Kimberly Vick asked So.. my turn to ask a question. We have a Dane who is about 2 1/2 yrs old, fixed around a year. He has always, always been on the slender side, even as a rolley polley puppy before the impressive growth spurts. Well, over a year ago he started dropping weight. It was slow, but noticeable. Weve been to the vet countless times, tried their prescription food, tried several brands of kibble, raw diet, coating his food in all sorts of delicious things, giving him a day to clear out his system on a fast, soaking his food in water, free feeding, scheduled feeding, everything I can think of and have found through research. He is just not a food motivated dog. There are only 1 or 2 human foods he begs for (thanks to raw, raw chicken is his top choice!), but you can leave a fresh plate of dinner on the coffee table, well within his reach, and he wont touch it. Not that I want him to.. but weve narrowed it down to him being picky. I currently have him on a high endurance working dog food. To achieve his caloric intake he needs about 8.5 cups per day. I can fast him the previous day and get him to eat his full amount for a couple of days to a week, then within a day he drops down to maybe eating 4-5 cups. Now all this wouldnt concern me if he wasnt a mid to high 2 on the Purina body condition scale. He has muscle in his legs, but his virtibrae (Im spelling that wrong..) and 1/2-3/4 of his ribs are showing, and the top of his hip bones are visible. My vet previously told me that there should be no dip between them, and there is one there. Has anyone had this problem? Like Ive said, weve been to a vet and ruled out a lot a lot of things. Hes up to date on vaccines and wormings. He is pretty active, almost puppy like. We go for walks but could always buck up on the exercise.
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 23:00:01 +0000