It is most dog parents’ worst nightmare when their dog suddenly starts losing weight, or had gone through a bad series of sicknesses and don’t want to fatten up.
Although there are various reasons for the lack of putting on weight in dogs, (such as medical, stress and nutrition issues), will most dogs go through it at least once in a lifetime.
We investigate in this article just how to fatten up a dog, and reveal the top 4 steps.
First, take a look at this video:
Step 1 – Determine Why Your Dog Is Thin
The first step is always to determine why the dog got thin in the first place. There can be various reasons, therefore will monitoring the dog over a period of time be one of the best ways to determine what the reasons are.
If you don’t have the time for it, or the dog is severely malnourished, have a look at our list below, and check whether or not your dog falls into any of these categories:
The Top Reasons a Dog Might Lose Weight
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| Female dog was on heat and your male dog couldn’t leave her alone. It often happens that male dogs lose weight during this period of time since most of them forget to eat, or has decreased appetite |
| Has been mistreated or neglected |
| Other dogs in the family is stealing his food. In this case, be sure to stand by while all the dogs are eating |
| Your dog has worms. In my experience is one of the most common causes of weight loss, and the continued appearance of underweight in dogs, worms. It is therefore important to deworm your dogs. A series usually starts with 1 dose on the first day, followed up 8 days later with another dose, and then de-worming them every 3 months after that. (It is important to keep to the schedule indicated.) |
| Any serious or chronic medical condition such as kidney disease, cancer, inflammatory bowel syndrome, diabetes mellitus, liver disease and/or the lack of pancreatic enzymes. Important: If you suspect a medical condition is at hand, take the dog to a vet immediately. Self-medication usually has no effect in these cases and the dog will keep on losing weight |
| Diarrhea or vomiting. This can happen due to eating the wrong thing, ingesting chemicals, swallowing poison or due to a medical condition |
| Dog Food - Poor quality dog food, and/or not ingesting enough calories can cause weight loss. Your dogs might not even like the taste of their food, and can be picky about what they eat.
Check the quality of your dry dog food
Some dry foods can become quite dull. It is here important to alternate your food choices. Spoiled food can cause diarrhea or vomiting |
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| Physical Activity – Rescue dogs for example might be working during emergencies for several days, and sometimes food might not be available. Or your dog is doing more exercise than usual, without his diet being supplemented to accommodate the extra calories he has burnt |
| Fevers, inflammation, bowel infections, bacterial infection, viral or fungal infection |
| Neurological disorders or stress Change of Location – Some dogs lose weight when moving house or having to adjust to a new location or climate. It is mostly temporary |
If you can not determine why your dog is losing weight, is it time to have your vet do a series of tests to determine if the cause is medical.
Various tests are done in this case, including but not limited to blood tests, urine tests, fecal tests, scans and CBC (Complete Blood Count), x-rays, ultrasound and/or a laparotomy.
References: http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/digestive/c_multi_Weight_Loss_and_Cachexia
Step 3 – Establish a Treatment Program to Fatten Up Your Dog
The process of how to fatten up a dog is slow. You need to be patient, and although there are various techniques out there, determine the ones that is most applicable to your dogs’ situation, and your own circumstances and financial abilities.
Most often is a combination of techniques advisable to fatten up your dog. Lets have a look at some of the techniques in more detail:
A Step-by-Step Guides Below for Some Situations
- Increase Calorie Intake
- Change The Type Of Food Or Mix Things Up
- For A Malnourished
Or Severely Thin Do
Why: Most often might your dog need more calories than his food is providing.
Step 1: Determine How Much Calories your Dog Needs. This can be done by checking what the recommended ideal weight for your breed of dog is online, and/or checking the packaging of your dog food which indicates most often how much food you should place out every day.
Step 2: Determine if you have been serving your dog less or more food than the requirement.
Step 3: Adjust the amount of dog food portions over a 7 – 14 day period to the correct amount. Although, very important: If your dog is very active or is participating in more physical daunting exercise than usual, insure his food portion is adjust accordingly to compensate for the loss of calories.
Step 4: Determine if the increase of calories or food portions is working and if your dog is putting on weight. (7 – 14 day period). Use a scale, and weigh your dog every 2 – 3 days in-and-around the same time.
Helpful Tool: Dog Food Portion Calculator
Step 1: Determine if your dog is particular about what he/or she eats, or is bored with eating the same food year in. Plus, determine if the dog food you are buying has nutritional value.
Step 2: Purchase different brands of dog food, together with different flavors, and serve different flavors every 2-4 days. Do the transition slowly though. Check out this guide for help.
Step 3: Avoid only serving dry dog food. Mix things up, and give them other stuff such as bones and meat as well. Keep in mind a dog’s natural diet, and serve accordingly.
Tip: Various dog owners not only portion out dry dog food, but also mix things up by serving porridge with milk, snacks, bones, proteins in the form of meat, bread and milk, mixing veggies with other meats, etc.
You should feed your dogs various kind of food
Important: If you have a dog that is severely thin or malnourished, is it important to give small portions of food, regularly. Refrain from dealing out a large portion of food at any single time.
It is important to give small portions of food but regularly
Step 1: Serve small portion of food every 1-2 hours (day hours) over a period of 4 – 7 days.
Why: An undernourished dog might develop diarrhea or bowel disturbance if suddenly imputing a large amount of food. He will thus continue to stay thin.
Step 2: Once you notice the dog picking up weight, start serving portions every 4-5 hours (day hours). (Another 7 – 10 days.)
Step 3: You will gradually notice your dog fattening up. You can then start serving him 2 -3 portions of food every day, until he is in a healthy state again.
Tip: Determine how large the serving it is your dog needs daily, then divide the amount between the amount of servings you will give him during the day.
Example: If your dog needs 1kg of dry food, and you will be serving 2-3 portions over 12 hours, then you need to serve 0.33kg per serving every 4 hours.
References:
http://www.russiandog.net/a-safe-way-to-quickly-fatten-up-a-dog.html
https://www.doghealth.com/weight-management/hands-on-guide-to-checking-if-your-dog-is-at-a-good-weight
Step 4 – The Importance of Vitamin B12 and Supplements to Fatten Up Your Dog
Another important aspect in fattening up your dog is incorporating Vitamin B12-rich foods which can be found in beef- or chicken liver, and raw eggs.
Raw eggs contain a lot of nutrients and vitamins which are good for dogs
Step 1: Serve your dog chicken or beef liver 2 – 3 times a week mixed with other food or dry food. This will also help with their overall conditioning.
Step 2: Give your dog raw eggs which is really high in Riboflavin, folate, vitamins B and A, Fatty Acids and selenium.
Step 3: Introduce a Vitamin or Condition Supplement. These can be bought from any vetenary clinic.
It is here important to note that these supplements often help increase a dogs appetite, thus is it helpful for dogs that you want to fatten up, but if you have a very healthy dog, do you need to ensure the supplements you buy is specifically for your type of dog.
Important: If your dog didn’t get any of these foods before, slowly introduce these into his diet.
References:
http://www.petmd.com/dog/wellness/evr_multi_vitamin_b12_therapy_for_epi
Conclusion
It is always important for pet parents to fatten up a dog so as to help her put it back on after loosing weight and keep her in fitness. Find more useful information on Nolongerwild.com to keep your pets healthy.
In addition, have you ever had to fatten up a dog? Let us know your techniques and experiences in the comments below.
