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Diet for underweight spaniel

hoppie

New member
Hope is 4 years old and 15lbs. The vet said her weigh is fine but she’s too bony for me. what’s a good weight gain diet.
 

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Hi and welcome to you, your family and pretty Hope! With cavaliers you do want to keep them fit and trim, because they almost all eventually will get heart disease and any extra weight does make the heart work harder. Also, adding in fatty foods can be risky as they are prone to pancreatitis and this can develop over time and then has to be managed with a very low fat diet (which is a bit of a hassle...) or they can also get a dangerous sudden-onset type that can be life-threatening and needs emergency care,. So you'd want to be careful about anything you might introduce.

Hope does look possibly on the thin side, but it's always hard to tell from pictures -- in a couple of those she looks a really good, healthy weight and as if she is very fit and happy! -- and usually a vet is a good judge of fitness :) . Her body shape may be a thinner build, and sometimes there could be a breed somewhere in her history which has given her a slightly different build, too. As she is four, this would be her adult build, that she has now as she'd be done with the 'filling out' period. But we can be so used to seeing overweight dogs that fit and healthy dos sometimes can appear too thin! I've attached a good chart for considering what Hope looks like from above (It can be easiest to see her body shape after you have bathed her and she's wet!). In my experience lots of people think the overweight shape is the correct weight, when actually they should be a little thinner. Another good measure is that you should be able to easily feel a dog's ribs BUT when you run your hands over them it should feel like a dishtowel placed over something like a cooling rack, the ribs should not feel really distinct and as if there isn't a (slight!) layer of fat and skin over them. Next time you visit your vet you could ask about this.

If you want her to gain a little weight and she's on a healthy diet already you could slightly increase the amount you feed, by perhaps 20-25% and see how she goes?

. Overweight_dog_chart1.webp
 
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