Ask a VetIf You've Got a Dog at Home It's Time to Toss the Stash

Dogster

Skin and bones

Share advice for keeping your aging dog happy and healthy

1175100

Barked: Sat Feb 9, '13 2:46pm PST


	My poor old girl is aging fast. Within the past year she gone from a nice healthy active dog to skinny, frail looking and has slowed down quite a bit. She has been a steady 14 lbs her whole life. Last week at the vet she barely topped 10. However, right before Christmas she was about 10 lbs as well, and the vet said it was good that her weight isn't still declining. She looks terrible though, poor thing. I can feel her backbone and her hip bones stick out. I suppose there is not really anything that can be done, at her age (15)? She eats! Her appetite is normal, same as it's always been.

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I'm triple- superior MAD- now!

Barked: Sat Feb 9, '13 8:10pm PST


	Sassy was quite the scarecrow at the end of her life but she was eating pretty well and was better on her feet than she ought to have been. You could try feeding an extra meal per day, Sassy was eating 3-5 meals her last year. For a while her lunch was yogurt and hard cooked egg white and Max got yogurt and the egg yolk. Max got really fat. Might try some whole egg but start slow, the stuff is rich and can cause soft stool. How much protein is in the food? Senior dogs don't process food very well and need food that provides better nutrition than they did as healthy adult dogs. Sassy had lots of muscle on 22% protein her whole life but regained some lost muscle when I figured out how to increase protein to 28% when she was about 15 years old. Might want to feed her food as wet as she will eat too. Sassy was a very poor water drinker as she aged but would drink water from the food dish. Even when she was getting 'meat loaf' cut into chunks she still liked drinking water from the dish rather than the actual water bowl.

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