" that seems to work well for her.  She gets 4 Stella and Chewy's patties, 1/2 her normal red meat dinner that we further process in the food processor, 3/4 can of high calorie dog food that is pureed using the stick blender, and 4 high calorie treats.  She also gets lots of meal mixers and other treats, cat food that we use to hide her meds in, and more high calorie dog food for a snack.