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Healthy Weight Gain

3K views 24 replies 6 participants last post by  wyoung2153 
#1 ·
Titan as steadily lost weight since I have been back from my deployment, before, a healthy 95 lbs.. lean, healthy muscle, not fat. He got down to 85 but still vet wasn't very concerned said that it is better to be lighter than heavier, and that if he stayed there she would be happy. He's 77 now. no change in diet, food or exercise. Only change would actually be that around the holidays he gets more scraps. Anways, after finding nothing in bloodwork, she wants us to increase his diet for the next month and come back in.

Any suggestions on healthy additives for a kibble fed dog? I thought yogurt, cottage cheese, veggies, etc. Something other than wet food unless it's a good quality food I suppose..
 
#8 ·
IMO, it's more important to find out why he's losing weight than to merely pack it back on. While healthy, sound animals can be incredibly naturally lean, they do not ordinarily just drop that much weight for no reason. Solve the underlying problem & the weight should self correct.
 
#9 ·
Agreed. So the vet ran a blood panel on for various reasons that could relate to the issue. Came back perfect. what she wants to do now, is see if in the next month with me increasing his food, if he will gain weight. If he doesn't gain any then that will tell her something more underlying is wrong and she will run more tests. If he gains the weight back she can then assume that it is not a nutrient deficiency problem and can work from there why he lost the weight. especially because for all intensive purposes he is is healthy. Eats, drinks, poops, exercises, tons of energy, temperature is good, no infections and bloodwork is good. So I understand what the vet is doing and believe me I won't let it be ignored, I am the last person to try and cover up an underlying problem.. as it's happened to me on the human side of things more than I care to admit.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I wouldn't bother with supplements or satin balls. What works best for hard keeping dogs assuming medically everything is ok is switching to a 30/20 food or even a bit more like a 35/25.

You didn't mention what you fed but look into a performance type food.

The best ones are Dr. Tim's, Annamaet, Eagle, Red Paw, Precise Endurance...and the best one that is easy to find is Eukanuba Premium Performance 30/20. If you shop on-line you get can any of those. Diamond Extreme Athlete is also another that is easy to find. It reads better than Euk Premium but it isn't anywhere near the quality.

I think you will find feeding a diet more geared for hard keepers will work better than supplements.

If you are feeding a high protein food with less than 20% fat, this may be causing the weight loss. Keep in mind calories from protein are entropic, meaning about 30% is lost metabolically.
 
#12 ·
I am feeding Nature's Recipe Nature?s Recipe® | Grain Free Dog Food | Salmon & Sweet Potato

So interesting now that I'm looking more into it. When I first started feeding him this he was getting 3 cups a day which is the starting point for a 50-100 lb dog. BUT the reason he was at 3 cups was because it worked for him. more made him gain more at the time and 3 was perfect because he got treats/Kongs and/or bones during the day too. He was steady weight on this for about year before I deployed and maintained give or take 95 lbs the whole year. looking again.. it says for his weight 3-5 cups. Thinking I will increase to 4 or 5 cups. Think that's a good idea? Or should I switch to another food like you suggest?
 
#11 ·
IF you find out that for all intents & purposes he is healthy then consider just letting him be naturally thin. It's really not a bad thing. Our culture of ease & abundance has given us badly skewed notions of what a healthy weight is. Healthy, well maintained dogs simply aren't dying prematurely b/c they're thin, even bone thin. They are dying too soon & with a seriously compromised quality of life due to being too heavy.
 
#13 ·
Again, I agree with you. But like you said, dogs don't maintain a weight for 3 years of their life and just drop it. Not when nothing changed.. I have no issue having him thin at all.. the concern wasn't for looks, it was for health.. I have family that have very over weight dogs and I refuse to let Titan get like that. besdies IMO he's too active to be fat :p I agree with you though and appreciate the input.
 
#14 ·
The Nature's Recipe food you are using is very low in fat. Here is the thing, with bloat prone breeds it is better IMO to feed less of a much richer food than feed more of a less rich food.

