December 15, 2008
Need to put weight on a rescue Chihuahua, help please?
Just brought home a lovely 3 year old rescue girl from the pound. Earlier this month she was pregnant and in labor and delivery, everything went wrong and she lost the litter (pups stuck in birth canal, emergency c-section and spay). Owner surrender due to no money for the vet. I suspect they bred her with a much larger dog as it appears every bit of her went into making that pregnancy as viable as possible. Poor girl is bone skinny. Quite obviously at this point malnourished.
We feed our other dogs a high quality premium dog food (Natural Balance) one feeding, once daily. While I'm fairly certain she will gain weight back to a healthy level simply by recovering from the pregnancy and the spay and having a good diet, I'm thinking to encourage her further, we should allow her to basically free feed - something I've never done with dogs before. It will be a challenge, given the other dogs in the house, but something I'm willing to tackle for her.
Am I on the right track here? Any other suggestions?
Kudos to you for taking her in and being concerned! On the suggestion of my vet, I feed my very thin rescues with a high quality puppy kibble (regardless of age of the rescued pup). There are additional calories and immuno-beneficial componants. I will free feed them to make sure there is always food for them. Then I slowly introduce more age-appropriate food when they are gaining. It can be hard when you have different dogs with different foods, sometime you need to separate them or devise a way so that just the one can get to it. You definitely don't want to have her on kitten food for more than 6 weeks, because that's hard on her kidneys…. Good luck!
Filed under Chihuahua Rescue by Sandra Dean
Comments on Need to put weight on a rescue Chihuahua, help please? »
Try frozen Bil Jac.
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Give her butter, it won't hurt her or put her at health risk in small portions
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Butter is how my dogs take medicine (stick the pill in butter and give it to 'em)
Kudos to you for taking her in and being concerned! On the suggestion of my vet, I feed my very thin rescues with a high quality puppy kibble (regardless of age of the rescued pup). There are additional calories and immuno-beneficial componants. I will free feed them to make sure there is always food for them. Then I slowly introduce more age-appropriate food when they are gaining. It can be hard when you have different dogs with different foods, sometime you need to separate them or devise a way so that just the one can get to it. You definitely don't want to have her on kitten food for more than 6 weeks, because that's hard on her kidneys…. Good luck!
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I wouldnt over feed her its a very bad thing for a dog to be over weight. But if you want to get her up Id say mix some dog treat (that Iams savory sauce) into her food itll add flavor and encourage her to eat.
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Hi,
We too received a small dog from a puppy mill. When got her with one 2 week old pup. Elizabeth should of been 18# but had dropped down to 8#. We almost lost her as well as the pup. She stayed at the vet over night on IV. And when she came home she still would not eat for us. I tried every thing. What seemed to work best was feeding her Hill Science A/D . It is a very high calorie wet food. I let her eat when ever she wanted. I wanted to tube feed her but our vet did not want to do that. Another thing to try is canned puppy meat. It is high calories also. You might even try dry cat food. It is higher protein then dog food but it will help .
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