Dog Food Advice for Under Weight Dog.

bluesmurf

We have recently bought a Pure Breed Red Setter Female, 12 Months old, Very active, feeds well, but is very underweight, has no ill health but
She is 6Kg under weight, Can anyone recommend ways to Build her Weight up.
We were at the Vets today and he recommended “Pro Pac Dog, High Performance, Superpremium Dog Food” and Feeding her Twice a Day.
I have done some research on this brand of dog food and the feedback from Dog Owners was not good and Im worried about feeding her this Brand.
Has anyone had any experience with this Brand of Dog Food,
I would be delighted with any feedback and advice. . . .
Thanks for Reading

mymo

Red setters are prone to being very thin, and hard to keep weight on.
I don't have a setter but my dog went through a phase where he was almost 30% below the average for his breed (he's also at the top end of the size, so this was very noticeable), my vet advised me to make up a casserole for him, it did put weight on him and he seems to be keeping it on fine now, without the casserole. A good dry food is a must, my fella was eating the food fine just very little of it, this is what he told me to make:
Take 3 or 4 chicken thighs and a cup of rice, some carrots, turnip, enough water to cover and cook in the oven as you would a casserole, after 20 mins or so take out and add some broccoli, green beans, peas (or whatever you have), add more water if needed and put back in for 10 mins, leave to cool a while and when still warm take out thighs to remove bones, put the meat and skin back in and stir around.
My dogs loved this, it should be very wet and you can mix into a good dry food.

RubyGirl

Has she been wormed recently? If she is very underweight maybe you should go with feeding her four times a day, little and often and is she still on puppy food at the moment?

mymo

Forgot to ask, sorry this is gross, how's her poop?
Is there lots of it, is it firm?
Red Setters often don't tolerate certain foods well and this can cause problems, can't remember what, its been too long since any of my family had reds:(
The fun we had growing up with them, they are mad but soooo lovable.

andreac

I second what Ruby girl advised. Little and often if she needs weight so i would go with 3 or 4 feeds a day and a puppy food would help to put on weight.

bluesmurf

RubyGirl wrote: »

Has she been wormed recently? If she is very underweight maybe you should go with feeding her four times a day, little and often and is she still on puppy food at the moment?

Thanks a million for your kind Reply RubyGirl.......

Yes she has been wormed, Its one of the first things we done when we got her over a month ago.

She was on puppy food from the previous owner, but we both felt she wasnt been fed enough and perhaps she was kept on the puppy food to long.. we have started to feed her twice a day in the morning and evening...

bluesmurf

mymo wrote: »

Forgot to ask, sorry this is gross, how's her poop?
Is there lots of it, is it firm?
Red Setters often don't tolerate certain foods well and this can cause problems, can't remember what, its been too long since any of my family had reds:(
The fun we had growing up with them, they are mad but soooo lovable.

Hi Mymo, Thank you for the idea for the casrole dish, I offen cook a stew or cassrole during the week and I give her some of this with her dry food and she luvs it....

We also have another dog hes a cross dalmation/lab cross, he's two years old and we have him since he was 6 months and he loves the stew and cassroles too..

Regarding your question on her poop, both dogs are regular and fine.. We walk the dogs twice a day morning and evening, and we do keep an eye on this, She also has been wormed and her reg injections have been done.

We did noticed with the dalmation/lab that the tinned food is really bad for them... so we dont feed them tinned food....

We got the Red Setter as a company for Jack our other dog and I agree with you she is brilliant, Full of energy and really lovable.. when in doors she is so gentle and loving and she luvs to be spoilt...

I have to say I luv both dogs to bits.. ....

Shanao

You'd be best off putting her back onto the puppy food for at least another three-four months as she should be on it anyway. Red setters aren't technically finished growing until the fifteen month of age. The puppy food will have a higher fat content as well to help her put the weight on.

tk123

Our friends setter is the same. He's on Arden Grange at the moment and has put on a tiny bit of weight. He's still very skinny but there is a very thin layer of fat coming in there lol :-)

lil_tuts

Where do you live my Vets is absolutely amazing I would never go anywhere again , And there nurse is so helpful when it comes to specialised food , My dog is over weight and has to be monitored and only feed special food . R/D is the brand I am sure they do a food for under weight dogs you just need to get your dog weighed and sort out the right amount to give them and have a good chat with Vet or the Veterinary Nurse and go back for regular weight check ups

borderlinemeath

I have 2 Irish setters, one who came from rescue only a couple of months ago.

They are very difficult to "fatten up" as most posters say, I would definately feed at least twice a day, more if possible. Once a day feeding wouldn't be ideal, particularly for setters as the breed is prone to bloat.

Our rescue was abandoned and extremely underweight when he was found, the rescue fattened him up using "satin balls", if you google it, it will give you recipes for them. But you have to monitor the weigh gain closely.

Just on the exercise as well, when we got our rescue first - the difference between the two was very noticable, the rescue was a skinny little fella, only weighing about 16kg. Our female is as fit as a fiddle, she does a lot of running off lead and she weighs 23kg. In the past couple of months our male rescue has now matched her in weight, he has bulked out a bit but the most noticable difference is the muscle definition in his legs.

bluesmurf

borderlinemeath wrote: »

I have 2 Irish setters, one who came from rescue only a couple of months ago.

They are very difficult to "fatten up" as most posters say, I would definately feed at least twice a day, more if possible. Once a day feeding wouldn't be ideal, particularly for setters as the breed is prone to bloat.

Our rescue was abandoned and extremely underweight when he was found, the rescue fattened him up using "satin balls", if you google it, it will give you recipes for them. But you have to monitor the weigh gain closely.

Just on the exercise as well, when we got our rescue first - the difference between the two was very noticable, the rescue was a skinny little fella, only weighing about 16kg. Our female is as fit as a fiddle, she does a lot of running off lead and she weighs 23kg. In the past couple of months our male rescue has now matched her in weight, he has bulked out a bit but the most noticable difference is the muscle definition in his legs.

Wow.. Thats a great Story,, Thanks a million for your reply and we will def take on board your advice..

Ill google the satin balls and give it ago...

Its great to hear sucess stories on poor rescue dogs..

We also have a resuce dog, hes a dalmation cross very easy to fatin up.. he was very skinny when we got him... cause he's a cross, you can feed him anything and he'll murder it...

Where as we want to be more careful with the redsetter....

Thanks again for your kind advice...

We

bluesmurf

Shanao wrote: »

You'd be best off putting her back onto the puppy food for at least another three-four months as she should be on it anyway. Red setters aren't technically finished growing until the fifteen month of age. The puppy food will have a higher fat content as well to help her put the weight on.

Thanks Shanao for your advice..

We have her back on the puppy dry food and feeding her in the morning and evening.

We are now giving her cod liver oil and pasta in with her food..

See how she goes... thanks again

bluesmurf

Hi Everyone,

Thanks a million to everyone for all your helpful and valuable advice..

We weighted our Setter today and she has put on 2 kgs of weight, she has gone from 14.5kg to 16kg and is going great, her muscel tone looks great....

The extra feed in the morning, changing her dog food, and adding with pasta or potatoes some days is really doing the trick......

We are so happy with her progress.....

Thanks again...

Ps... they are crazy off lead:D:D:D