Bulking Up A Healthy, But Very Underweight Dog.

[brutus]

Hello,

I have a big problem in that my dog is absolutely impossible to keep any weight on, and with all this recent cold weather, this has become an even bigger struggle. I have actually worked as a vet nurse for the past 7 years, but was hoping that someone may have been in a similar situation, and may have some helpful hints.

Brutus is a 5yo, male (n) staffy x boxer, and he has always been a very lean dog. I actually found him as an emaciated puppy (he was dumped in a box ), but I have always managed to keep a reasonable amount of coverage on him. He isn't an overly fussy eater, but has never been very food orientated (compared to my garbage guts toy poodle anyway). That being said, he typically will happily eat whatever is put down in front of him.

At the moment, in absolute honesty, he looks like a cruelty case. His ribs are protruding, and his hips are very prominent. I have taken him in to work and had a full work-up done (bloods / teeth checked etc), and there is no obvious problem. He has been his normal happy self, but I just cringe when I look at him.

I am currently feeding him premium puppy food 2-3 times a day, and he also gets treats throughout the day (as I live with my 90 yr old grandmother). I have started adding oats to his dinner over the past 2 months as well as this was suggested by one of the vets at work.

He has never had any medical problems, and has actually been a regular blood donor (although I have stopped over the past few months due to his physical condition). That being said, he never donated more than once every 5-6 months, and so it was hardly excessive.

He sleeps inside at night, and has access inside during the day. He is walked a couple of times a week, but nothing excessive as I have had a few health problems. He does have a large, grassed backyard however, and quite happily plays with my other dog during the day.

I have tried to put jumpers & coats on him since he was a pup, but unfortunately they tend to last about a week. He is not destructive with his bedding, but he has never been keen on having anything on him. I have tried doggiejama / weatherbeeta etc, none of which have survived.

I would really appreciate any suggestions at this point as am just stuck - I was thinking about adding omega 3s to his diet, but he does tend to get home-cooked fish-leftovers about once a week.

Thank you !

- just wanted to add that he gets fed separately, and so he most certainly gets to eat his dinner

Edited July 11, 2011 by brutus

[aussielover]

How much do you feed him at each meal?

Have you tried giving him lots of energy dense snacks in between. I found lamb flaps to be very fatty, also things like eggs and sardines in oil are quite high in calories.

What is his overall activity/energy level like?

[Jumabaar]

Foods I use to bulk my dogs up

Vets all Natural- grain based product

Livamol- a powder that has lots of protein and nutrients, even a small amount makes a big difference to my dogs condition

Lamb necks and Chicken carcasses- high in fat (but not excessive)

Puppy milk

I use Artemis Osopure Power Formula as well.

Edited July 11, 2011 by ~Woofen~

[Tilly]

My youngest drops weight over night if I don't rug him up (nice warm doggy coat) at night - so if Brutus won't wear a coat make sure he is in a warm place when it is cold. Some days you can clearly see all my boys ribs ... he could make a greyhound look fat!

We need to feed our boy at least twice a day with snacks ... he is currently eating 4 cups of Canidae (Grain Free Salmon) and about 3kg of a variety of chicken frames / lamp flaps / fish (whole fish - head, guts etc) / BARF etc per day!!!

I believe as long as there is no medical condition for being so thin ... it isn't always a bad thing - for a large dog it is better on the hips/joints. Some dogs are naturally skinny (just like people).

Edited July 11, 2011 by Tilly

[brutus]

Thank you very much for all the wonderful suggestions.

Had never actually considered Livamol (even though I used to have my horses on it a few years ago) - I do remember it used to work wonders on 'poor doers' back then, so shall definitely give that a go.

Brutus currently gets 3-4 cups morning & night, which is over his recommended intake, but he happily eats it and so its hardly going to do any damage.

He is a fairly active dog, but he is quite happy to sit and sleep in the sun during the day, so its not as if he is an overly anxious / hyperactive dog ? I would love to be able to give him more 'energy-dense' snacks during the day, but as I am at work / uni, I do rely on my elderly grandmother and don't feel like I can ask her to feed him more than once in my absence.

I will make sure I look into the grain diet as well, and may increase the sardines in his diet over winter at least.

Thank you for all these wonderful ideas.

Oh and he sleeps on a raised surface in the living room (a trampoline style bed) with a big cushion & plenty of blankets so he is protected from the cold. I am very much a believer that it is better for animals to be leaner rather than overweight, but he is at the point where he does look painfully thin (his spine is really evident some days). My toy poodle on the other hand, is continuously on a restricted diet as she will eat anything & everything (and wasn't blessed with his metabolism).

Thanks again !

[brutus]

oh and Woofen, what is the Artemis Osopure Power Formula ? Will look it up when I am next in at work, but can't say I have heard much about this product.

[Jumabaar]

oh and Woofen, what is the Artemis Osopure Power Formula ? Will look it up when I am next in at work, but can't say I have heard much about this product.

It is just a very high energy kibble that I use when my Kelpies are doing flyball and agility, I drop them back to regular kibble when they are not working as hard.

