Underweight Vizsla.

To be fair, corn oil does have plenty of omega 6 in it.  It just doesn't have enough omega 3 to balance the omega 6.

well then i guess the chicken formula has it, i only have the lamb formula.

See, I feed Kobe and our chihuahua, Scarface, different flavors of the Authority dog food once they run out of the other bag because Kobe gets bored with the same food over and over again. [[typical vizsla!]] And I know he's not fully mature yet, but I saw his brother at Petsmart and I noticed how much fuller his brother was than him. His back bone wasn't visable like Kobe's is, but his brother is a lot smaller than Kobe since he was nuetered at a young age and Kobe hasn't been nuetered yet.
 
On raw foods, I'm a little iffy about it. He's pretty sensitive to his stomach, would this make him want to vomit or make him have bad diarreah? I always feel so bad for my little guy when he's sick. He lies around all day and that's just not like him and it makes me upset to see him like that. I really haven't looked in to giving Kobe raw food.
 
I do want to go to the vet before I start to buy him new food, but I'm really stubburn to hear "You're dog has worms, you need to give him this treatment....blah blah blah" I just want to hear possitive. So trying to food first, then seeing results helps me prepare for bad or good news. : P [[TYPICAL TEENAGER! GOSH!]]
 
The thing is, he has so much muscle on him. It's amazing how buff he is for such a little guy! [[Of course, I think he's a little guy because in my mind I still see him as a little guy!]] When a dog has worms, does the dog tend to lose muscle mass as well? Or just lose weight?
 
Thanks for all the help so far! Here's a picture to understand where I'm coming from on Kobe's "weight problem".
 

Has he been on a regular worming program?  Because parasites can not only make him underweight, but they can also cause the symptoms you descibe of vomiting, diarhea, and lethargy.  Interceptor and Heartgard Plus both address stomach worms in addition to heartworms. 

If he is not on these monthly products, and you haven't been proactively treating worms some other way (I treat with Panacur or Valbazen every other month because my dogs are exposed to tapes and coccidea, too) - very likely your dog DOES have parasites.  An otherwise healthy adult dog can carry a lot of roundworms without getting sick, but whipworms and hookworms can kill a dog eventually. 

Hookworms cause anemia, which makes your dog nauseated and picky about food, and also can make him intolerant of heat and exercise.  He can also pass hookworms on to the humans in his life - you, kids, anyone who has contact with your yard.  Whipworms steal nutrition from your dog so that even if you were feeding the best food money can buy, it would just be feeding little baby whipworms.

I would actually go to the vet BEFORE changing foods around.  Otherwise you are just throwing good money after bad if he has worms.

Definitely go and get him tested for worms FIRST, if you think that they may be part of the issue, as was mentioned by others, it is a waste to try and switch foods if he has worms anyways.
 
I have two GSP's a male and a female, both who seemed underweight at Kobe's age.  I think it is the breed - others who I know from the dog park that have Vizla's as well as Weim's all had the same issues.  No matter what we fed, how much we fed, etc. they were all skinny!  Now that Kharma is two (in 2 days) she has finally filled out, she looks beautiful!  Zen, who is six months younger is still on the leaner side as you can see his hip bones as well as his spine.  He has gained weight in the last little bit though, so I am assuming that by the time he is around two he will have thickened out a bit.
 
You may want to try the EVO or the new Solid Gold Barking at the Moon formula as they both have a lot of KCals.  We had ok luck with Solid Gold's Wolf King as well.  We feed raw and I have to say that we will never go back to kibble as they both do much better on the raw.
 
Good Luck![]

Our switch to raw went very smoothly. The only time he had diarrhea was when I gave him beef liver. It was too rich for him so I do not give that to him anymore.  Scout is very picky, trying to get him to eat 7 cups of dog food a day was quite the chore. He just plain wouldn't eat it some days.  No matter what I mixed in with it.  Since our switch to raw scout has never left a drop in his bowl. He eats enthusiastically and its really just a great thing to see when I use to struggle to get him to eat.
Another thing you might want to keep in mind is that sometimes intact males dogs will refuse to eat if there is a female in heat in your neighborhood. It can be even up to 2 miles away. Just a thought on his pickiness..

