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Our female beagle has addison's disease. She's on medication and doing fine with that but she won't eat her food. She'll eat cat food and people food but won't eat dog food. We've tried every canned food, both ground and in pieces, several dry foods and everything in between. We can leave it sit for 3 days and she won't eat. Eventually, I give in and give her a piece of chicken or some leftovers. I don't want her to starve to death. I don't know what to do.

Customer (name blocked for privacy)

Diet is an important part of coping with Addison's. You should talk to your vet for sure (just call and ask) about the right foods.
You can read about the disease here
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/addison_s_disease.html
I have found using NutriCal is a good way to 'jump start' appetitite in a sick dog. But check and see if your vet is OK with using it. Its a sticky supplement you can get at pet supply stores.
You can also try mixing in a small amount of the goodies your dog likes with the food you want it to eat. As she likes chicken if you boil some up you can use the chicken broth you make to make her foods more attractive.
If cooking works for you to feed her then you might want to look at one of the many cookbooks for dog foods out there or ask your vet for recipes or check online such as here
http://www.dragonbear.com/rec-food.html
Clear any recipes with your vet. He may want you to add a vitamin mineral tablet to anything you feed like that.
What I do with food is it goes down for 20 minutes. If it is not eaten it gets picked up and refrigerated and offered again at dinner. I always feed my dogs twice a day so they get two 20 minute chances a day to eat with no snacks. Usually only takes two missed meals before the third (or sometimes the fourth) meal is eaten right up when its put down.
Hope this helps you!

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