# Very underweight 8 month old pup



## Kitty Nikolai (May 9, 2019)

I adopted Maple from the SPCA a week ago, she is very underweight. She should be I am guessing at least 20# heavier. I need to find her adoption folder which lists her weight, but she is all ribs right now. The trainer approached me about her weight after class on Saturday as she was concerned. I am free feeding her the food she was being fed at the shelter, Taste of the Wild, Lamb but I feel I should have her on a puppy food. I did find ticks on her, not sure if they could have caused a problem somehow. She was wormed at the intake clinic, she was also spayed approx 3 weeks ago. I am adding fish oil to her food and also organic roasted chicken. I will take her into petco tomorrow and weigh her, I will also start a spreadsheet to track her weight gain.

Are there any specific things I should be concerned with? She is very active and acts healthy. She just has a high anxiety level since she was dumped by her previous caretaker and frets every minute over where I am and if I am leaving her. Her breathing is also very fast when she is sleeping/resting. 

I found this info online, not sure if it is a correct guideline or not?
GSD Female 8 months	53 – 57 lbs / 24 – 26 kg

Thanks for any input!


----------



## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

Weight charts for a breed like GSD which can range from 45-120+ lbs is no different than saying a 12yr old girl should weigh 95-100 lbs without taking into account their height, build, genetics and rate of development (puberty). Any diet changes will take several weeks to show... I would think your trainer would be aware of this knowing you’ve only had her 1 week. She appears healthy and active... weigh her every other week and increase her food by a half cup if she isn’t gaining - also at two week intervals. My gut is that she’ll be fine. Almost all of my rescues ranging from 7 mo to a year have been thin until they recovered from shelter life.


----------



## middleofnowhere (Dec 20, 2000)

Congrats on the new dog - she's quite pretty. So far as weight gain, I'd go for slow gain rather than fast growth. I'd go to feeding two or three meals a day rather than free feeding. Food always there is less interesting than food that is only down for a certain period and then goes away either after consumed or after ignored for x amount of time. 



BTW If I feed a puppy puppy formula food, the pup gets pano from growing too fast. It's not supposed to happen but I've done a lot better feeding adult formula food. 



My current youngest as a pup to about 4 yo looked like a gazelle instead of a dog - she was incredibly active (still is) and model-thin. She filled out at 4. You might have a pup with a similar metabolism.


----------



## Saco (Oct 23, 2018)

I'd recommend feeding her a higher energy formula like ProPac puppy. It's a quality, affordable food with a good calorie content. TOTW is actually quite low in calories per cup. 

She doesn't look super thin to me. You can run a tick panel to check for illness if you are concerned. 

Adding chicken broth, or just water to the dry food to soak is often a good idea to keep her water intake up. 

Also, just give her time. She's had a rough start and needs to decompress. You might be surprised to see how much she'll change and relax after 2- 4 weeks. The GSD I adopted was also super thin, nervous, and scared when I brought her home. It didn't take more than a month to bring out the wonderful, confident dog she was. She was a real find, and I don't know why anyone dumped her. Congrats on your addition. she is beautiful.


----------



## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

In our rescue, when we need to put weight on dogs, we have one very serious rule: GO SLOWLY. Fast weight gain can cause health problems, and in dogs that are still growing -- when they're severely underweight as youngsters, sudden bursts of nutrition and weight-gain often will set the dog up for panosteitis (a growing-pain disease in the long bones of the leg -- it's self-limiting, but very painful and can last for months). Slow, steady gain is the goal -- and with some dogs we do weekly weigh-ins at the vet to monitor it. 

The food we use for severely underweight dogs is Diamond Extreme Athlete (around 470 kcal/cup, 32% protein, and 25% fat):
https://www.chewy.com/diamond-naturals-extreme-athlete/dp/44931

It's made by the same company that makes TOTW, so the likelihood of it agreeing with your girl is high. We've also sometimes used puppy food, but I like the results of the DEA much better --it has agreed with the digestive system of the dogs we've had on it, it's palatable, and it supports the kind of weight gain we're targeting. It's helped us bring quite a few dogs back to health from severe starvation (skeletal appearance) when they first came to us. It's also very reasonably priced (about $40/bag for a 40# bag). My current adolescent foster dog was about 15 pounds under weight when we got her and had been on an RX Royal Canin "sensitive system" food (very low fat) prior to me getting her, due to persistent diarrhea -- she handled the switch very well and actually had better, firm poop on the DEA than on the RC vet-suppliied food...and her coat is shinier, her muscle tone is better...just a more vibrant dog.


