Food To Put Weight On

[Guest 3kids1grey]

Just had my 9-year-old fella to the vet this morning and he's lost some weight and needs to gain about about 10lbs. He does not look thin at all and is healthy in every way so I want to switch his food to a higher fat/protein option. I've fed Canidae in the past but haven't been crazy about it. I'm considering Wellness kibble and also mixing in soft food. Any thoughts or suggestions for a specific brand variety you would recommend? I know "puppy" options have higher fat and Wellness has a large breed puppy that looks good and I like the ingredients.

 

As an aside: I have owned a greyhound since 2001 and was a member of this group waaaaaay back then when we first adopted. We are on our now second greyhound and are in the process of adding a female.

[Fruitycake]

If he "does not look thin at all" why are you worried about needing to add another 10 lbs to him? As animals age they can start losing muscle mass and weight from that loss. At 9, he's a more mature fellow, so perhaps is losing some of the muscle mass that he had had as a younger guy.

 

I would be concerned about adding too much fat to his diet (you don't want a greyhound carrying around extra fat, and it might give him digestive problems if it is increased too much). I would do a good inspection of ingredients of what I was feeding him and the kcal amounts of that food versus anything you plan to change him to, and see if a small increase would do as you wish.

 

That said, if I were to add in canned I'd do the change of food first and see if that worked.

[Guest 3kids1grey]

He doesn't look as "solid" as he did although by greyhound standards he doesn't look thin. He's a few pounds under what his racing weight was, and definitely under what his "sleeping on the couch" weight was. I do attribute some of the weight loss to his age, but not all of it.

[silverfish]

Then I'd be more concerned with finding out why he's losing weight than simply trying to pack on weight which may or may not be needed.

 

What investigations have you had done so far? Has he been wormed recently?

 

We have issues with one of ours who can't seem to put much weight on, and it only takes a bit of stress and he loses it again. We've had success with switching back to the kibble he was on when he was a racer. I make up a stew just as the race kennel does and he eats well and does well. Trying to put him on a standard 'pet food' kibble didn't work well for him. I don't normally like to have an old guy on a high protein kibble, but it's what works for him, and his kidneys are good right now.

[Guest 3kids1grey]

His vet is running blood work. We did just came back from a month-long camping road trip so I am factoring in some stress, but frankly Jet just goes from sleeping in the car to sleeping in the camper so he's not high-stressed by it... but it was a long trip. I guess just seeing the weight-loss at the vet today threw me for a loop.

 

I'm going to increase his food and add a high quality soft food in or meat/veggies and probably take him back to the vet in a month for a weight check to see if he's gained or stayed the same and then go from there.

[JJNg]

I'm with everyone else who has suggested that he may not need to gain 10 lbs, and the bigger concern is making sure he doesn't have a medical condition causing the weight loss. If he "does not look thin at all" now, I'm wondering if he was overweight before? 10 lbs is a lot for a greyhound. From your description, it sounds like he's at a pretty healthy weight now. And as long as his bloodwork looks good, I'd just try to get him to gain a couple pounds. Then as long as he is able to gain those couple pounds and maintain it, I wouldn't be too concerned. Carrying extra weight is even tougher on the seniors as they start to develop arthritis and mobility issues.

 

Being a few lbs under racing weight is not necessarily a concern. Especially with the males who are very muscular while racing, it's not unusual for them to be a healthy pet weight that is less than their racing weight. My boy has been at a good weight at about 6-7 lbs under his racing weight since he was 4-5 years old (he's 7 now), and the same is also true of one of my friend's male greyhounds.

 

I'd also really consider whether you want to be changing food and trying different things right now. This throws a lot more variables into the picture, and different types of food have different caloric contents, so it can be hard to compare how many calories he's actually getting. Is his appetite good, and is he eating everything you feed him? If so, the first thing I would try is just feeding a little more of the current food, give it a few weeks and see what happens.

[cleptogrey]

His vet is running blood work. We did just came back from a month-long camping road trip so I am factoring in some stress, but frankly Jet just goes from sleeping in the car to sleeping in the camper so he's not high-stressed by it... but it was a long trip. I guess just seeing the weight-loss at the vet today threw me for a loop.

 

I'm going to increase his food and add a high quality soft food in or meat/veggies and probably take him back to the vet in a month for a weight check to see if he's gained or stayed the same and then go from there.

every time i travel for a week or 2 w/ my dogs felix drops a good couple of pounds. he usually put it back on within a month. the comments about looking muscle mass and lying around is most likely reflecting the cause. the blood work will have the answer, but slow and steady for any weight gain, how's the quality of coat?,is your dog hydrated?(pick the skin up on his and see if it bounces back to the original place on it's body), how's the shedding? any gunk in his eyes? change in coat, eyes, etc will indicate a problem - but some home cooking - rice and a good source of protien added to the kibble won't hurt. but keep it simple. veggies are good low calorie fillers....a big box of dog biskets wouldn't hurt either.

[Guest 3kids1grey]

The bloodwork came back off in his pancreatic levels so we are sending another sample out for GI issues. The vet is thinking he might have IBD. Which after reading up on I totally believe, while having a healthy appetite he's never had firm poop and has always been gassy... both of which I attributed to sensitive greyhound tummies. The first course of action is to completely change the food and see if that helps the gut heal. So I've already done that, and I'm assuming the really liquid poo is just that kicking in. UGH! We should have the results back in a few days.

 

When I say he's lost a good bit of weight I should have said, we've had him for 5 years and his weight has always been around 90lbs (he is a large greyhound) his racing weight was 82lbs but at the vet the other day his weight was 76lbs. So that 14lb drop does concern me.

 

I've also been giving him scrambled eggs and some of our good grass-fed beef. Depending on what we find out I'm thinking I might go with a BARF diet so I can really control what he's eating.

[retread]

Are you sure the vet's scale is accurate? I don't think they calibrate them very often.

[AndysMom]

We've got an 11-year-old foster surrendered to us a few weeks ago. He got down to 60 pounds and was very skinny. Vet suspects IBD and has prescribed a couple of meds that seem to be helping. The biggest problem is that he wouldn't eat ANYTHING to speak of. We tried everything we could think of. If he ate something one day, he wouldn't touch it the next.

 

This week I may be accidentally stumbled on something that gets him going on a consistent basis. SWAI filets. It's a type of catfish from Southeast Asia that's about half the price of American catfish varieties ($2 versus $4 a pound). Kroger sells it as individually frozen boneless/skinless filets of about 4 oz each, each one separately wrapped in a vacuum seal pack. I nuke a filet until it turns white and smash it into Joey's kibble with the water that drained from the filet during cooking. It's worked 4 days in a row now, which is remarkable for this boy.

 

You might want to see if your local grocer carries swai filets and give it a try.