Yuki's Weightloss Concern
While my husband was deployed, she went from 63lbs to 61lbs. No biggie, I thought. That's the range she normally fluctuates. I assumed it was probably because she isn't getting excess dog food since Mr. J gave her more for potty breaks than I do. Then when he came home 6 months later for R&R, she went down a few more lbs 59lbs. During this time, we got her thyroid tested and it was fine. Every time we've tested so far ...it's been fine. She maintained that weight for quite some time, but this was with me giving her HEAPING cups of food. She gets 4C, but with the heaping amounts... easily 5. When she was maintaining, I went to trying to give her 4 again with just a few heaping scoops instead of 4. My vet's 100lb dogs are on the same science diet food, and only get 3Cs! She also gets dog food when she pees or poops. Today I went into the vet clinic to buy more food and she weighed 53.8 
What the heck is wrong with her? Things that came to mind. She's not exercising as much (sat she used to go sheep herding but outside of that, she gets walked several times a day). Yet what confuses me is, she was walked less while my husband was deployed yet maintained her weight. She definitely gets exercised more than many dogs we know since we're an active family. That's all we can think of since there are no worms or anything when we've tested. The vet is supposed to call me back shortly, but since she didn't know what the problem was then, I doubt she'll be too useful now. I had to push her to check thyroids since she was positive it wasn't it, but I made her check since I see it mentioned here a lot. It's been 6 months, should we check again? ETA: I should say at 63lbs, we were told she was at a healthy skinny weight. Then at 59lbs, the vets she saw said she was at the perfect "skinny athletic" weight, but we were certain she felt too skinny despite the vets reasoning. Just thought I'd throw that out so you would know whether she started off fat or whatever. |
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| Does she have to be on science diet for her allergies? It's really not a great food.... but if it is what works to keep her comfortable...
Maybe try giving her leftover pasta, potatoes, rice, meat etc (whatever you know she isn't allergic to) Starchy foods, or high protein foods don't tend to cause loose stools with most dogs. My dogs are all on pro plan puppy food, 28% protein 18% fat, and I put down 5 bowls with 3 cups in each twice a day. It's almost always all gone. None of them are overweight. |
| Jonah is a skinny kid so we add BilJac to his food, he's slowly starting to gain. |
| Two things come to mind.....one is cancer, but Yuki is toooo active for leukemia. The second is diabetes. This one I'd have checked if the vet hasn't. Normally we think of obese dogs with this problem, but sometimes not.
Other than that, she sounds like Simone. We had the hardest time keeping weight on her until she turned 8. Now we have to watch her, fortunately her sensitive tummy takes care of that. She voluntarily misses about 25% of her meals. Try upping her food 1/4 cup at a time. Could be her work as a Nanny dog to 2 kids keeps her trim. |
| No advice just wanted to say hope Yuki is ok and just likes a slim trim figure |
She eats all her food and is still losing weight? After ruling out medical issues, I like Stacy's suggestion of adding appropriate food to her mealtimes. Or I suppose you could start a really vigorous (healthy) food-based training regime.  |
| Gosh Mrs. J....I'm not sure what could be happening. Hope everything works out for you and Yuki! |
| From a dog owner whose dog needs to be losing weight...does she look skinny? If you can feel her ribs, she is at a perfect weight. If her ribs protrude, she is too skinny and needs to gain...if you can't feel the ribs at all, well, like me, your dog needs to lose a few pounds!
Thin is better than heavy so if all else checks out okay, blood work, thyroid, etc. and she is maintaining a healthy appetite with no other problems, then feel lucky! How tall is she? Its sometimes hard to compare with other owners whose dogs might be larger boned than your's. My first sheepie was "thin" and lived a very healthy active life until he was almost 15 years old. If the Vet is not concerned, then don't worry. Diane |
bestdogsx4 wrote: Jonah is a skinny kid so we add BilJac to his food, he's slowly starting to gain. '
Does BilJac give your dogs irony smelling breath? Thats the food the breeder we got Sophie from feeds her dogs and I thought it made her breath smell horrible. LOL |
| Okay, vet just called and recommended what you guys did, and that's finding a food with more calories (think she said yuki's food has 360 a cup but a performance brand would have 500+) or adding a protein since increasing quantity only gives her runny poopsies. I'll look at that BilJac stuff or figure out what to put her on which I hate since it's the only food I've tried that she doesn't have a reaction to (nutro, dick whatever, iams, pro plan, bla and bla, and bla). *sigh* We'll see how this works. She felt I should try this before bringing her in for tests again since she feels she's healthy. Also said I could always go back to z/d if she has a reaction ...until we find something that puts more weight on her. Again, I look forward to moving to be around different vets (not that these are bad ...just rather have a third/fourth opinion) |
| How about her spine? Can you feel her spine? If so, that's another indication she is too thin. Have your vet do a CBC panel especially to check her pancreas. Melody maintained 88 lbs her entire adult life without adjusting food or exercise. She was a pretty active dog....going for walks & training in obedience as well as playing with our other dogs when she was older. Then the last 2 years of her life she slowly lost weight until she was maintaining at around 75-78 lbs. We found her pancreas was out of whack & she'd lose weight when she had flare-ups. The trick with this is you want them to gain some of their weight back but without adding fat to their diet. A diet higher in fat is not good for the pancreas. |
| Last year when we paniced because Tasker lost 15 lbs it turned out to be the food. We were feeding the same amount of Salmon and rice that I had fed of lamb an drice and the salmon and rice was less calories dense.
I increased the amount I was feeding and he is back (almost) to his previous weight. If the lab work comes out fine (diabetes can also cause weightloss as well as thyroid problems) I would try increasing her food. |
| I had to put some weight on Marley (yep if you read the Morgan the hog thread he is a tank, Marley is (was) a skinny thing. She loves Natural Balance rolled food so I gave up trying to get her to eat what the others eat and let her have that. I also addeda cup of Amp (natural balance performance dog food). she has definitly added weight and is more energetic. |
| Out of convenience, I'm going to pick a bag of Wellness Simple Solutions (I believe verveup mentioned it on a thread) today since it's the only one of the brands mentioned here that the pet store next door has.
I rather be on Canidae pet food (but i'm a blonde and have no idea how to get to the store that carries it way downtown) since it seems to be cheaper. I did notice some consumer report complaints about their dogs getting very sick when they opened a new bag of food (several complaints). That's concerning I would think?? |
| They changed the formula on the Canidae lamb and rice. They have replaced 4/5ths of the rice with pearled barley, millet, rice bran and peas. I am now switching over to Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet Lamb and Rice. They seem to be doing better. Nigel had very soft stools after they changed the formula. It would be nice if they told us this stuff in advance. |
| Of course with any change over you need to do it gradually, often taking two weeks before you are 100% in the new stuff.........and slower if pup has gastric issues......poopy butt. If that happens you have to evaluate the new stuff.
glad I've got 3 cast iron tummy dogs. One tender tummy is enough! s. |
Yuki has been on Simple Solutions Wellness for about 2 weeks now and she's already 57lbs! I think we'll have to cut down her food at this rate, which we decided not to do until she's at least 63lbs (what we know her normal weight to be)! She has also only had solid poops (although they're several tiny ones instead of one or two nice ones  ) ...and she's had no gas, itching, or anything.
But considering the rates to ship a dog, it kinda sucks we're making her gain weight now.  ...at least she's healthy, I guess.  |
| Great news!!! |
| That's great Glad to hear it agrees with her |
Great news!  |
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