So skinny!
I have had Kirby for about 3 months now and despite good nutrition he is still SO SKINNY. He has probably only gained about 1 pound since I've had him and is skin and bones still. He weighs around 20 pounds but probably should be more like 25-27. His coat looks awful and I just can't seem to put weight on him. When I first got him he had giardia and was treated for that (once for 5 days, then a repeat dose 3 weeks later). The giardia treatment also treats roundworms, whipworms, hookworms, and some tapes. He is also on 2 types of flea treatment because I thought maybe his crummy coat was due to flea allergies (its been a REALLY AWFUL year for fleas). How much should I be feeding him at this point? His food is 370 kcal/cup and he gets about 1 1/4 cups a day (I am feeding Franklin 1 cup a day and he is about 29-30 pounds and also hard to keep weight on). He also gets 1 tsp of ground flax seed with his food morning and night for his coat. I'm not sure what else to do or why he isn't gaining weight. Should I increase his food? I just de-wormed him for a different type of tapeworm that doesnt' show up on fecals and will be doing yet another course of panacur to make sure the giardia and all other worms are gone, but his fecal was negative and his stools are generally pretty solid so I don't know if it is worms or what. Any ideas? He also had a full blood panel when I got him since he was so sick and most of his values were normal, except white cell count since he had some kind of raging infection.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on
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It might be worth it to repeat the blood panel, just in case. Given just the two "symptoms" of poor coat and low weight, it might be worth checking for hyperthyroidism, too, though I doubt that it would be that since there aren't other symptoms. Also, could the double dose of flea medicines be harming his coat at all? You'd know more about this than I would, I suspect, given your background from school.
I suppose the easiest thing to try would be increasing his food. Ellie gets 1 1/4 cups of food (338 kcal/cup) per day at 1 year old. However, she only walks about 2 miles per day with bouts of fetch in between. I suspect Kirby and Franklin are far more active than my two. Kirby is also still growing, too, which should be burning through extra calories.
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Permalink Reply by Karen Dadisman on
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Rocky gets 1 cup per day and he is 30 lbs and 4 years old. I'd up his food and take him off one of those flea treatments. Yikes seems like overkill on the fleas to me. Did your vet prescribe both or are you self (kind of self) treating? Try some salmon oil for his coat. I use the human pills. Toss them in his food and he will probably scarf them right up. I'd increase Franklin's food also if you can't keep weight on him. Seems like the most logical place to start. If his fecals are clear, why keep worming him also?
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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on
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The treatments are made to give together. One is Trifexus which is just flea/HW and the other is Frontline (flea/tick) they are safe to use together since there is no oral tick preventative. I gave just the Trifexus and he was INFESTED. Since I added in the Frontline I"ve only seen the occassional flea. Franklin had been getting about 3/4 cup with some treats for the last 1 1/2 years and then around Jan he started dropping weight so I increased it to 1 cup and he is doing well with this amount. We had a really mild winter so never had the chubby winter weight he usually has and he ended up losing almost 4 pounds instead of gaining 2-3 like he normally does in winter.
I'm worming him once more because fecals (especially for giardia) will often come up clear 1 or 2 times before they actually find it. I had 1 clear fecal to the lab and then ended up doing a smear myself and finding he was absolutely infested with giardia so I don't totally trust the fecal. Sometimes you collect a sample when the parasites aren't shedding eggs. This happened with Franklin as a puppy too. It took 3 fecals to the lab to diagnose him with coccidia that was causing horrible diarrhea for around 3 weeks when he was a puppy. We treated him and the diarrhea went away. Since I"m no longer in school I can't do a fecal myself so have to send it out and the wormer is very safe so was recommended by the vet as an easy first step. The vet is a teacher from my school who I am in contact with. Since I'm done with school now I can't take him in to them anymore and will be taking him to work instead but I don't get my discounts until July so wanted to wait unless something serious came about then of course I'd take him in sooner.
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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on
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Hi Melissa, I would bump up his food to 2 cups and see. As far as coat goes, food can only do so much if genetic was so so to begin with. My Vienna's coat is not as good as Mocha's, no matter what we try, she also packs on weight much faster than he does, not fair right?
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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I would up the food also. I think they get plenty of exercise? I had to do this for Sage and it still took her several months to gain weight I probably fed her extra for over 6 months...but better skinny than obese:)
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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When I adopted Mowgli he was also skinny ( I could feel all his ribs ) and he had a very bad case of Kennel Cough. He weighed 20 Lbs and I guessed he was 10-12 months old. I fed him one cup twice a day and he slowly gained. After 6 months he was getting chubby, so we cut back to 2/3 C for about 3 months. We then dropped to 1/2 C twice a day and finally I see a waistline! He is now 27 Lbs. I also add a t. of yogurt am. and a bit of meat with the eve. meal. I would up Kirby's food, it may help with his behavior as well...
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Jack gets one cup per day plus several treats. That keeps him at a very thin agility weight of 33 pounds. Maddie gets a bit less than a cup to keep around 27-28.
I would have thyroid checked as suggested. Otherwise I might suggest adding some canned sardines to his food a few times a week so that the natural oils/fats and extra protein can do their magic.
If he was randomly bred, he may also just not have the best coat. And he might be out of coat totally due to time of year and look worse for that.
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Permalink Reply by Chris, Kadi & Brodie on
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My first thought was thyroid, as well. You might have that rechecked. Based on your experiences with him, it doesn't sound like he lacks energy, otherwise I'd suggest a high performance diet. But with Kirby, that might make him chew through the walls instead of just climb them! LOL I suspect part of this is still a result of his poor nutrition/care before you had him. It may take quit some time for his body to 'learn' to utilize the nutrients it is receiving now. Adding a little yogurt wouldn't hurt or even some type of fat to his diet. (Pet Tabs FA comes to mind but I don't know if they even make that now. I'm sure your vet has something comparable though). It may also just be that he hasn't gotten past his gangly stage. Kadi (now almost 11 months) is just now actually filling out.
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Permalink Reply by Jane on
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Personally I would just up his food and see if that helps. Luke was up to 2.5 cups a day at one point, and that was just to keep him from looking like a skeleton. He's back down to 1 cup a day now, but around a year old he really needed a lot of food to keep weight on him.
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Permalink Reply by justine moeller on
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Walter stayed very thin until he reached about one and a half years. He was so thin sometimes it looked as though we were starving him (about 18 pounds) but he was getting 2 cups of dry food per day. We increased his food but nothing worked. He is also very high energy. That being said, he is still slender but did fill out and has reached his final weight at 21-22 pounds. We now see weight gain if he is being fed a lot within days (we notice he becomes a little more thick) and just drop his serving sizes down. I am not sure if it was the raw food switch we did that made him gain weight or the age.
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