Weight loss!

ttddinh

Kaiju (shikoku) has lost quite a bit of weight lately and I am worried. I could feel his ribs. I just de-wormed (with the one that starts with a p and gets rid of roundworms) them a couple of weeks ago. He is eating ok...he has always been a picky eater, esp. with regards to raw. He gets plenty of treats. The other two dogs are quite chunky (well, kilbun is at a good weight). Could he have giardia and the other two not have it? He is always licking at pee and what not on our walks. All the pups share the same water bowl. Could depression cause weight loss in dogs? Kaiju and Kilbun have been starting a marking war and so I to put a belly band on Kaiju and he hates it. Also, I think the stress of it causing him to lick his leg (irritating his lick granuloma again) so I also have to put a collar on him..which makes him even more stressed out. My poor Kaiju....

tjbart17

Did he have worms? Or test positive for giardia? I'm confused.

If not then I would think that weight loss is caused by diet. If he doesn't like raw have you thought about feeding him kibble?

To put weight on Mei I gave her sweet potatoes in her meals. I'm lucky that the weirdo loves veggies.

ttddinh

No, sorry. He was de wormed as a precaution bc the dogs hunt n the backyard. He was never tested for giardia. I just suspected giardia bc of the weight loss. As per the kibble, all my dogs get kibble for sometimes one meal a day and but definitely on weekends.

Losech

Conker had a weight-loss spell last year. It was really frustrating since he wouldn't eat most of what I offered, and even when he decided that eating was a good thing again, he didn't gain much good weight for a while, and was still a picky brat. No health issues, no worms.
What ended up working was putting him on a high-quality kibble that he would readily eat, and heavily supplementing it with raw foods, that he would eat. I couldn't do just one or the other since too much kibble, even when split into several meals, didn't sit well with his digestive tract, and he wouldn't eat half the stuff for full raw/homemade so it would have been terribly unbalanced.

I am now doing the same thing since he lost a ton of muscle mass in Alaska and I'd like to get him back in good shape again. He eats 1 cup of Nature's Variety Instinct (was EVO until I ran out) with a raw egg in the morning (and various other supplements) then he gets a good-sized chunk of turkey back or neck, a piece of beef liver, and some other sort of red meat in the evening.

cdenney

Giardia normally causes loose stool, doesn't it (maybe not but sounds familiar been awhile since I've been around it)?

Try a kibble, raw mix with lots of "flavor" addatives. I know with my family dog if she goes into depression eating I melt butter over her kibble, Sachi went off her kibble and we switched to raw, now raw kibble again and missing link gravy helps her suck it down with gusto

rikumom

We know a shiba who's 10 now, picky eater, who just periodically go on hunger strike. He used to be around 27# but is now down to 23#, but nothing wrong with him physically. How much weight % has Kaiju lost? How old is Kaiju?

Hinata23

ChoCho goes through these weird phases where she doesn't want to eat breakfast. Since she's OCD about keeping her crate clean I spill a handful of kibble on the crate flood, she starts cleaning it up, and then eating from her bowl. If that doesn't work I hand feed her. It takes longer, but she finishes it.

thegela

Hana also sometimes won't eat her breakfast or dinner, so to start her off, I have to hand feed her and that will get her going, but sometimes I have to hand feed her the entire meal. She also has a bad habit of leaving a handful of kibble at the end of her meal, and won't touch it, even if I hand feed it. I've tried giving her less kibble so that she can get into the habit of finishing, but sometimes she'll still leave the same amount in her bowl. It's kind of strange. Like maybe a psychological thing.

I sometimes sprinkle tiny chopped up pieces of cheese and mix it in with her kibble, and she definitely eats all of that up.

Zinja

Have you tried hand feeding? I found my dogs tend to eat more when eating from my hands.

cdenney

@hinata23 lol using obsessions against her

Saya

Saya loves cooked mashed sweet potatoes.. caned pumpkin or fresh cooked pumpkin is her fav treat to eat too..

Lamb is supposed to be good for weight gain any store that sells lamb or ewe?

Can always cooked the ground or stew meat to give and mix some sweet potatoes with it.. if he isn't into it in raw form.

ttddinh

Kaiju only take treats from my hand. He kind of really does not like to be hand-fed.

Hinata23

@cdenney You got that right! Whatever works LOL

tjbart17

Kaiju seems like a very playful dog. Will he eat his meal out of a treat ball?

Do you crate the dogs to eat or do they all eat in the same room?

Does he seem to not like his food?

I honestly don't worry about these things too much. Eventually they eat.

Sorry for all the questions. I'm trying to understand the situation better to try and help.

The pee licking thing is normal.

tjbart17

Oh if he had giardia you would smell it. His ass would leak a deathly funk.

ttddinh

Hmm, I never tried having him eat out of a kong. The dogs do not eat in the crate, they eat in the backyard together. I watch them. Kaiju always finishes his food; though Kilbun will try to eat it. Sometimes they will just look at one another and switch. But they do get enough.

Thanks for everyone's help!

Losech

I never allow my dogs to share food. I do not want them thinking it's okay to eat the other's food, but that's mainly since Sasha used to be 20 pounds overweight (and a major food thief) and Conker has a history serious food aggression problems.

Conker LOVES eating out of a Kong. I totally forgot about that! Sometimes when he was being a picky butthead I'll make him something and put it into the Kong to make it more interesting.