It might just be something you can't improve on. Blue weighs 35 pounds and it takes so long for him to gain any weight. You can feel the bones in his back and you can feel the hip bones. He eats each day and he has no worms. My vet says he is fine and I shouldn't worry it's just something out of my hands that there is a slight chance after he is 2 yr. old he may gain some weight on.

My three older boys had a horrible time keeping weight on this winter.  Thunder was THE worst.  Next winter I'll be sure that they all start the winter with a little extra weight, but honestly what it took for me to keep weight on them was increasing their Innova and homecooked substansially AND giving them raw mid day snacks.  Thor and Shadow filled out a little on that, but Thunder needed FOUR cups of Innova every morning, plus his homecooked, PLUS the raw. He is finally, with warmer weather starting to not look like he isn't fed.

Oh, and by older I don't mean OLDER.  Thor is the oldest of the bunch and not even 4 yet.

Wow Glenda thats quite a bit! At least you could get him to eat it!  I'm sure a lot of it had to do with them getting used to the cold weather.  This was your first winter with them up here isn't it?  I know they burn quite a bit more to keep warm in the winter!

Yep, first full winter up here, and they call LABS chow hounds?  I've never met a gsd who will turn down food!!

I would never complain or worry about a thin dog in my house as long as he was healthy!  .  I have the opposite problem and my boy no matter how little he eats will be "robust and rotund" for life.  I found that information interesting on the neutering.  I didn't know any of this stuff.  We had ours done at 6 months and he blew up like a balloon.  I always thought early neutering puts weight on male dogs.  Gosh!  I would enjoy a thinner dog who could enjoy treats without his mom feeling very guilty giving them to him.  My only fear with my next dog is to wait to neuter since I did that twice and had them done about 2ish and one got prostrate cancer at 4.  Was told that I should have neutered him sooner or mated him.  Use it or lose it I think was what the vet told us.  Now I am confused when to fix my next male dog?

Susan, you would have not been happy with Thunder.  His hip bones were sticking up and he looked truely starving.

I won't nueter a large breed pup before the age of 8 months and I prefer to wait until a year.  JMHO.

To me it makes perfect sense.Take a dogs hormones/sexual organs away before he is physically and mentally mature and what are you left with? Along with dentals,routine spaying and neutering bring in the $$$ for vets,if they get to book a client in there and then,they will,i doubt very much they will encourage them to wait and risk them  finding another vet in the meantime or not getting them done at all.

ORIGINAL: sooner

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.

 
Me too!  I have a minpin who I didn't neuter untile he was 1 1/2 yrs old. He had many behaviour problems, which we've over come with constant, consistent training, but I do wish I had done it around 5 months old, it probably would have helped with the aggression, dog fighting and people biting.
 
When I get a pup in the future, since the breed I want- the quality pet pups out of show lines- mostly males are available, so I will neuter at 5 months. Personal preference.
Sooner makes a great point.

Sooner- I'm in Norman also :-D

And to the OP, unneutered young males tend to be very lean.  When I was showing bichons and toy poodles, I had the same issue, even with females being skinny as well. The 3 remaining that I have are all neutered/spayed and can get chubby very quickly if I dont' watch it.
 
The Best fattening up food that worked well for me is Frozen Bil-Jac, although many people dislike the ingredient panel.  I called up the company and found out that it is beef and wheat based.  My dogs look great, act great and they love it.  The dry they do good on too, and it's higher fat than many other dog foods. These are both great foods for picky eaters by the way. Again, some don't prefer the ingredients.
 
But I do switch around a lot too, to PetGuard Lifespan, California Natural (they don't hold good coat on this tho) and other more holistic kibbles.
If I have a picky eater with a problem holding weight, nothing has worked as well for me as Bil-Jac.  Eukanuba came close but I know some people prefer to stay away from this food also.  Raw with grain (cooked oats) helped, as did adding molasses (check out [linkhttp://www.volhard.com]www.volhard.com[/link] and click on the nutrition link).  There are many options available to you, some may fit your comfort level and others may not.
 :-D
 
Although I don't think I would worry too much if I were you. After a vet visit to rule out any other problems, I think that your dog will outgrow the skinnyness.  Viszlas are a lean breed.  Once you neuter him, you'll probably see weight come on.