At 12% -13% fat like Nature's Recipe you will find yourself feeding a lot of food that over time may increase bloat risk.

I personally would try Eukanuba Premium performance 30/20 or the 28/18 and give it a month. I have seen them in stock at Petsmart and I am sure you can get them at a local store. You can also try Pro Plan Performance 30/20 and Nutro has one called High Endurance that every Petsmart and Petco has, it is in a brown bag.

I really think your problem is the fat content of what you are feeding, now that you mentioned the food. It is too low for this type of dog.
 
#15 ·
The Nature's Recipe food you are using is very low in fat. Here is the thing, with bloat prone breeds it is better IMO to feed less of a much richer food than feed more of a less rich food.

At 12% -13% fat like Nature's Recipe you will find yourself feeding a lot of food that over time may increase bloat risk.

I personally would try Eukanuba Premium performance 30/20 or the 28/18 and give it a month. I have seen them in stock at Petsmart and I am sure you can get them at a local store. You can also try Pro Plan Performance 30/20 and Nutro has one called High Endurance that every Petsmart and Petco has, it is in a brown bag.

I really think your problem is the fat content of what you are feeding, now that you mentioned the food. It is too low for this type of dog.
Good to know.. looks like it's back to food labels again. I will definitely be looking at those foods you mention. curious if they have the salmon food. One big reason we switched to this, other than him being the pickiest eater known to man (story for another day) was because he has skin issues and this had helped tremendously in keeping his skin in great condition and his fur shiney and soft.
 
#17 ·
Beau gets 4 cups of his food, 2 cups twice a day ......... Nature's Logic has grain in it but the grain is millet which is gluten free and no pea protein so what you get is from fish.

They have a sardine formula that is 40% protein 10% fat-but I would add some fat to that one, like coconut oil...the formulas I feed are about 18% fat. It is hard to find fish formulas without chicken and chicken was an issue for my allergy dog..

I know there are other fish formulas out there as well.Good luck



EDIT-is it possible he slipped out of condition and has lost muscle mass? I will say that 3 cups of your dog food a day does not sound like much. I feed about 1600 calories a day and Beau peaks out at 75lbs.
 
#18 ·
It is hard to find fish formulas without chicken and chicken was an issue for my allergy dog..
That's exactly it. The fish formula he is on has no chicken. I don't like him to have chicken in anything he eats.

EDIT-is it possible he slipped out of condition and has lost muscle mass? I will say that 3 cups of your dog food a day does not sound like much. I feed about 1600 calories a day and Beau peaks out at 75lbs.
Actually now that you mention it. While I was gone in Africa for 7 months (when the initial weight loss happened) they didn't exercise him really a lot. When I got home our normal 2 mile run turned into a half mile jog and slow walk. He's doing much better in that aspect but still trying to get him back into shape. The 3 cups was what worked for us, but I have no issues seeing if the 4 or 5 would work for him. Or maybe adding a little fat additive to his food, cottage cheese or something maybe?
 
#19 ·
I would not add more dairy. You could add some coconut oil...it is pretty good for allergy issues as well. The food I mentioned is chicken free but I have not tried it though I do feed other foods in the line. It is very hard to get away from chicken. (well it was when we had Toby, though he could tolerate chicken fat just fine, just not the protein)
 
#20 ·
Try adding more fatty meat such as lamb mince or the cheaper beef mince (as this has more fat) to the kibble, otherwise there are kibble available for the purpose of gaining weight (or ones for very active working dogs)

Also you say you have done bloods, I assume you have tested for EPI? The fact that the diet, amount of food and exercise amount has not changed and dog is loosing weight suggest to me a medical issue.
 
#22 ·
Whitney, when I fed kibble my tribe thrived on meat based, high protein, nutrient dense foods such as those made by Origen, Nature's Logic, Solid Gold Barking At the Moon, Blue Buffalo Wilderness etc. Most of these were higher fat, higher calorie foods, yet my senior bitch actually got leaner on 'em (a good thing in her case).
 
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