My senior dog stopped eating, vet tests negative. What was missed?

Question

My twelve year old Beagle suddenly stopped eating. I took her to the vet and a complete examination was done, including lab work, a fecal exam as well as an abdominal x-ray. All came back negative. I've mixed a quality canned food with her normal quality senior dry dog food but she reluctantly eats it but has turned her nose down to her normal treats and such. What could we have missed in her examination? Pet's info: Dog | Beagle | 12 years and 1 month old

Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA · Accepted Answer

I'm sorry to hear that Charlie is sick! It can be frustrating when something is obviously wrong, but testing comes back normal. It would help to be able to actually look over her lab results (and even her x-rays, if you have copies of them) - sometimes there are clues to what the problem may be, even if the values aren't technically "abnormal." If you want to request a one-on-one consultation, you can upload copies of everything - I would be happy to take a look at them and see if I see anything that might help. If everything is truly "normal" and nothing looks suspicious at all on any of her testing so far, the next step that I would consider would be an abdominal ultrasound. This will often show things that can't be seen on x-rays, and unfortunately an abdominal tumor of some kind is fairly high on the list of possibilities for a 12 year old dog with these symptoms and normal blood work. Depending on the ultrasound results, exploratory surgery or endoscopy may ultimately be needed to get a diagnosis.

My senior dog stopped eating, vet tests negative. What was missed?

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