Hunter has always been skinny. He eats (and eats and eats...) Eden dog food 3 x a day. He currently eats double the recommended daily amount and is still underweight. Otherwise he is totally healthy. The vets have advised me to move him to a high fat food immediately and I'm a bit lost as to which food to go for so I was wondering if anyone has any advice? Thanks.
Our dog lost weight for a period of time. The vet advised us to up the food and also to give as 4 portions a day - otherwise the volume was too great.
Im curious how much your pup weighs?? I am sure there are more qualified people to answer this but I find it a bit curious because 90% of the time people have to worry about their labs weighing too much. I am working very hard to keep my pup at the leaner side of the healthy scale so she doesn't have problems down the line. I had 2 english labs who had weight issues from about 3 on and it seems to be so much harder to take weight off a lab. Again, just curious
Our dog dropped from 22kg to 19kg as she was allergic to her food. She kept vomiting, but I thought it was an gastric infection, so I would give her plain rice . This went on for a few weeks before seeing the vet, so it took a while before the issue was identified. The vet suggested a hypoallergenic dog food, and the vomiting stopped. But 2 weeks later she had lost weight again (18kg). I had to temporarily increase the feed from 3 cups to 4 cups per day (well over the recommended amount). The vet said as her digestive tract was still recovering it was possible that the food was not being absorbed as efficiently. Now she is 2 years old and weighs 23 kg, and eats a normal portion.
Hunter weighs 16kg at 6 months old. His ribs are hugely visible at all times. We've been told to increase his food over the recommended amount 3 times now so he is being fed double the recommended daily amount for his weight. He is really tall with big paws and constantly gaining weight but very slowly. At 5 months he was 14.5kg. He is fairly active for a pet, enjoys running and jumping around and playing with his toys but not excessively so. We dont have any vomiting from him and he almost always has solid poos. I've ordered a higher fat Millies Wolfheart mix so hoping that will help him gain.
That is awfully small. still dependent on hunters height but with the ribs yes. I hope the new food begins to put some weight on. Good that there doesn't seem to be any other health problems!!
16kg at 6 months sounds fine for me if he is a working lines dog, but obvioulsy his ribs should not be "hugely visible at all times", only when stretching, eating and panting excessively. Be very careful increasing fat content. Research pancreatitis.
Willow is 8 months and weighs 21kg she has always been on the thin side she is also a working type lab. We give her 3 tins of butchers tripe wet food and about 60g of dry James Welbeloved junior food. Some foods have less calories than others look on the packet or tin. Tins tend to have more protein.
No parasites and was also checked for a liver issue. We have had a working dog Millie's Wolfheart food now for 4 days and he has been eating a 50/50 with the Eden we have left. Already he is noticeably less "rib-y" than he ever has been so I think the Eden being an 80/20 food is just too rich for him. Once the remaining Eden and Millie's are finished I will move him on to a non-working dog Millies food.
I think I would want to have his thyroid checked if a dog were eating 4 meals a day and still unable to put weight on and had ribs visible. At 6 months he's not quite going through adolescence yet so it's not down to testosterone and the onset of all that either. You might want to google Dr Jean Dodds and thyroid issues and get the tests done which she recommends - which may not be the same ones the vet will do as most vets don't run a complete thyroid panel...
