Skinny Johann....how to regain the weight

johann · #1 10-18-2009, 08:43 PM

Johann spent 10 days at daycare/boarding while we were on vacation. He had a lot of fun, but lost a lot of weight. He started at a lean and muscular 74 lbs, I'd guess that he lost about aroudn 8 lbs while we were gone. His ribs are all visible, spine sticks out a little bit, hip bones stick out. He's always been a lean and trim dog (good

)...but this has crossed into just plain skinny/scrawny. He lost some muscle as well.

Daycare owner feels horrible.

We had told her to increase his food (add lunches every day) to make up for the extra calories he'd burn off while playing all day. She also increased his total food given after she noticed he had started to lose weight (after consulting with our vet....we figured it was just the extra energy expenditure from playing for 8 hrs a day for 10 days straight).

We're continuing with him getting lunches until he gains back the weight he lost and have started adding meat or canned 95% meat food as well. He gets a raw egg twice a week normally, so we're planning on continuing that.

Before he went, he was eating around Orijen adult 2 cups AM, 1 cup for lunch (only at daycare) and 2 cups in PM. By the time we picked him up....he was eating around 3 cups AM/PM and 2 cups at lunch. No loose stools or any problems that would indicate overfeeding. We've put him back down to 2 cups with added canned food or meat in the AM/PM and a 1.5 or 2 cup lunch. He seems to be hungry and always gobbles his food up.

I'm going to bring him to the vet tomorrow to make sure he's otherwise healthy.
Any other ideas on healthy ways to get some weight back on him? I just want to sit there and feed him non-stop so he looks less starved.

Edited to add: Wanted to make sure it was clear that we aren't upset with Daycare owner about his weight loss or the care he got while we were gone. We planned on some weight loss (hence the increased food), but this was more than we'd expected.

iluvfrankie · #2 10-18-2009, 09:18 PM

we have a male boxer in the boarding facility that im working in and he is loosing weight also. we have upped his food to try and help. them only thing i can put it down to is he is getting much mire exercise as he is active for a large portion of the day- i was making sure he was out as much as possible and i gave him loads of cuddles to make sure he wasnt too lonely but he still lost weight.

Maybe Johann lost weight cause he was so active like i think is the problem with the boxer in with us.

We weigh each of the dogs every 2 days and adjust the food accordingly- active breeds loose the most. We had Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Hungarian Vizslas, Boxers and German Shorthaired Pointers loose the most weight.

Hope ur little man is ok!

johann · #3 10-19-2009, 07:37 AM

He is acting fine, just a bit exhausted. He wasn't in a boarding "kennel" situation (thankfully)....he basically went to daycare duing the day and then the owners brought him home with them at night.

I think you're right with the extra activity causing the weight loss. Vet said he looks fine today, just a bit skinny.

Thanks

LILYLARUE · #4 10-19-2009, 08:26 AM

It could be worth the trip to send Lily for a week at this "fat camp". LOL She is one that could use the weight loss.

I am sure Johann will be back to normal in no time. I would slow the food uptake a bit......it's getting colder, so excercise will be less frequent. Also, it takes a week or so for this meal to show on his body a week from now. So keep this in mind when you see the progress starting to show on his frame. You don't want to have to worry about 5 extra pounds heading into a winter season, which could turn into 10 by end of season.