Lab losing weight

[BitterAndTwistedChoreDodger]

We have a 2yo black lab and a 5mo GSD.

In the last few weeks the lab has visibly lost weight. We put it down at first to the fact he was a lot more active chasing the pup around all day so upped his food. He gained a little back but in the last week or so he has now become quite 'ribby' and you can feel his spine.

He was wormed 3 weeks ago, the dogs are fed separately so I know what he is eating and he is on decent food.

He is booked in for the vets next week but was just wondering really if anyone had any suggestions on how to fill him out?

It doesn't help that he is the only lab in the world who isn't particularly interested in food.

[SecretNutellaFix]

any changes to his poo habits?

[BitterAndTwistedChoreDodger]

Nope, still doing 2-3 pick uppable poos a day.

[SecretNutellaFix]

Hopefully it's as simple as an increase in calories, but I'm sure the vet can be more precise.

[daisydotandgertie]

Is he on Burns?

[BitterAndTwistedChoreDodger]

No, he is on the PAH own brand equivalent to Fish4Dogs - it's called Fishmongers salmon and potato.

I don't want to google because I will convince myself it's cancer.

[daisydotandgertie]

Don't google.

I'd try him on a high protein working dog food - Skinners Performance, Burns Active - something like that. Some labs are hard to keep weight on. We have one who needs nearly twice as much food as the other three to keep any sort of condition on. She just burns through calories - and we can still see most of her ribs and feel her spine!

The vet is necessary, but it could well just be a hungry dog combined with much more activity.

[BitterAndTwistedChoreDodger]

Thanks daisy

Was thinking of switching to Skinners duck and rice purely from a cost pov, so will order some in sooner rather than later.

Will take him for a check up. I have switched to cheese for training treats for now to try and get some more calories in to him. He has had the bin out a couple of times this week which is unlike him, so maybe he is more hungry than usual.

[daisydotandgertie]

Skinners Crunchy, working 23 or superior all have a higher energy level than the food he's currently on; the Skinners anything and rice are about the same, so at the moment there'd be no benefit from changing.

CSJ CP24 would also be worth considering. Just to see what happens.

He much does he weigh and how much food is he getting?

[BitterAndTwistedChoreDodger]

I don't know how much he weighs now, when I took him from his booster in May he was 32kg and the vet said he was a perfect weight for his size.I am guessing he has lost a good 15% of his body weight since then at least.

His typical diet was a couple of bonio type biscuits for breakfast and 400g of Fishmongers for his main meal. This was sometimes mixed with table scraps if they were appropriate.

Training treats of liver cake on top of this.

Since he has started losing weight I have upped the main meal to 600g, swapped training treats for cheese and am giving him a couple of tins of sardines a week mixed in his food.

He still has table scraps once or twice a week, eg left over veg, HM bolognese (made without onions,) scraps of roast meat or a sausage or two.

[daisydotandgertie]

OK, so he is eating a lot of food - especially as he's having his main meal in one sitting.

Mine are all girls, but the permenantly starving one weighs about 27kgs and is fed about 400/420g a day plus random treats and scraps (appropriate and inappropriate ).

400g a day for a bigger boy isn't masses when I compare yours and mine.

If I were you, the most important change I would make would be to split his food into 2 meals a day. 600g is a massive amount at one sitting and just can't be lasting him all day. I know I couldn't last very well all day on just one meal.

I would also change food to a higher protein level food - as above for suggestions and cut the volume down which will again allow his system to pull out every ounce of nutrition before it passes through.

And of course, a trip to the vet to make sure nothing is wrong but tbh, with the amount of food he WAS on, plus the additional masses of belting around weight loss isn't too surprising.

[BitterAndTwistedChoreDodger]

Thank you - that is very reassuring

Will switch food, split in to two meals (pup is still on two meals a day so this would work well) and let you know what the vet says.