Bichon Frise Constipation

My Bichon is now 13 years old and he has been having problems with not wanting to eat.  At times, he will go 1-2 days without food, not even a treat.  I hear his stomach growling.  I will given him 1/2 pepto bismol....will wait about 4 hours and give him another half.  Sometimes this works, other times it won't.  

It seems to be happening more often.  Because he has so many allergies, he has to be kept on a strict diet.  We feed him Wellness Super 5 Mix dogfood.  We only give him natural treats (only a couple of those due to his sensitive stomach).

Does anyone have any suggestions on what we can do?

[tlee59]

Have you tried Blue Homestyle Recipe by The Blue Buffalo Co?  That's all we feed our Bichon now.  It is also the only food that doesn't make him scratch non-stop.  We use some of the canned mixed with some of their dry - the one for small dogs.  His favorite canned is the salmon.  The only thing he doesn't care for in the dry are the small 'berries'.  They are actually the heavy minerals they need.  We grind those up and add them and he is fine with it.  You can find it al Petsmart and Petco.
Good luck!  They are the most awesome dogs!

[peekawho]

It could be about time to take him to the vet for a senior wellness exam, if he hasn't been there recently.

Or you can try (depending on allergies) mixing some babyfood (like the baby food chicken) into his food to see if he'll be more eager to eat.  

[tillville]

Thank you for your response.

What kind of dog food is this?  With our dog having so many allergy issues, the Wellness dog food has been the best we have used so far.  It is just lately that he seems to have this problem with the constipation/not eating.  This happens about once a week and can last 1-2 days (haven't been keeping track of it exactly, but am going to start).  When he is in this funk, he just lays around and won't eat or drink.  Won't even have his favorite treat.  

My husband isn't one for changing to a new dog food easily either.  Is there a place I can get some good info on this dog food?  

[tlee59]

Blue is a holistic dog food we found when reading the can from each brand Petsmart carried.  They have meat as their primary ingredient (as apposed to the biproducts most brands have).  When ours was scratching so much I tried three seperate brands (a week long each) until I found the one that he had no problems with.  Another reason I think our Bichon doesn't have the allergies to this food that he had to all other foods is also that they don't add corn etc... as fillers.  Here is a link you can check out and read what's in their food - http://www.bluebuff.com/?gclid=CLLhjIv__JcCFQRkswod80qCCw    

It doesn't seem fair that Bichon's are the most hypo-allergenic dog for people yet they suffer from more allergies then most other breeds...

Good luck!