Expert: Jana Connell RVT, CVT - 5/3/2011

Question
I have a 6 months old boxer that is very thin she want eat her dog food.We feed her puppy chow and can food, but now all she want to eat is can food. She lost so much weight and hasn't eaten in two days! I don't know what to do with her anymore I've try everything it's not working! Please help I want her to be okay

Thank you,

Sheng Gomez

Answer
First of all, is this puppy being wormed on a regular basis? Was she vaccinated as well up to the age of 16 weeks? Is she on heartworm prevention?

Puppies full of worms are not going to gain weight and if she has heartworms (and yes she can have them by 6 months old) they will drag her down and she won't be able to gain weight.

Purina Puppy Chow will not help her to gain weight as it isn't complete nutritionally and canned food won't help if it is of low quality as well.

You say she want eat dog food. I am not sure what that means but if you are saying she WON'T eat dog food then what are you feeding her? If you are feeding her ANY table food, any human food, then she is not only going to be off weight but she will be very sick as well pretty soon. You cannot build a strong foundation for this puppy's future health by feeding her low quality, cheap food.

Get her wormed first of all if she hasn't been, not once, but after 10 days worm her again. Get some tapeworm medication from your vet (you cannot buy it at the store) and give her that after about 20 days after worming her the first time for roundworms. If she is on the monthly heartworm prevention that covers worms then the only wormer she needs is for tapeworms.

If she hasn't had a fecal for these worms she should have one at the vets. Many worms can make a dog unthrifty and not gain weight. Hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms will all do this.

As far as diet goes, you must stop all people food and ONLY feed her dog food.
Get her a 10 lb bag of Large Breed Puppy Growth from Science Diet and feed it according to the package directions with NO added food except for Science Diet canned puppy food. She will LOVE this food and will eat it after she is slowly gotten used to it.

Do not just start her right on it but mix it into her old food little by little until all she is eating is the Science Diet. You will see a huge difference in her in about 3 weeks.

I will include a chart for you to show you how to transition her slowly. Otherwise she can get diarrhea and even vomit from the sudden change.

So start with the worming, get her to the vets for a fecal and get some tapeworm medications.

If her stool is not formed correctly or is of an off color, like it's light colored or there seems to be mucous in it, then she could have a digestive problem such as not absorbing her nutrients correctly.Your vet will be able to tell you if that is the case when he sees her and checks her stool.
In cases like those the dogs need to fed an enzyme powder on their food to help them digest it, usually for life.

I hope this helps some. Let me know how she does in a few weeks.