skinny boxer girl

[jess]

hello,

I can't get Biscuit to gain any weight. she is eight months old and skinny as a rail. She was owned by a vet before I got her and has had all her shots and I have been deworming her on a regular schedule recommended by the vet. The my regular vet said she is healthy as can be and is just growing but I don't like the fact that her ribs show. she is very hyper and spends hours on end playing with my beagles she also comes with me when I ride my horses in the fields behind my house. She gets between seven and eight cups of iams puppy food a day. she seems to eat her morning meal with gusto but seems uninterested at night. she also gets half a can of iams mixed in with the dry at each meal. Are boxers usually ribby when they are at this age? she is my first one, i've been in love with the breed forever but have never owned one before. Also I posted a notice a while ago about showing with natural ears and i have decided to go for it we probably won't win but i think it would be fun for both of us. However i need some help on how i get started. In vermont there aren't many outlets for information on showing dogs.

 

[Eva]

Jess, How much does Biscuit weigh exactly? You might want to try a different food...I just finished dog-sitting my friend's Boxer, Cleo, who is also skinny and recovering from neglect (from her previous owner.) Well, I decided to try feed her the same food and Kaiser and Roxy, which is Purina ONE. Cleo's mom was also feeding her IAMS, but out of lazyness, I didn't want to lug Cleo's food up a flight of stairs unless Cleo wouldn't eat Purina ONE. LOL Well, Cleo just INHALED the Purina ONE everytime I feed my kids, and she always wanted more! And when Cleo's mom came home a week later, she almost immediately commented that Cleo and gained weight and looked great and wanted to know what I fed her. Now she may change Cleo's food.

Also, I just adopted Kaiser from a shelter, and at that time his ribs stuck out too! My poor baby barely weighed 50lbs then. Well, I just took him to the vet (routine care) last night, and now he weighs 61lbs.!!! I have had him just over a month and have also been feeding him Purina ONE...Kaiser also was recovering from heartworms, and had just tested negative for them right before I adopted him. If Biscuit has yet to test negative for heartworms, then those parasites are probably one cause of her low weight right now. If that is the case, I wouldn't expect her to REALLY gain weight until she tests negative. Good luck and let us know how Biscuit does!

Eva

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**VERY PROUD MAMA OF**
Roxy Ember Gitzes - Adopted at 7/99, 1 1/2 years old, female, fawn, natural ears

Kaiser Joe Gitzes - rescued from a shelter 7/00, 6 years old, male, fawn, cropped ears

[This message has been edited by Eva (edited 08-24-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Eva (edited 08-24-2000).]

 

[jess]

Biscuit weighed in at 36 pounds the last time she went to the vets that was about 2 weeks ago. she has been heartworm tested and is on heartgaurd.

 

[Boxergirl]

Jess,
Have you had your furbaby's thyroid checked to make sure it is not hyperactive? If not I would to make sure that is not the problem.

Other than that I can recommend adding pasta and/or rice to her food. Another possibility would be to try and switch to a super premium food - Solid Gold, Wysong or Wellness from Old Mother Hubbard. They are made from human quality ingredients and no fillers or additives.

To keep my boxer interested in his food I make my own soft food to add to his dinner. If you are interested please e-mail me and I will send some recipes to you (they would be too long to post in this forum).

Good luck with Biscuit. (Actually her namesake would be another good weight gain snack, either that or bread. LOL

Kat

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Owned by Tiger, neutered brindle with natural ears
Born 05/11/97

 

[jess]

I've had her blood drawn and a complete work up done on her. She is very healthy in every other way just doesn't seem to put on any weight. I will e-mail you for those recipies. Thanks.

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[lfunk]

Switch to Nutro Puppy food for large breeds - seems to have more protein and fat for better growth.

 

[Chucky]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jess:

Biscuit weighed in at 36 pounds the last time she went to the vets that was about 2 weeks ago. she has been heartworm tested and is on heartgaurd. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have the same problem with chucky.She just weighs 33 Pounds and is about 6 months old.
She has gained 4 Pounds in the last 4 weeks that we now have her.
I feed her 3-4 times a day Canfood mixed with Pedigree Puppy.She gets lots of snacks too.The vet said, she´s ok, but all her ribs are showing.

 

[Krikkit]

Amy is / was the same Always looked extremely lean but she did have excellent muscle tone. She is now 23 months of age and has finally put on a bit of weight. I prefer our Boxers to be in lean hard condition becuase of the work they do but Amy was a bit too thin even for me I also had a full blood work out done on her 'just in case' and everything was fine.

Amy has extremely high drives and is active all the time. I have to constantly find jobs for her to do or she drives everyone crazy. Give it time, Biscuit is still growing and it is actually better for growing pups to be leaner rather than too heavy.

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Sharon
Bella (Red&White 03.07.94) Layla (Brindle&White - 03.12.94) Ruben & Amy (Red&White littermates 15.09.98) Bo, Tess and Rebel in our hearts.

 

[Gabi]

Hi, I must say that my Amy Girl was always very skinny/lean as well. She only put any weight on from about 18 months old (weight on = not ribs showing as much). BUT I also remember that I had discovered that Amy had a tapeworm completely by accident at some stage (* and this is probably not related, but I think worth checking out). Now I cant exactly remember when, but I think she was under 2 years old(I found a 2 inch tiny worm on the side of her leg) I bought some Tapeworm tablets "Excelpet worming chewies" in the supermarket and the worm (dead)was expelled (threaded all the way through her waste) the next day, I repeated this 2 weeks later. (I told the vet at the next checkup and it was OK). The Vet also said that a lot of worming tablets including the heart worming tablets do NOT address tapeworms. If she was to get skinny again for no apparent reason I would do the same again. I am just writing this because I dont know whether my Amy's "skinnyness" was caused by the tapeworm as I dont know how long she had this. It may be worth checking out for tapeworm. But of course I know that it is normal for a boxer puppy to be very skinny because they are so hyper and burn a lot of energy very quickly. Anyhow this was just a thought. I now have the opposite problem Amy is now 31 Kilos and I have to step up the daily excercise. She now seems to just want to stay in her/our bed and roll on her back, stretch and eat treats....LOL
Best Regards

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Gabi
Amy/01.01.97/tan,black mask/spayed/natural ears

[This message has been edited by Gabi (edited 08-25-2000).]

 

[Jan]

It's not unusual for young boxers to look a little on the skinny side. It's okay for the ribs to show and long as Biscuit doesn't look gaunt. If your vets says she is okay, she proabably is. Seven to eight cups of foods seems like a lot. You could probably feed less of super premium food with a better result. I really like Nutro's for large breed dogs.

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Jan
Markus, dark brindle
neutered male, 6 yrs old