I had an epiphany today while trying to coax General Grape (who my friend tells me is now renamed to General Grapenut) to eat more. He hasn't been gaining weight, and he still looks thin and dehydrated, whereas the other two are gaining rapidly and look fantastic.

I was watching him eat and I realized that he goes for the food, takes three or four bites, and then walks away. I was trying to figure out what made him lose interest, and I noticed that he chews only on one side of his mouth, jerks his head sometimes, and grinds his teeth occasionally when eating.

Naturally, it's a holiday weekend and the only clinic that's open right now is the emergency clinic. HIS vet isn't open until Tuesday. I've been syringe-feeding him a little bit of water and making sure the soft food is mushed up into a slurry. I also bought a box of Forti-Flora today (WHAT A HASSLE!! I had two places LIE and tell me it's prescription-only before I found somewhere that would sell it to me!! Prescription probiotics, what nonsense...) which has increased his interest in the food.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why he might be grinding at four weeks old or what I can do to keep his weight up until he can see the vet? He is still playing with toys, still RUNS out the door of the bathroom every time I open it, he just looks like a little skeleton. Of course we will go to emergency immediately if he starts looking unhappy, but I'm hoping to avoid that.

I'm offering four dishes of food; crunchy kibble, soaked kibble, wet food, and a bowl of KMR. I've seen him eat at all of them, though he loses interest after a few bites still.