[twodoggies2001]

What about digestive enzymes. I have a senior mini schnauzer and he actually eats more than my 3yr old mini and he was very thin. I also put a coat on him all winter and that certainly helps but I have added digestive enzymes to his feeds and that has helped him tremendously. My vet explained that trying to keep warm burns off calories, even though he is an indoors dog.

[oakway]

Hi,

I know you said that that you have had blood works done, but have you had a T5 Thyroid panel done and sent it Jean Dodd's at Hemo Pet in The states. Could be worth a try. You never know what she may come up with.

[pixie_meg]

We've done raw and many kibbles and the best one so far for keeping weight on and muscle tone was Royal Canin Energy 4800. It doesn't make him fat, just in good condition.

[Dogsfevr]

Here they get ice cream,2/3 scoops each day & stakes the weight on .

But i also feed raw mutton,necks etc etc

[Skye2]

Royal canin 4800 is another good one. My friend uses it for her boxer and within a week you can see a difference. It is 30% fat.

[brutus]

I'll look into the Royal Canin and give that a try first perhaps as he is currently on Royal Canin anyway (puppy formula). I used to have him on the premium performance Eukanuba as that is very high in protein (30%) & fat (20%), but the 4800 looks like an even better formulation.

I've had him checked for EPI and so don't think the enzymes would make much difference as his levels were normal, but have certainly seen dogs that they have worked wonders on (older dogs especially). Great idea but.

And the T5 is an interesting concept - I had his thyroid levels checked through IDEXX, but shall look into your suggestion as well ?

Thanks again - taking everything onboard

[Keira&Phoenix]

It could also be that your dog is intolerant to something that you are feeding him ie: my dog Keira was pretty similar to what you have describing (thin, can see ribs and hips)with bad skin it turned out she had an intolerance to beef and wheat, both of which she was getting in her normal diet (more so beef than wheat) and with a change to a different diet she is now coming good. The intolerance means your dog is not absorbing anything from his food and body isn't functioning correctly. Many dogs are intolerant to grains/wheats so this could be his problem and raw feeding might be a better option for you.

Best of luck.

PS - Thyroid tests done here in Aus are no where near what Jean Dodds does in the US. Erny who is a frequent here is very knowledgeable on the subject but is way sick at the moment.

Edited July 12, 2011 by Keira&Phoenix

[MonElite]

Im a VERY strong advocate of natural feeding and learned tricks on how to keep weight on a dog, not that I currently need to, as my dogs are all pigs and will eat anything, and are more on a constant diet to keep them lean.

But I did have a semi fussy eater before, he never looked very underweight but looked slim.

First thing that works is giving the dog what he likes, mine liked chicken so he ate a lot of chicken wings, carasses, necks etc. He wasnt keen on veggies but liked liver so when I was doing a veg and mince mix Id always added a bit of cooked liver to the mix and he like that. Im yet to find a dog that doesnt like cooked liver.

He liked any human food, so any left overs would get thrown into the mix as well, cut up in tiny bits so he couldnt just pick the tasty stuff but had to eat the other things with it. Also adding beetroot to the mix helped - beetroot is sweet he seemed to like it.

And the best motivator was eating in competition with another dog, not separatelly. I feed all my dogs together, I often just stand there looking and making sure they dont steal from each other, however they can see each other and naturally compete.

Also when I trained I used food as rewards with his particular dog, so he got a lot of his food during training, he like that. Id teach him heaps of tricks at home and rewarded him for being a circus dog at home.

I made sure he got raw fish, or canned, or at least fish oil capsules pretty much every day. His coat was super shiny, he had occasional flaky dry skin, but the actual fur was always tip top shiny, even if I didnt wash him for weeks on end.

In winter he had a coat on at night, even inside the house (unless the heater was on full blast and he would make his spot in front of the heater then)

And as others said - no harm in doing a thyroid and liver blood test. I do that anyway almost every year on my dogs that are healthy and dont show signs of anything wrong with them.

I also noticed that over worming would put my dgos off their food, and when I used to vaccinate they would go off the food for several days. So I minimise worming and only do vaccinations as per J. Dodds advice.

Edited July 12, 2011 by MonElite

[Danois]

My dane was extremely lean when he was younger despite consuming large amounts of food (feeding Eagle Pack) - he was otherwise in great health.

I switched to the following diet and fed 4 times a day - breakfast, left with lunch, dinner and supper:

- Eagle Pack Power (orange bag);

- chicken carcasses;

- for a week out of every 4-5 I would make a mix of rice, cooked sweet potato and pumpkin, fruit and vegie pulp;

- full fat yoghurt, sardines and tuna on his kibble; and

- breakfast was porridge made in the microwave with water and then made mushy with rice milk. (Loves this one!)

This was effective for getting the weight on him - I think it was about 7kg in 2 months to get him from 53kg to around 60kg.

I now maintain him on Canidae Grain Free Salmon (same protein/ fat roughly at the EPP), half dozen chicken wings as well as an assortment of cottage cheese, tuna and sardines in tomato sauce.