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Losing weight & muscle despite over eating

15K views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  carmspack 
#1 ·
My german shepherd (GSD) began losing weight and muscle several months ago despite eating 4 cups of iams (2 cups twice a day). I took him to the vet and they ran 2 different blood tests, took x-rays, and an ultra sound and have not been able to diagnose his issue. The only left they said was to give him CAT SCANS and MRIs which I can’t afford. They put him on Prednisone hoping that maybe it’s some kind of inflammation in his digestive track that is causing him not to process his food correctly.

They rules out the basic causes of weight loss:
Diabities
Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI)
Forms of cancer that would show up with a blood test, x-ray, or ultrasound
heart worm

He doesn’t have a noticeable change in behavior. No Diarrhea. No obvious blood in urine or stool.

I recently started feeding him 1.75 cups 4 times a day in the hopes that he will stop losing weight long enough for them to check a few more things. He will eat as much as I give him. I also want to make I don’t feed him too much because german shepherds are highly susceptible to bloat.

Any Ideas?

What would be the best food to feed him that has the highest and most easily digestible nutrients.

I also attached my dogs chart from the vet which shows what they have checked if that helps.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
You've ruled out a lot of things! This sounds scary though.

I'd get him off kibble for a few months, to see if he improves. Any complete alternative diet -- frozen (Primal, Bravo, etc.) or dehydrated (The Honest Kitchen, Sojo's, ZiwiPeak, Only Natural Pet) would be where I'd go first. The fresh food may just agree with him better.

I'd probably add goat milk and satin balls to his diet too. Satin balls are home-made meat balls with eggs, oats, and other ingredients to add calories -- there are TONS of ways of making them online (just AVOID recipes for satin balls that add oil -- you don't want to give him pancreatitis...it can often just be left out of most recipes). They can be very helpful to putting weight back on a dog -- just use really good, high-quality ingredients not cheap junk. As for the goats milk, I don't have access to raw, so I just buy it at the grocery store, but the dogs LOVE it, and it seems to really agree with the ones that are convalescing. (DO NOT SUBSTITUTE COW MILK.)

If you want to keep him on kibble, I'd try to put him on a very high calorie one along with a digestive enzyme, and add some filtered (non-chloronated) water to activate it several minutes before you feed (Prozyme is one very economical brand that works pretty well, and it's widely available, but there are many options). High-cal foods are often marketed as "high energy." Victor makes one, for example. Look at the calories in the food: I think Victor's is around 450 or so per cup (compared to 380 in your Iams). Orijen original formula is also in that 450 range.

How old is he? If he's a senior, did they do the ultrasound on his spleen? How does his poop normally look? (e.g., firm, brown, and normal or soft or off-colored?)

Is the vet having you do weekly weigh ins? If not, you can probably go to the clinic lobby and do it and just have them record it for you, so that it's all in his chart.
 
#5 ·
I don't know why it happened in the first place but I can tell you that prednisone caused those exact symptoms in my dog: her weight plummeted and she lost a lot of muscle. I've got her weight back up to normal but she doesn't quite look the same, the weight didn't come back really like the muscle she lost.

So putting your dog on pred may be complicating the problem.
 
#7 ·
Thanks everyone for all the quick, but thorough responses! I really appreciate it as I’m feeling kinda helpless with this issue.

I recently relocated from Columbus Ohio to Sarasota Florida and it was a new vet here (in sarasota) where he was diagnosed a few weeks ago. The vet, after running all the tests (described above), didn’t have a positive outlook for him. He weighed 71lb’s when I took him in on March 29, and was 65lb the last time he was weighed on April 6th. On the last visit the vet gave me Tylan Powder to sprinkle on his food, Prednisone, and told me to feed his 3 times a day. For the first week since then he seemed to be losing weight, but when I added a 4th meal ( a few days ago) he seems to be putting a little bit of weight on. I’m now feeding him 2 cups in the morning and 2 cups at night with 2 more meals of 1.5 cups throughout the day.

Today I can feel a bit more padding over his ribs than I did a few days before. I’m taking him to another vet on Monday that specializes in more of a holistic approach.

Magwart: Ari turned 6 in Late December. They took ultrasounds of his abdomen and kidneys but didn’t find anything out of normal. His poop seems to be normal(brown, solid) and has not changed. I’m not sure if they checked nerve function. His seems like his muscle loss is happening everywhere. They described it on the chart as “MUSCLE ATROPHY, SEVERE, GENERALIZED”.

Sunsilver: They did check for EPI and he has “Normal exocrine pancreatic function”

Thecowboysgirl: He just started the prednisone on April 6th (the last time I went to that vet). It seemed like she prescribed it as a last ditch attempt for his weight loss. She said maybe he has some type of maldigestion issue and she thought maybe the prednisone would correct any inflammation issues. I’m taking him to a new vet on Monday and will ask them about that.

Barnyard: I’ll ask about the b12.

More questions:

With all of this feeding it I’m guessing I need to be really careful about his exercise after eating. I normally wait 2.5 to 3 hours after feeding him to allow him to run/swim/fetch. But feeding him 4 times a day that doesn’t leave too many windows for him to be active. What is the least amount of time after feeding that I can allow him to run or swim?
 
#8 ·
I ended up going to a new vet that specializes in more of a holistic approach and his outlook was much more positive than the likely terminal diagnosis I received at the first vet.

The new vet thinks it's either an issue with his small intestines or a hormonal issue and said we should start with the intestines.

He took Ari off of prednisone, and completely changed his diet.

feeding him this 4 meals day so that he has more off a chance to absorb the nutrients

Switched from Iams to Orijen (man is that stuff expensive)
Started adding complex carbohydrates to his food (usually a 1/2 potato or sweet potato baked with a little coconut oil)
Probiotics & digestive enzymes
fermented goat milk kefir - more probiotics
Colostrum (instead of prednisone) for any possible intestinal inflammation
Chinese herbs to balance cortisol/hormonal issues
Vit b-12 to help small intestines absorb food
a little cottage cheese ( i think for the extra calories)

It's been about 10 days and he jumped up 3 pounds (to 68lb) after just a few days and it feels like has prob gained another few pounds since his last weigh in. He's due for another checkup early next week and I'm hoping he's in the low to mid 70's and then I can begin to cut back the calories a bit.

I'm definitely feeling much more positive with him putting on a few pounds. The change in diet has also made his coat more soft and silkier (haha..so there is that).

I'll keep you guys posted. thanks for the suggestions and support
 
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