underweight

[joeyjay]

my 3 year old spayed female labrador is underweight, however, I cant seem to get the weight back on her, she gets fed almost 1000g of food a day, sometimes leftovers and treats, however, I do try and space her meals over 2-3 feedings, this isnt always possible, she will really 'horse' down her food often puking it back up and eat it again (sorry, abit gross I know) I'm worried about her as my other dog is a 1 year old collie cross, she gets about 500g a day (it's dry food btw) and she's fine.
we take them both out for about an hour everyday for exercise, which includes playing ball, so possibly she's not takin in enough calories??

[peekawho]

Has she been to the vet?  Does she have worms?  There are medical conditions that can cause a dog to not absorb nutrients very well from the food they eat, and some of these conditions can be easily treated.

I had a dog who bolted his food all the time.  There are a couple of things you can do.  One easy thing is to scatter the dogs food over a fairly large area outside on the patio or some other smooth surface.  The dog has to pick up each piece, and so eats more slowly.
The other thing to try, is to fill the dog food bowl with several large (at least fist size) rocks and mix up the food with the rocks.  The dog has to eat around the rocks and nose them aside to get all the food.  Be SURE the rocks are too large for the dog to eat!

Anything that slows him down will help.  Good luck!

[mercyone]

For dogs that gulp down their food - put it on a cookie sheet spread out so they cannot wolf it down......

For the weight problem - Give your dogs about three capsuls of probiotic's that you can buy at a health food store or other places and also some stomach enzymes - dogs can take the people tabs just fine and since they are big dogs you can use the dosage for people - except increase it for the probiotics.

Then also try adding some other food, like a health dog food, maybe one cup to your dog's meal - as I have a Doberman that is was so skinny with ribs showing, he is a pup at 12 months old and weighs 80 lbs, but should weigh more, and he began to put on weight when I added a very good quality health food dog food to his meal - but add it gradually, a little at a time and use also his regular dog food and see if that helps. So now I give him 2 cups of the regular but still good quality food and one cup of the health food brand - and I do this twice a day, once in the am and once in the pm. So what you are doing is treating any stomach issue underlying that can also be caused by antibiotics, and then you and giving him more calories. You can give your dogs several capsuls of slippery elm and that will help his stomach too and aids in digestion.

Oh course, make certain he is in good health by checking with your vet......but I took one of my Dobies to the vet when he only weighed 60 pounds and the vet said his weight was fine and I knew it wasn't - this dog is now 90 lbs and looks great and I had to give him probiotics and the stomach enzymes and also pancretin to aid in digestion and the dog began to gain weight - but when their stomach enzymes get off kilter they cannot absorb the calories from their food.

Mercy