----------



## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Fodder said:


> Weight charts for a breed like GSD which can range from 45-120+ lbs is no different than saying a 12yr old girl should weigh 95-100 lbs without taking into account their height, build, genetics and rate of development (puberty).



^This. Honestly, I think height/weight charts may do more harm than good. Is my puppy too big/too small, overweight/underweight is one of the most popular questions on the board! And it's almost always based on whether their puppy fits within the parameters of a height weight chart for the age of their dog. 



The condition of the dog is a far better indicator of proper weight, regardless of age. General guidelines are only ever going to apply to some dogs. If she's overly skinny, (you can easily feel every rib when you run your hand down her side) she's probably underweight but I doubt it's by 20 pounds, just based on that one photo. If she weighs less than the chart says she should but you can't feel all her ribs, she's probably not underweight.


----------



## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Can you post a picture that shows her standing from the side and one from above (standing)? Realize that most pet dogs are overweight in the US and that we have forgotten what a healthy weight looks like.
To me she looks good and very pretty.


----------



## Kitty Nikolai (May 9, 2019)

I was able to weigh her yesterday, she weighs 50.4 pounds. I bought her Blue Buffalo large breed puppy food, perhaps I'll mix it with my Iams adult so she does not grow too quickly? I had growing pains and I still remember how painful it was as a child. I certainly do not want her having them She is super healthy and active. I'll get some pics and post them for you so you can see her from the top. The folks at the pet store seemed to think she was fine.


----------



## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Yes, she doesn't look super thin. You can't see any ribs with the way she's lying.

One of my rescues was a 5 year old female, 26" tall at the withers, that weighed 35 lbs. Now, THAT'S super thin! The vet didn't think she was going to live, but once she knew someone loved her, and was getting decent food (Pro Plan Active Dog) she did just fine.


----------



## crittersitter (Mar 31, 2011)

She's beautiful. And she doesn't look that thin in the picture, granted she's laying down. I agree with those that say go slow on the weight gain. You don't want to overload her with too many calories and rapid growth. Go slow and increase accordingly. She's better off on the thin side at this age than fat.


----------



## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

crittersitter said:


> She's better off on the thin side at this age than fat.


...and at any age


----------



## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Kitty Nikolai said:


> I was able to weigh her yesterday, she weighs 50.4 pounds.



Our girl Halo was in the 54/55 pound range as a adult. I last weighed Cava on 4/16 at 15 months old and she was 58 pounds, which is about where she's been since early December. 50 pounds sounds perfectly fine for an 8 month old puppy unless she looks overly skinny.


----------



## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

My first female was so thin people accused me of starving her. She had a lot of energy and burned off everything she ate. At 12 months she was skinny. By 18 months her ribs expanded and suddenly she looked average. She was a WGSL.


----------



## drbaldwin (May 16, 2019)

My 8 year female German Shepherd is 79 pounds and I just weighed my 5 month old (she just turned 5 mths 3 days ago) and she weighs 52 pounds already. Is that unusual because she is so skinny? I read the average for her age is like 35 pounds.


----------



## Kitty Nikolai (May 9, 2019)

I weighed Maple again today and she is not gaining at all, not even an ounce. She does run an hour or more a day, I guess she may need more food? I am a bit concerned, I can feel all of her ribs.


----------



## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Kitty Nikolai said:


> I weighed Maple again today and she is not gaining at all, not even an ounce. She does run an hour or more a day, I guess she may need more food? I am a bit concerned, I can feel all of her ribs.


You live in the Bay Area where most dogs are far overweight according to my observations and people have forgotten what a healthy weight looks like; people and dogs alike.
How do you feel her ribs; lightly petting with a flat hand or with normal pressure? Again; pictures will help


----------



## Heartandsoul (Jan 5, 2012)

In you peco collar thread you have a little better pic of her standing. Not a full view but better and she doesn't look super skinny from those pics so maybe she isn't too thin or just needs a few pounds but without a full top and full side view it's hard to say. Also encouraging was that you did mention in another thread that someone from an IPO club was admiring her. Chances are if she were extremely thin, he might have mentioned it seeing where he was probably looking closely at her structure.

