Too Skinny Senior Greyhound?

[Guest 2houndsmom]

Hello,

I have a 13 yr old neutered greyhound who has become very skinny. He is on a high fat, high protein diet. All of his bloodwork has been fine. Has anyone had this issue with their senior grey?

[tbhounds]

Have you checked for intestinal parasites? How much and what you are you feeding?

[Opals_mom]

My teenager is getting thin even though she eats whatever she wants. All of her tests have come back fine though she does have LS so that's a major contributing factor. I just chalked it up to old age.

[DesiRayMom]

Perhaps an absorption issue?

[Guest MnMDogs]

My teenager is getting thin even though she eats whatever she wants. All of her tests have come back fine though she does have LS so that's a major contributing factor. I just chalked it up to old age.

You just described my Mork. He became very skinny for his last 12-18 months or so, with no underlying contributing factors. He just became a skinny old man, after always being a bit of a chunk.

[Guest sireltonsmom]

After ruling out parasites, is there too much protein? Vet could tell you. My old boy got skinny. I ended up feeding him Mac and cheese with hamburger, Ensure, etc. He didn't put a lot of weight on but I knew he was getting calories and some nutrients. Good luck. At older ages I think eating is important even if it isn't all kibble.

[Guest IrskasMom]

Many Times before have I talked about my Morty being a poor Eater . The last few Days he has barely eaten anything. Maybe the Heat or because of me being down . He is skinny . I offer him every Day his Dinner with some Goodies on Top ...... no results . He turned 10 in May . There are no underlying Issues that I know of .

[greyhead]

We have issues, including LSS pain and an ongoing war with worms. But some days my 11-1/2 year old eats well and sometimes he mostly wants liquids and/or people food. We trust that he knows what he needs and isn't "just being picky."

 

So he gets a bottle of Ensure per day, divided to give half at a time, and he gets 2-3 large Milk Bones if he wants, in addition to whatever kibble-with-chicken-broth and canned food (both kidney diet) we can get him to eat. High protein isn't great for older dogs, or people for that matter. Good carb calories need to be part of the mix. Ensure has some nice fat calories to go with everything else!

[silverfish]

Yes, we do, with Jeffie (12). It's such a battle to keep enough meat on his old bones to keep him from being skeletal instead of just thin. He has no parasites, his bloodwork is fine and he's just finished a month-long course of doxycycline for a potential chest infection. He does have some thickening of the bronchial tubes, but after a long course of antibiotics I can't think it's infection - the other possibility was senior dog 'airway syndrome'. He also has a very small question mark over his heart function - they did ECG (read by a consultant), x-ray, etc and the only thing that came back 'off' was this lack of certainty over his cardiac enzymes. It wasn't even 'we think' it was 'we can't be sure'. He also has something going on with his back end which may or may not be and LS type issue. He's on anti-inflammatories for that.

Jeffie, too, eats what he wants. I cook a stew as add-in and he's now on Almo Nature Holistic puppy kibble which he really likes. I've tried reducing his protein but his weight drops frighteningly fast so he's back on high protein. The simply fact is that as he ages he's losing muscle. He has a tiny bit of a 'soft' chest (the 'boob' syndrome ) but the rest of him is pathetic.

 

We've switched several of our seniors onto puppy food as they became 'senior' seniors. Some of them do just seem to need the extra calories. We haven't had any issues with that.

I've tried offering him a third meal but he usually turns his nose up at it.

 

Perhaps an absorption issue?

 

It's a thought, but not in Jeffie's case. His poop is perfect; brown, dryish, small and firm. With absorption issues you usually get foul-smelling and often light-coloured and/or greasy poop.