eclairs mom

So my rescue Ethel gets transported up to me Saturday. She is 3 and has been used for backyard breeding, when she was resucued she was badly emaciated and weighed in at 20.8 lbs. She has put on 8 lbs since being in foster.

I have an appointment for her with my vetrinarian on Monday for a physical and advice, but was wondering in anyones experience what is the best way to get weight onto severely underweight basset and if there are any kind of vitamins or oils that I should give her.

Currently, the rescue is feeding her ground turkey or chicken, white rice, eggs and puppy food. She is being fed 3-4 times a day, but does not always want to eat that much.

Thank you much for your input

Mr. Woofus

If she still needs weight, you can give her something called satin balls. Check out this site, and there are more recipes out there.

Put weight on your dog with "satin balls"

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Too rapid weight gain is not healthy either. I would just feed her a healthy diet in an amount appropriate to the weight she should be.

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Mikey T

that is exactly correct you just want to feed the amount she would need if she were ate the correct weight. Feed to much for weight fain justs add fat to a muscularture that has be depeleted and set the dog up for orthpeadic problem. Because muscle mass gain is the end came I would feen a high protein food however because extra protein is going to be needed to add muscle.

Determining How Much to Feed
Keep in mind that basset have the high bone mass (percentage of bone weight to total weight) than any other breed. Bone takes very little metablism compared to muscle so basset do not need as much caloiries per weight as other breed so if using the chart form the article I would revise the caloric content down at least 10% for a basset.

eclairs mom

Thank you guys! Can you recommend a high protien dog food? I feed proplan with meat shreds to my other guys and have been very happy with them on it both health, digestion and coat conditions

Mr. Woofus

Sorry, I read your post too quick. I thought she was still emaciated. Like the others said, if she's out of the woods and just needs weight I would just feed like regular. Oops

Mikey T

personally I would look for 30% or higer prtein content you can find this in a number of the grain free food as well as "performance food" and "puppy foods" The other advantage of many of these is they are more nutrional dense so have quite a few more calories per cup this info is general somewhere on the bag as well. as you state she does not eat sometime this could be trying to stuff too many calories in her too quickly or that she need a food that is more dense less volume so she does not fill up as quickly.

solid gold barking at the moon 42% protein 2o% fat
Eucankuba Preium Performance 30% protein 20% fat
Nutro HI energy 30% protein 2o%fat
Royal Canin energy 4700 32 protein 20% fat

most of the grain frees are around 30% protein and between 10-15 % in fat
Puppy foods 32 % protein and 10-15% fat.

Dog are much better at matabilizing and using fat as a energy source than carbs. You will note that carb content is not list on the bag because they are not a require nutrient for dogs.

Kirska

My dogs get Blue Buffalo Basics and have done great on it. A similar Blue Buffalo food with a higher protein content is the Wilderness line:
BLUE Buffalo Wilderness - Natural Evolutionary Chicken Diet for Dogs ? Grain Free

I have not used this food personally but I have heard GREAT things about Wellness Core which is about the same protein content as the food above, there is also a fish version:
Wellness CORE® Original Recipe

Both of these are available at Petco and sometimes Petsmart, so easy to find.

There is very little chance she will be housebroken so be prepared to start fresh like a puppy. Just be patient, she will be very confused about what you are expecting of her.

I would recommend a small adult obedience class if she is comfortable around other dogs to get some tips on her behavior and how to communicate with her.

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Mom to Anabelle and Lila, rescued ladies and Harley, Corgi/Beagle/Basset/?? mutt

"Saving just one dog won't change the world, but it surely will change the world for that one dog." - Richard C. Call

eclairs mom

Thanks again guys, so excited she will be home snuggling by a fire this time tomorrow!

Herzo

You are great to give this girl a new lease on life. Hope it all goes well. I have never used Blue Buffalo but have read ingredient list and it's a good brand I my opinion. Also Taste of the Wild is a good one and not to bad priced.

I also agree on slow on the weight gain. I never do get people trying to put the weight on to fast. This always happens at the shelter I help at.