Dog Community

Underweight Vizsla.

Amy

Posted : 4/20/2006 3:22:59 PM

I am lost on what to do with my vizsla, Kobe.
He's 2 years old and should be a lot heavier.
I feed him so much food and he still stays the same weight, and his back bone shows.
He was a very good weight as a puppy, but now it's different.

I'm afraid he has worms, or that the food I'm feeding him Authority just isn't fatting him up because of how active he is.

Please, suggestions before I go to the vet and get a worm check up. Could it be the food, or is it that he's sick. :[

It's not like he just rapidly lost weight, he's just never been the normal body type a vizsla should have.

papillon806

Posted : 4/20/2006 3:26:25 PM

I don't think that Authority would be very good at gaining weight b/c it doesn't have a very high fat % or quality digestible ingredients (some ingredients in their food, such as corn gluten meal, is harder to digest for dogs, and doesn't supply readily available amino acids that help gain lean muscles). I would recommend switching to a puppy food, or an adult food w/ comparable fat & protein content as a puppy food.
-this is all assuming there are no worms

Amy

Posted : 4/20/2006 3:28:52 PM

Okay, thank you! Hopefully switching to a new dog food will help him gain weight.
I was feeding him IAMS before, but he would get bad diarrhea from it, so I switched to Authority.

I hope switching foods will help him gain weight! Feeding him can foods would help too, right?

puggylover

Posted : 4/20/2006 3:39:09 PM

My great dane had this same problem. I was feeding her iams and switched her to Canidae and she put on weight in about a week.

Amy

Posted : 4/20/2006 3:43:59 PM

I'm hoping it's just the food then.

Which dog foods do you recommend?

cyclefiend2000

Posted : 4/20/2006 3:48:23 PM

if you suspect that he might have worms i would have him checked just to be on the safe side.

also see these for food recommendations...
http://greatdanelady.com/articles/criteria_list_of_better_foods.htm
http://dogfoodproject.com/

there are other sites to check and probably someone else will post them as well.

papillon806

Posted : 4/20/2006 3:52:04 PM

Canned would be a good option for gaining weight.

Foods I recommend:
Canidae (all life stages)
Innova
California Natural (lamb or chicken & rice)
Solid Gold
Timberwolf Organics
Eagle Pack

sooner

Posted : 4/20/2006 4:01:58 PM

[linkhttp://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html#TopDry]http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html#TopDry[/link]

sooner

Posted : 4/20/2006 4:04:34 PM

Whole Dog Journal's 2006 Top Approved Dry Foods List and Article (link goes to Adobe Acrobat file)

[linkhttp://www.candyspetsitting.com/WDJ_DryFood2006.pdf]http://www.candyspetsitting.com/WDJ_DryFood2006.pdf[/link]

and Top Wet Foods

[linkhttp://www.candyspetsitting.com/9-1-Top.pdf]http://www.candyspetsitting.com/9-1-Top.pdf[/link]

brookcove

Posted : 4/20/2006 5:48:53 PM

Keeping wieght on youngsters of working breeds can be problematic! It's embarrasing when you get that skeletal look in spite of your best efforts - you want to hang a sign on your dog that says, "Really, it's just a phase, he gets ___ cups of super premium food a day!!!"

Some coping strategies:

Believe it or not, more exercise will help put more mass on him and encourage his appetite.
Switch to a more calorie dense formula. Foods I've had good luck with have been EVO and Canidae. I think Solid Gold Wolf King is also pretty good at getting weight in them, but some picky dogs won't eat enough to make your goal KCals. There's also a Blackwood formula that is especially for working dogs.
Look for a food that is high in both protein and fat. The key to my Border collies' weight management was going for more carbs, but the Iams and Authority both are high carb diets and he didn't do well - hence you know that you want to make sure you raise the protein and fat levels.
Add an additional meal, if possible. Divide your dog's rations and feed at least a couple times in a day.
If your dog is not neutered, and is not show/working quality, go ahead and have that done. Neutering does NOT make dogs fat, but constant worrying and sexual frustration CAN make intact male dogs thin!

Finally, don't despair. Maturity will fix this problem eventually, especially if you go to a food that agrees with him better.

Good luck!

Amy

Posted : 4/20/2006 6:53:54 PM

Thank you all for your help! I'll definently take all of your advices to help my dog gain weight.

Kobe is going to be neutered this summer, I just wanted to wait until he turned 2 years old to have him be fully grown since neutering stunts their growth.

Thanks again! You guys helped a lot.

Edie

Posted : 4/20/2006 8:54:03 PM

I just wanted to wait until he turned 2 years old to have him be fully grown since neutering stunts their growth.

It's so nice to see someone who has waited for their dog to mature before getting them done,instead of racing to the vets at 6mths or earlier [sm=eek.gif]

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 4/20/2006 9:09:27 PM

Edie, some of us don't get to make that choice ourselves. When you get a dog from a shelter, most of them now insist that the animal be spayed/neutered before you can take them home. My dog was estimated to be between 3 & 5 months when I adopted him - he went directly from the shelter to the vet and I picked him up at the vets the next day. Our shelter sometimes has litters of pups available for adoption and those pups will be snipped as young as 8 - 10 weeks.

sooner

Posted : 4/20/2006 9:14:22 PM

I have a pit bull that I picked up as a stray. Not knowing his breeding I elected to have him neutered as early as I was comfortable with (6 months) on the possibility that it will help with the aggression issues he may or may not have later in life.

I'll take temperament over looks any day.

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 4/20/2006 9:56:14 PM

Max certainly doesn't seem to be suffering any ill effects from early neutering. His penis is very small compared to other dogs his size, but as long as nobody tells him that I'm discussing is manly endowments (or lack of) on an internet board [

] I don't expect any problems.