And if she's got lots of energy, that's a good General sign of health. She is pretty.


----------



## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

I agree pics would help. From the few shots of her in your other thread she doesn't look underweight but it's tough to tell with her laying down.


----------



## Kitty Nikolai (May 9, 2019)

Here are a few pics I took today. I can feel her ribs with a light touch.


----------



## Custom Billet (Mar 10, 2018)

Kitty Nikolai said:


> Here are a few pics I took today. I can feel her ribs with a light touch.


Wow, I think she looks perfect! Nice and lean. That is how you want them.

So many people told me I wasn't feeding mine enough and she was too thin. Now at 17 months, very healthy, muscular, and agile. You don't want them looking like most dogs you see. 90% of them are overweight. You get used to seeing them like that and expect them all to look that way.


----------



## Custom Billet (Mar 10, 2018)

Nice and thin, happy dog.


----------



## tim_s_adams (Aug 9, 2017)

OP, your dog looks fine in terms of weight. She should still be growing, so I, if it were my dog, would be weighing her at Least once a week or two to make sure, but sometimes they just hit a pause. Don't over stress about it, just feed the dog in front of you. Gauge by her activity/energy level, and by her physical appearance. Ribs felt fairly easily are what you want. The entire ribcage being visible, not so much. But yeah, your dog looks to be what I consider a perfect weight.


----------



## Diana Drury (May 20, 2019)

Your pup looks a lot like my Stella! Stella is nearly 7 months (born on 11-9-18) and weighed 62 lbs at the vet yesterday. Despite the weight, she is very thin as well and is not a voracious kibble eater. She does get a lot of knuckle bones, cow ears, biscuits, and marrow bones, so that might explain her recent lack of appetite for her food (she has had elbow surgery so we have to try to entertain her with bones since she is not allowed to be active as she recuperates).

Her metabolism is extremely fast though as most higher fat, higher fiber foods have given her diarrhea (like Taste of the Wild or Blue Buffalo puppy). I finally found a food that agreed with her due to its low fat, low fiber formulation (Natural Balance limited ingredient duck Puppy formula) but even with that food, she has about 2-3 bowel movements a day. Long story short -- some dogs just have a super fast metabolism. I wouldn't stress over it too much. My long-coated white shepherd looked big due to his voluminous coat but full-grown never weighed more than 68 pounds.


----------



## MineAreWorkingline (May 2, 2015)

Some dogs simply are built very narrow. I had one like that. His health was good and the vet said to wait until he was two years before doing anything. He did feel out some at that age. Do be wary about your dog being too lean as it has been linked to bloat and bloat is a big problem for this breed.


----------



## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Yes, she looks good. I wouldn't get her any heavier. She will fill out (NOT gaining fat!) as she gets older. She is the equivalent of a spindly teen girl (which we hardly see nowadays)


----------



## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

My 9 year old female weighs around 60 lbs right now and she is overweight. So if you are basing your concerns on a weight chart don't. Your Maple looks healthy and happy. That's all that matters.


----------



## Kitty Nikolai (May 9, 2019)

Great advice everyone, I will relax now LOL. She does seem very healthy .


----------



## CometDog (Aug 22, 2017)

She looks great! Beautiful pup, congrats!


----------



## CatMan900 (May 24, 2018)

My puppy was underweight until about 7-8 months then he hit a huge growth spurt. Some pups grow fast early and some grow slow and some grow late. I wouldn’t worry until around 1 year or so


----------



## Kitty Nikolai (May 9, 2019)

I just weighed her yesterday and after one month she has gained 2# finally. She looks great!


----------



## Kitty Nikolai (May 9, 2019)

CometDog said:


> She looks great! Beautiful pup, congrats!


Thank you! I got lucky!


----------



## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Kitty Nikolai said:


> I just weighed her yesterday and after one month she has gained 2# finally. She looks great!


Expect her to gain more weight gradually as she is maturing. Don't confuse this muscle with fat weight. Feeling her ribs and spine is your best indicator of correct weight.


----------

