Weight loss

[bondie]

4 weeks ago, my 10 1/2 year old furry friend had an operation on his mouth, which was successful. Obviously he had to eat soft sloppy food for a couple of weeks and consequently lost weight. He's now back onto his normal food but has continued to loose weight. The vet says I've got to try to get his weight back on. We're up to 3 meals a day now, which he thinks is delightful, but is failing to put on weight. Have you wise people out there got any suggestions for putting on weight, or any ideas about why the weight isn't going on?  If only us hoomans had this problem!!!!! I feel that I should be paying rent, I spend so much time at the vets these day!! (or maybe 'rent' is included in their charges!)

[elaine.e]

What are you feeding him? I'd be concerned if I upped meals to 3 a day in order to gain weight that had been lost for a known reason but my dog continued to lose weight, and would be back to the vet for a thorough check up in case there was something else going on. Has your vet said anything apart from telling you to get weight back on him?

Does he seem well in himself, coat shiny etc.?

[PennyB]

I agree with Elaine - make sure you at least check out why there is a weight loss

I upped Wilf's (he was 10 at the time) food to 4 meals a day when he had lost weight (his normal dry food then 2 extra meals of canned food, in his case I tend to go for butchers tripe mix) and it worked really well (but as we discovered he did have an illness not that am saying yours is but unexplained weight loss does need investigating - when Wilf was young my vet was concerned about Wilf's skinny body but then we put it down to him being on Burns food at the time plus high exercise levels)

[bondie]

Thanks for the info and suggestions. Have been back to the vets, and everything seems ok. He's lively enough (the dog not the vet!) and the coat is ok too. The suggestion was made to mix some puppy food from the same manufacturer in with his normal food, and this does seem to be working - slowly, so we'll carry on with this for awhile. Once a week I now just go and pop him on the vet's scales and they record it on his notes, so the situation is being monitored! It feels very strange trying to put weight ON a spaniel.........