u/AnnoyingCr-w

I (16M) lived with my aunt (35F) until she was unexpectedly hospitalized about a month ago. She spent 6 days on life support in the ICU and eventually passed away.

Her dog, Kratos, who's likely a Great Pyrenees-Golden Retriever mix and ~9 years old was a rescue from an abusive home, so he already has pretty intense anxiety. She had him for 5 years and he was pretty much velcroed to her until my aunt passed away.

Since her passing, he's been pacing around the house to look for her. He's eating less, and even more hesitant to go outside. I don't think he understands that she passed away, and I don't know how to comfort him.

I've been incentivizing him to go outside with cheese. I've also been checking on him and spending more time with him. I've been petting him and verbally reassuring him, but he still has these behaviors.

Everyone else I live with, my aunt's husband (36M) and my grandma (60F), have been doing the same things I've been trying. Kratos' anxiety is a little better when my uncle in law is around, but he works full time and so does my grandma.

This leaves me the only one to help him most of the time since I'm on summer break and only working part time. It's also really upsetting that I haven't been good enough at comforting him for any of these behaviors to improve. I feel like I should be doing better to comfort him. I don't know how to fix this and I feel so frustrated and so powerless.

I would love to hear any advice to help my aunt's dog.

I keep forgetting to eat and I don't know how to manage this. I am lucky if I eat a full meal in one day.

I've tried setting alarms, but I never feel hungry when the alarm goes off, so I feel like I don't need to eat.

I've also tried drinking protein shakes and smoothies which help a little bit, but sometimes I can't drink them because they feel too powdery and it makes me nauseous. I also have huge sensory issues with food and that just makes eating even harder. I would like to emphasize that my sensory issues are not a preference I can work around. If I try eating/drinking a food that is overwhelming to me I will get extremely nauseous and vomit and then get even more overwhelmed and shut down for at least an hour.

I try to make lists of safe foods, which usually helps but only if I remember the list exists and if I remember that I need food.

I've noticed that this symptom gets especially worse when I'm especially stressed. This is a huge problem because it's much harder for me to handle stress when I'm not eating enough which just gets me caught up in a cycle that's very difficult to break.

Does anyone have strategies, foods, or products to help with this? If anyone knows of protein shakes/powders that aren't too powdery, that'd be especially helpful. I'm also wondering if seeing an occupational therapist or nutritionist could be helpful for me. If anyones had a similar experience and seen an occupational therapist or nutritionist, I'd love to hear your experience.

TLDR: Please give me advice because I keep forgetting to eat. Please read the very last paragraph for to see the more specific advice that I'm requesting.