Helping your dog maintain a healthy weight is an important commitment on his owner's part. Healthy dogs can also be underweight or overweight, but you need to be especially concerned if your furry friend has lost weight due to illness or injury. After you have ruled out, with a visit to the vet, that there may be other serious health problems, know that your dog can regain the lost weight by changing his diet and lifestyle.
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Diagnosing the Cause of Weight Loss
Step 1. Make a note of your pet's weight
If you think he is underweight, it is important to start tracking him, so that you can check if he continues to lose weight and then note when he will recover once you set up treatments and strategies to bring him back to normal. Be sure to share this information with your vet.
Step 2. Consult your veterinarian
You need to be sure that the cause of the weight loss is not due to any serious health problem that requires medical attention. Your dog may have a disease or parasites that you may not be aware of right away, but that your doctor will be able to determine.
Diseases such as diabetes, cancer, hepatitis and inflammatory bowel disease can manifest themselves with weight loss, but require additional specific treatments and medications. Therefore, if the disease is not correctly diagnosed, the animal cannot improve its condition simply with a diet, even if it is accurate. In fact, it will continue to get worse if not treated properly
Step 3. Determine Your Dog's Ideal Weight
Evaluate with your veterinarian whether to use the body condition score (BCS) to objectively determine if the animal is too thin, too fat or has an adequate weight. You can see an example chart here. If from the BCS table your faithful friend seems rather underweight, you should discuss the matter with your veterinarian to find ways to help the animal gain weight.
- In general, the dog can be considered normal weight if you can see its waistline, feel its ribs when you caress it, without seeing them, and if the profile of the belly rises up to the point where it meets the hips.
- If you can easily see most or all of the ribs, spine and hip bones, the dog is too thin.
- Some breeds such as Greyhounds and some hunting dogs and shepherd dogs (such as the Border Collie and Pointer) tend to be leaner than other dogs such as Mastiffs and Labrador Retrievers.
Step 4. Get your dog treated for worming
It is a good idea to take the animal to the vet for a stool test to look for intestinal parasites, but if this is not possible, you can try to diagnose and treat the problem at home.
If the animal has an intestinal parasite infection it may be underweight due to the worms that deprive it of nutrients, as they absorb the substances that the dog ingests even before it is able to process them
Step 5. Make sure your four-legged friend always carries out adequate physical activity
Its weight is closely related to general health and health is conditioned, among other things, by proper exercise.
- Always consult with your vet before setting up a vigorous training plan. Some dogs suffer from arthritis, neurological problems or metabolic diseases which lead to the loss of muscle mass and which require special treatments under the supervision of the doctor in order to improve their health, without creating further injuries.
- A gradual, controlled increase in leashed walks is usually safe for most dogs and carries a minimal risk of injury. Swimming is an excellent exercise that has no negative impact on dogs who are not afraid of water. Make sure that the entry and exit from the water are easy, to prevent the animal from being injured when entering or exiting the pool, lake or river.
Part 2 of 2: Increase the Calories of the Dog's Diet
Step 1. Add another meal to your pet's daily diet
If you typically feed him once a day, supplement his diet with a second meal. If the dog is already used to eating in the morning and evening, add a meal in the middle of the day. You don't necessarily have to change the type of food, just give it an extra meal to add calories.
Keep in mind that increasing his food with an extra full meal also changes his bowel habits and will likely need to change his walking schedule to make him defecate
Step 2. Pay attention to the quality of the food you provide
There is a wide variety of different brands and qualities on the market. You need to be sure that the food he eats provides him with an adequate amount of calories and is nutritionally balanced.
- You can easily check the protein and fat content of your food by analyzing the information on the package.
- Calories per serving are not always on the package, so you may need to go to the manufacturer's website, or contact the manufacturer directly, to get this information.
- Often the list of ingredients is shown on the label. Prefer those products that contain proteins as their main food, such as "beef" or "chicken" or "lamb" rather than carbohydrates such as corn or wheat.
- Do a search on the internet or go directly to the website of the brand of the food you are giving to the dog to check the quality of the ingredients contained.
- Evaluate your furry friend's nutritional needs with your vet, without excluding the recommended daily calorie intake.
Step 3. Supplement the dog's meals with an adequate amount of human food
Adding some tasty and safe "human" food to his diet can help increase his appetite. A chicken, beef or vegetable broth without fat and without salt is very tasty, especially if you heat it up a bit before adding it to your food. You can easily find this type of fat-free and salt-free broths in grocery stores at affordable prices too. A few tablespoons will add a pleasant flavor to the dog's meal.
- A small amount of skinless roast chicken, hard-boiled eggs or sardines (or mackerel) without seasonings often help to awaken the appetite of most dogs and are healthy sources of protein and calories.
- Dogs can get sick if they are fed too much fat, so stick to protein and carbohydrates to add healthy calories to their diet.
- Other foods you can feed him are canned tuna water, lean ricotta, low-fat yogurt, or a simple pumpkin puree.
- Avoid giving him those foods for humans that can be dangerous to his health, such as chocolate, raisins, grapes, onions, garlic and any food that has mold.
Step 4. Try feeding him different foods
If the food you give him does not lead to satisfactory results, try changing his diet by feeding him kibble (high quality dry food) or canned morsels (always high quality wet food) or prepare a personalized home diet and complete. High quality pet foods generally contain protein ("beef" or "chicken") as the main ingredient.
- If you are cooking all dog food at home for a long period of time, it is extremely important to set up a complete and nutritionally balanced diet. Contact your vet for a reliable guide and for you to point out the right recipes, make sure you don't forget any nutrients when you cook.
- There is no "perfect" diet for every dog, so it is important to ask your doctor for advice before deciding on your own home diet for your furry friend. On the internet you can find many useful tips to find a complete diet rich in all the nutritional values your pet needs.
Step 5. Add water to her dry food
If you notice that the dog does not like to eat dry food, try adding a little hot water, waiting for it to cool down a bit and soften. This often encourages the dog to eat more willingly.
Warnings
- Know that a drastic change in his diet can cause stomach pain. Talk to your vet to find a safe way to gradually change his diet to new foods.
- If you have added some human foods, such as pumpkin, to your diet, but you notice that their stools are soft, it may be appropriate to reduce the amount of this food.
- Do not set an exercise routine that is too demanding if your dog is not used to it. Just like us, he too needs to start gradually and in moderation.
- You don't have to force him to eat, you can just try.
