Skinny dog needs weight....

bhensley · 11-28-2010, 07:04 AM

I know she isn't a hunting dog but still figured I'd turn to you guys for advise on this. I have a 6 year old female boxer and a 1 year old female boxer. (Mother and daughter) Well we can't seem to get any weight on the older dog (Momma). Her ribs are very noticeable and really skinny around her back/stomach area. Now these dogs have sensitive stomach's and changing food is hard on them but can be done except the pup can't seem to handle beef based food, she'll get the runs bad so we have to keep them on a lamb and rice or chicken and rice food to keep her from getting sick. We currently feed them Nutro Max brand dog food whick was recommended to use by our local Dog and horse supply after the vet told use to switch foods to the lamb/chicken and rice based foods. We've talked about getting each dog their own brand of food but I thought I'd see if there were any other options before doing that as it could be a pain keeping the other dog out of Mamma's food to keep her from getting sick. Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

bigtomshooter · 11-28-2010, 09:55 AM

I have heard that bread is fattening for dogs to help them gain weight... also if you havent already try mixing in some canned dog food with her dry food. Just keep trying different things until she finds something she likes and eats alot of. good luck.

JW · 11-28-2010, 01:55 PM

Well you might have thought of it but have the dogs checked for parasites ie....worms. You are correct changing foods is not a good thing as it takes a dog's digestive system to adapt to some foods.

I feed Pro Plan Chicken and Rice. However i would consult your vet.

JW

bhensley · 11-28-2010, 03:44 PM

Ok thanks guys, she has been to the vet and no worms etc.... I did give an extra bowl of food today with water/beef boullion poured over it and she ate it all. I'll give that a try for a week and see how it does. I'll also try a piece of bread or 2 a day to see if that works.

mustad · 11-29-2010, 06:06 AM

If you're having issues with a sensitive stomach, I would also stay away from corn. Not sure about the NutroMax, but alot of these companies will call their feeds x and rice, but sneak corn or corn meal in there somewhere as it is a cheap source of protein, but causes issues sometimes.

If your dog is skinny, you need to get more into her. I think the best way to do this is use a high calorie feed that has great ingredients. My favorite in your case would be this:

http://www.championpetfoods.com/acan...formulation=ad

Good luck.

bhensley · 11-30-2010, 11:54 AM

Mustad, thanks for the advice. If I cant notice a difference in the next week or so I will look into changing to that. As for the corn I understand. My supply company I buy from told me about that last winter as I was using Science Diet and they said when Science Diet sold out the new company/owners are using alot of corn and by-products to cut corners and make it more profitable. Thats when I canged brands. As for her getting real skinny, thats not from changing from SD to Nutro, its a recent problem. She has been eating a little mor the last few days since I've been "seasoning" it with the beef boullion/water mix.

Mite · 11-30-2010, 11:05 PM

I could it possibly be something else besides the diet? Is she throwing up? Perhaps an obstruction or a virus/bacterial infection?

Your dog may have developed a food allergy but I can't believe it would happen so suddenly.

mustad · 12-01-2010, 03:46 AM

I think the allergies have been there for a while observed by the difficulty in changing food. The "sensitive stomach" is probably more an allergy than an actual sensitive stomach.

The other thing you might want to look into is a raw meaty bones diet. There's a good group on Yahoo http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding/

You need to get through the fact that most of the contributors are housewives, but once you do, there is some good information sharing going on that might help you.