My dog eats a lot but stays thin. Why isn't he gaining weight?

If your vet has deemed him underweight, then he could have intestinal parasites, Addison's disease or even cancer has to be considered if he is an older dog. I would recommend starting with a vet visit for a fecal exam and baseline bloodwork to get things checked out and determine his current health status. I hope this helps and I also hope that Teddy is overall ok. Here is a website link also for a guide on determining your pets body conditon score. https://www.wsava.org/sites/default/files/Body%20condition%20score%20chart%20dogs.pdf Best wishes and take care.

He definitely looks very thin. The biggest concern with a dog that eats well, but doesn't gain weight is that he has a disease or heavy parasite burden. There are some inherited diseases like liver shunts that can cause them to be unthrifty like this and there are some acquired infections like Babesiosis that can also cause them to look like this. The only way to know is to have him evaluated by a veterinarian. I recommend taking him soon, because he doesn't look like he has much left to lose. It's also good to bring a stool sample to the vet, so they can check for worms. I hope that helps and Wekko gets better soon.

He likely has inflammatory bowel disease or some type of malabsorption problem. Keeping him on lifelong steroids (prednisone) is not recommended. The first thing you have to do is get a diagnosis. I recommend he have an abdominal ultrasound and/or x-rays and some blood testing to start with. A fecal test is also a good idea to rule out any intestinal parasites. If you can't afford testing then speak to your vet about doing a trial of Tylosin powder to control IBD symptoms instead of steroids.

You are correct this could be due to the increase in exercise. If Tech is eating the same, but exercising a lot more than before, then I would look into increasing the amount of food he receives. In order to best know how much he would need, I would take him into the vet for an exam. The vet can weigh him, and advise you on how much he needs to gain, and a safe way for him to do that. I would bring a sample of his feces with you for the vet to examine. The reason being is that intestinal worms can cause a dog to lose weight despite eating, and if he's outside all the time running around and isn't up to date on his deworming treatment, that could also contribute to his weight loss.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! From the pictures Jack doesn't look skinny, but if they are trying to make him gain weight and he isn't, I recommend taking him to a vet to rule out medical problems. Some possibilities are intestinal parasites, pancreatic problems, intestinal problems, and organ problems to name a few. Also, he may be on an inadequate diet. Once a vet performs a physical exam, they can discuss the testing recommendations. Good luck and kisses to Jack!

This is obviously very abnormal, unfortunately this symptom is very general and could be caused by many diseases including intestinal worms, cancer, IBD, pancreatitis, kidney failure and many more. i recommend taking her ot the vet ASAP in order to get it checked and treated.

If he isn't the appropriate weight then there is likely an underlying cause for this. Most healthy pets should be able to remove all the vital nutrients from their food and use it for energy; however there are certain disease processes that can interfere with this, including intestinal parasites, malabsorption/maldigestion issues, certain endocrine disorders such as Addison's disease, and pancreas disorders like Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. So I think the first priority here is to get Peanut examined by your vet to determine if he is ind Ed underweight to begin with. We achieve this by determining his current body condition score, where 3/5 or 5/9 is considered ideal weight. Then determine if the pet needs specific testing to look for certain disease processes that would lead to the weight loss, such as decal examination, pancreas testing and so forth. And of course generally speaking you should be feeding your pet a high quality adult small breed formula, such as Royal Canin, Hill's Science Diet, Evo or Natural Balance just to name a few. I hope Peanut turns out to be ok. Best wishes!