concerned for kenny

hello all,

as you know we rescued kenny back in the summer. when he arrived here he was vastly overweight and very un-fit. he actually could not run when he arrived due to this.

he was on bakers complete, is now on nutro choice - but he has really lost weight - far too much for my likeing. i have taken him to the vet last week and they said maybe its cos they have too much excersise?? i lowered him to 1 meal a day when he arrived, but now have him on 2 meals a day.
he is not ill and is quite happy, i have no worries there.
what can i do?

can i put him on a bit of puppy food or mix it in with his normal food or is there a really good high in fat food that i should be feeding him??

He's probably lost weight because of Jazzie being in season, and he's been in kennels, it just falls off my boys when theres a girl on heat here, even though they still eat. If you think back to how he was he was probably worrying it all off thinking about her.

Unless he is ill I would hold off for a week or so and see if he starts to get back to normal now that she has finished her season.

If you increase his food now and get him back to size you may well find you have a battle to keep his weight down.

I would worry more about a dog being overweight than under to be honest.

If you are really concerned, I would add some raw tripe to his usual food as that is great for putting a bit of weight on a dog - and they love it too - although it smells awful !!

hiya sherre - you're always around when i need setter advice, what an amazing person you are!!

what you just said is interesting, i never even thought of that. ok, i'll see what happens over the next week or so.

do you think nutro is a good food for them or not? jazzie was on it from pup and i never changed her from it as she really enjoies it, can't speak for bakers as i've never bought it!

sorry - i lied, i bought a small bag of bakers when i changed kenny from that onto nutro, just to gradually get him more used to the nutro!

You're very welcome, I don't know about many things but some I am able to help with.

I've never fed mine Nutro so can't comment on that. My adults are fed on Autarki (sp) which is for working dogs but is low in some of the things that can cause itchy skins and bad tummies. They have that mixed with either mince, fish or tinned food.

Bradley is on a mixture of Pedigree puppy, Beta puppy and Bakers puppy. He likes all of them but gets fed up if I give him the same thing all the time so I alternate them each day. He will stay on puppy food for the time being, he is a big boy so I want to make sure his bones grow at the proper rate for a pup. He has the same things mixed in as the adults.

If Kenny has been fine up to now on Nutro I wouldn't change it, its so difficult finding a food that you're totally happy with and that suits your dogs so, once you've found one, stick with it unless something better is developed. I have used Bakers a lot and although I don't think it is the best food on the market, mine do like it as a change now and again if I can't get hold of their usual stuff. If you do decide to put more weight on him the tripe idea is brilliant but, if you don't want the smell, I often use Butchers tinned tripe, mine love that too but I have to use it sparingly as it really puts the bulk on them very quickly.

As you say Kenny isn't ill I would think it really is just the season.