Any Vets out there?

This is an advice post, I guess. If you have any suggestions, feel free. We have a Beagle, he is 4 years old, his name is Riley. Well, the girls and I actually call him "woozy pup" in this really annoying high pitch baby voice - it drives my husband crazy and he claims we are making his dog a sissy by talking to him like that - but the dog loves it.

Let me give you a little background. We live on 10 acres and have about 100 acres surrounding us, all pretty much undeveloped and with woods, ponds, pine forests, etc. - pretty wild. Needless to say, the dog basically has the run of the whole area. He is never kennelled, never tied up and runs free, with his nose to the ground, pretty much all the time. When he is tired of running, he scratches on the door and proceeds to come in and curl up for a long nap on his LARGE sheepskin bed, next to his always full - bowls of food and water. In other words, this dog lives the 'life of Riley', literally. When I die, please let me come back as my dog. Which brings me to the problem.

The dog has not eaten in a whole week. I mean, NOT eaten. He has been drinking a little bit of water, but not much. He has not lost weight, he does not act sick, he is not acting any different than he usually does. I assume he is doing his 'duty' (pooping), although, I never see him do his duty because he is always running and doesn't do it in the yard. He is peeing though, that he does do in the yard. I know, I know, way more than you needed to know - but this is a medical issue - so bare with me.

The obvious answer is - he's eating somewhere else or eating something else (like rabbits or dead carcasses of some type I would rather not think about) - but for an entire week? Usually we are filling this dog's bowl 2 times a day.

So, I guess the question is - if you have a dog that is not acting sick, but is not eating, do you take it to the vet? The vet is so damn expensive, I try not to run there every time the dog farts, but this is different and I will feel badly if there is something wrong. My husband has the attitude of 'if it ain't broke....', but I'm not sure.

So, let me know Internet, what would you do? Do you have a dog that has ever done this? We can't have anything happen to the "woozy pup" - this family will fall apart without this little shit being around.