Extremely thin puppy

LinZem

At a dog meet-up there was a couple there with a 6 month old Pharaoh Hound that was extremely underweight. They are thin dogs to begin with but this puppy was skin and bones. I asked the guy how long he had the dog and he said a couple months and that it was a rescue dog. I was concerned about the puppy's well-being but I didn't know how to approach it. I know some people's pets have medical issues that cause them to be really underweight and I didn't want to hurt their feelings by implying they were neglecting their dog, ya know? Would you have said anything in this case or just left it alone? I keep thinking about that poor puppy and hope he's okay.

New&Improved Mrs.Wyman

I would ask what he was feeding and recommend a good quality food like EVO because it's high in protein and fat to build lean muscle.  Sometimes, dogs have REALLY high metabolisms so he needs to eat a whole bunch more of a higher quality food.

LilacLovey

That's really tough. I really don't know what I would have done in that situation, I would be worried about hurting their feelings as well.

straymo

Boy that is tricky.  Could you maybe ask about the breed and some how fit in about the weight.  Like "Oh are PHs normally on the thin side like greys?" 

Was it to the point where it seemed like the dog was ill or just skinny? 

LinZem

Seemed ill or neglected. I went home and looked up the breed to see other pics of similarly aged puppies and this was more than underweight. At the time I wasn't sure what the norm was for puppies of that breed/age so I wasn't sure how bad things really were. The puppy was also very very timid. I'm sure the dog was neglected in the past but I would have thought he would have gained more weight in 2 months. 

I said something to the effect of "Looks like he could use a coat- he doesn't have much meat on his bones to keep him warm" and the guy just kind of shrugged it off. It was the best I could come up with at the time.

 

pepomntpat

I know we had a hard time getting weight on Guinness at first. It seemed like every food we fed him just went straight through. It took several months of food trials before we found a food that would actually stay in long enough to get properly digested. Now he can eat anything, but it was a hard road and we got a lot of dirty looks at first.

I don't think it could hurt to ask what he was eating. Maybe you could couch it as you had a rescue who had trouble putting on weight and you did, a, b, c...if you see them again.  

OfficiallyHollyC

It took a LONG time to get Lola to a healthy weight if that helps you. She was skin and bones for about 4 months while we tried to find something she would eat. She was very very picky about what kind of dog food she would eat. She would have probably starved herself. We finally gave in and fed her junk just so she would eat. What we ended up doing is slowly mixing in wellness until we tricked her into eating wellness. She was still "thin" at her yearly exam- until we then had to put her on prednisone! Now she is bordering obese. Which is ironically funny, sort of.