Rawfed dog getting thinner and thinner--help!
 

My Ger. Sh. mix has been on raw food since about April and she loves it. However the last month and a half or two she has gotton skinnier and skinnier. At first I just thought her metabolism was really high and I fed her more. But then I remembered that even when she was on kibble it was hard for her to keep her weight up and I ended up giving her tons of scraps, too, at that time.

She's 63 pounds (or she was last year at the vet) and eats about 1 1/2 to 2 lbs of food a day. I also give eggs, offal, and occasionally yogurt or cheese if the kids didn't eat all theirs. But now her hip bones, ribs, etc are showing terrible and it looks like she's losing more weight. I can't afford to feed her 3-4 lbs of food a day, that's for sure, or I don't think she should eat THAT much!

Are there any suggestions of what I should do? Could she have a parasite or something? She does have a vet appointment for shots on the 18th, but I was wondering if anyone here had ideas...

Has she been checked for hyperthyroid?

No. It wasn't such a problem to where she was over-skinny before. Now, though, it is really obvious to me. I could have them maybe check that.

Hmmm. Does she have any other symptoms at all? Even subtle ones/changes?

Well, I would be sure to have a full check up but aside from that, I would get the vet's advice on her weight. I think sometimes we tend to think that dogs need to be heavier than they really need to be. If she's definately too think and there's nothing wrong, I would be sure you a feeding the chicken with the skin on and I would up her red meat. Do you primarily feed chicken right now? Maybe give more beef. Beef heart is a pretty inexpensive option. I also tell friends and family not to throw away any freezer burnt meat as it does not affect the nutritional value of the meat at all and it's fine to feed my dogs. Occasionaly my dogs have even gotten some old freezer burnt steak! I was tempted to eat it myself! Anyways, that's what I would do.
Good luck and let us know how you make out!

What kind of raw is she eating? Pre-made, BARF, prey-model?

Exactly what i was going to say! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Well, we are feeding all 3 dogs prey model diet. Besides the Ger. Sh. mix (who's having skinny issues), we have a 6 year old Ger. Short. mix who has does fantastic on it! He's bigger than our skinny dog but seems to need less food as he's probably the most solid (not fat at all) he's ever been. And of course, our silky yorkie who seems to need barely any food at all. A chicken thigh will make two days worth of food for her. She stops eating after a half.

My husband is a hunter and we have been feeding deer, elk, chicken, and occasional beef, game bird and fish. I give chicken livers, chicken hearts and beef livers for offal. They really love pigs feet! We live in an area that hunting is big so my husband emailed everyone at his work to give us freezer burned meat. I did the same with everyone I know. So we have gotten lots of that. In fact, I asked in a thread earlier about smoked deer sausage as someone we know had tons of old stuff. I wasn't quite sure about the smoked part. Indie (the skinny one) eats everything we give her--more than the other big dog.

She doesn't seem to have any other symptoms...energy is great, I think her stool is okay (hard to tell with 2 big dogs), appetite good...it's just that she's shrinking! I went to pet her today and she was all bones! Today she's eaten: 8 chicken drummies, 1 lb of deer steak and a chicken back. Yesterday she had 2 chicken leg quarters, an egg and chicken livers. It seems to be enough? Or am I off with feeding? The other big dog looks so good on the same diet!

Help!

Oh, and also, I was thinking how I was going to explain this to my vet. Not too supportive with the raw food. Of course I'm going to get an earful, I'm sure.

And, if it's just that I'm feeding to little, how is it possible to feed 3-4 lbs a day frugally? I just don't know how to get 6 lbs of meat A DAY on top of the 4 kids I've got to feed! :rolleyes:

Probaby will get alot from this, but,then again, every dog is different. I had a good bit of problems with Nolee on Raw. Now that I have him on all natural food, he is doing a lot better. The raw did not work for him.

I would just avoid getting into the food questions. Mention that you're concerned she's getting too thin and that you'd like her thyroid levels checked. (Some of the markers for hyperthyroidism is weight loss, increased appetite, nervousness, tremors, heat intolerance and fatigue. Sometimes you can only get one or two, or all of them and more.) Might be wise to ask about internal parasites like tapeworm.

If he really gets into what you feed, why not go into it with the simple idea that you home-feed with natural meats? (Perhaps just avoid the fact that its raw and not cooked.)