I see a woman on the dog walking route every day. She has a spaniel type dog that is well looked after, walked consistently throughout the day (it must get around 4 hours a day walking split across the day). It’s well behaved, well fed, well trained etc.
A few months ago she told me she’d just bought a Labrador puppy. It was too young to walk yet.
Then I didn’t see her for a while. The next time I saw her the puppy was about 5 months old and was out on the usual walk. I was shocked to see how thin it was. It was skin and bone. You could see all it’s rib cage, it’s hip bones and spine. It looked skeletal. I didn’t mention it as her other dog is the picture of health so I assumed she’s a good dog owner and the lab must have a health problem.
A week or so later I saw her again. The lab laid down and it looked awful. I bent down to stroke it and it made me cringe. It felt like stroking a skeleton with a bit of skin thrown on. She seemed oblivious! So I mentioned it. She looked embarrassed and said “oh yes, actually it turns out I’ve been under feeding her! I took her to vet for a check up and he said she was underweight! So I told him what I feed her and it turns out she’s only been getting a quarter of what she should have been getting!”
How the hell did she not realise?? I can’t get my head around it because her other dog is perfect health ... how did she not question that her dog seemed a bit thin?! It says on the packet how much to feed them. She seems like a lovely woman so I just don’t understand how this happened! AIBU to think you don’t accidentally starve a dog?