Dog not gaining weight - Page 1

I have a 10 month old, neutered male GSD that is just not gaining weight, and as this is my first GSD I'm not sure whether I should be worried.

He is approximately 26 in. at the whithers (give or take a few in. for wiggling around) and he has been weighing just under 60 lbs for about the last month (59.5 last time I weighed him). He does look thin (tucked waste and abs) but you can't see any ribs except occasionally the last one. I've tried feeding him more but when I do he just leaves the extra in his dish.

Other than the weight problem and a little pano in his left fetlock (are they called fetlocks in dogs?) he seems to be pretty healthy. I've wormed him recently and he's got bright eyes, lots of energy, and a thick shiny coat.
 

We need more info. What are you feeding him, how much, and how many times per day? Did he stop eating after being wormed or is this an ongoing problem? What kind of worms did he have? Did your vet diagnose pano and worms? What does your vet say about your concerns? 

Bright eyes, lots of energy and thick shiny coat are good, of course. Could be he's just going through a "thin" phase. Worms will do that to a dog. BUT, nobody here can see your dog so more info is necessary.

There are a lot of foods out there excellent for putting weight on a dog, and healthy things you can add to encourage them to finish. As sam said, we need more info.

Can we see a recent picture of him, are you sure he is 26 inches tall, thats a big boy for 10months, My dogs did go through a skinny stage during growth spurts, and they always caught back up. Are you still feeding him puppy food?

26" and 60 lbs is very thin, although I agree that more detail is needed.

Can you afford a decent food?  Higher quality, add meat or egg or fish or all three.  Do something!  26" and 75 at his age would be fine.

Not that I'm an expert, but 60 pounds does sound awfully light. Have you had a fecal sample checked for parasites lately? A general de-wormer may not be enough since there are several non-worm parasites. Your first stop should really be a vet. When we got our GSD as an 8 wk pup he seemed really skinny to me, but he had been receiving regular de-worming treatment at the breeder's. We brought in a fecal sample to the vet, and it turned out he had coccidiosis and required a specific medication for that.

Later, our other dog got giardia, and required a specific medication for that, too (giardia is carried in rain, by the way, so keep your dog away from puddles and rivers, and provide lots of easily accessible FRESH water if you leave them alone outside for any amount of time). We didn't even notice anything was wrong that time, both our dogs seemed perfectly healthy and active, no diarrhea or anything. Our vet just insists on a fecal sample for every checkup. For a good reason too, it turns out.

MORAL OF THE STORY:
A dog with a parasite can still seem perfectly healthy! I would definitely be taking some poo to the vet if I were you. An unpleasant drive, but worth it (I suggest double or triple bagging). And make sure it's fresh! Some parasite tests are for larvae that hatch if left too long, and you'll miss the diagnosis. Try and get some poo the MORNING OF the appointment. If your dog isn't "performing," try feeding him and then running him, that should get the works pumping. And if that still doesn't work, you can probably drop some off later with the receptionist (what a great job!).

If it's not an infection, I'd start cooking, as well as making sure your dog's getting a good quality dog food as others have already suggested. If you don't know where to start, either ask people here what they use or go to a specialty pet store, NOT Petsmart or Pet Co., or whatever you have where you live. We use Canine Caviar, by the way. It's expensive, but it's what the breeders were feeding him, and we figured they knew what they were doing.

My GSD doesn't have the greatest appetite either, in general, so sometimes I'll cook some brown rice and ground beef (about 3:1 if I remember correctly, I have to look it up each time) and mix it in with the kibble. He'll gobble that down like he was starving, when normally I have to bring him back to his food and make him eat three times per meal (if I can get just a single piece of kibble past his teeth and point at the food and say "eat" he usually starts eating). I got the recipe from a cookbook called "Real Food for Dogs" with a bunch of dog-safe recipes. I'm sure you can find recipes online, too. Our dog still looks a little skinny, until you feel his chest and hindquarters--he's all muscle, and weighs 85-90 lbs (we don't have a scale at home, but he's just about to turn two so I imagine he's put on a little weight since his last vet's appointment when he was 85 lbs).

Hope that helps!

This is still a young dog,
They have growing spurts and sometimes their energy is going elsewhere.
Don't know about the Pano,  but I wouldn't get too upset as long as he's active and eating good.
He's growing, its just not going where you think.