Why is my dog losing weight on farmers dog

Why Is My Dog Losing Weight? 10 Common Reasons

Understanding the reasons behind your dog's weight changes is essential for their health and well-being. A slight fluctuation in weight can be typical, but if your dog loses 10% of their normal body weight, it's a cause for concern and considered clinically significant.

This article delves into the various potential causes of such weight loss. From underlying medical conditions to stress or inadequate calorie intake, we'll explore each reason in depth.

Let's dive in to better understand what might be some possible reasons for your dog losing weight.

1. Diet

Food issues such as changes in diet, food aversion, or a change in water taste can lead to weight loss. Poor diet is one of the foremost causes of weight loss in dogs. This can happen if your dog isn't getting enough calories to maintain their body weight or if they don't like the food and simply refuse to eat.

Keeping an eye on their eating and making sure they get the right food can help.

Related reading: Dog Food Ingredients to Look For & Ones to Avoid

2. Stress

If your dog suddenly starts losing weight, they may be eating less because of stress. This can be triggered by sudden changes in the environment or the presence of new pets, for example, and may result indog appetite changes.

To address this, it's beneficial to consult a vet who can craft a personalized treatment plan. Through this approach, pet owners can learn effective techniques to soothe their dogs during anxiety episodes.

3. Dental Disease

Dental issues, particularly in senior dogs, can significantly contribute to weight loss. When a dog suffers from dental disease, the severe mouth pain they experience while chewing can discourage them from eating, leading to weight loss.

Key signs of advanced dental disease include bleeding gums, bad breath, and excessive drooling. If you notice your dog preferring wet food over dry, it might be due to the gentleness of soft food on their tender teeth.

To prevent such issues and ensure your dog's overall health, regular dental check-ups, and proper oral care are paramount.

4. Gastrointestinal Issues

Gastrointestinal problems like constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can interfere with a dog's digestive system and result in weight loss. These issues might make your dog feel too sick to eat normally or interfere with your dog's ability to absorb nutrients from their food.

Maintaining a consistent diet and avoiding sudden changes can help keep their digestive system in check.

5. Parasites

Intestinal parasites may also cause your dog's weight loss. Common intestinal parasites in dogs include tapeworms, giardia, hookworms, and roundworms. These creatures survive by obtaining nutrients from their host, leaving fewer calories for your dog to absorb from their food.

If you notice sudden weight loss, have a vet perform fecal tests to check for parasites and ensure your dog's well-being.

6. Metabolic Disorders

Metabolic disorders resulting from hormonal imbalances, such as diabetes mellitus, Addison's Disease, and Cushing's disease, can also cause dogs to lose weight even if they continue eating normally.

Regular health screenings can aid in the early detection and management of these disorders.

7. Heart Disease

Any disorder of the heart is classified as heart disease, and it occurs in about 60% of seniors and 10% of all dogs. The most common symptom of heart disease in dogs is exercise intolerance, where your dog seems to pant or get out of breath during a gentle stroll. Decreased appetite and weight loss are also symptoms of heart disease.

Regular check-ups, especially for senior dogs, can help in early detection.

8. Kidney Disease

Weight loss may occur in dogs with kidney disease. This happens when the kidneys stop functioning adequately and is associated with aging in dogs. Common signs of kidney disease include excessive drinking and urination.

Your veterinarian may prescribe a specialized diet in cases of kidney failure.

9. Liver Disease

Liver disease is fairly common in dogs and can result in weight loss, coma, seizures, and death if left untreated. As a pet parent, you must watch your dog for poor appetite and arrange diagnostic testing if you suspect liver issues.

Ensuring your dog has a balanced diet and avoiding exposure to harmful substances can help in maintaining liver health.

10. Cancer

Neoplasms, or cancers, are common in older dogs. Cancer symptoms in dogs include decreased appetite, weight loss, respiratory changes, and sometimes a head tilt. Cancer cells grow rapidly, and the increased metabolic demand often results in weight loss.

If you're concerned about your senior dog's well-being, booking a quality-of-life consultation can provide clarity and guidance.

When to Seek Vet Care

It's natural for adult dogs to experience minor weight fluctuations over time. However, if you notice a significant drop in your dog's weight, it's a cause for concern. Especially if your dog's weight loss is paired with:

These symptoms might indicate an underlying medical condition, and it's crucial to see a veterinarian.

Treatments for Dog Weight Loss

If your dog is experiencing weight loss, the first step is often a comprehensive pet wellness check-up. Your veterinarian will perform this physical examination and may recommend some tests to determine the underlying cause and suggest appropriate treatments.

For puppies, any weight loss is a warning sign. If you observe your young pup shedding pounds, it's crucial to act promptly. A timely puppy check-up can be instrumental in safeguarding their health.

Conversely, while it's not unusual for senior dogs to lose a bit of weight as they age, a significant drop is concerning. Whether it's a young pup or an aging companion, prioritizing your pet's health by seeking veterinary advice is crucial.

How to Prevent Rapid Weight Loss in Dogs

To prevent rapid weight loss in dogs, it's essential to provide an appropriate diet and ensure they go through regular veterinary check-ups.

Ensuring your dog receives the right food tailored to their specific needs, age, and breed can make a significant difference in their overall health. Regular veterinary visits allow for consistent monitoring of your dog's health, facilitating early detection of any potential issues.

If you ever observe a sudden, unexplained weight loss in your dog, it's crucial to consult a veterinarian without delay.

Conclusion

Sudden weight loss in dogs can stem from a myriad of reasons, from dental issues and stress to more severe medical conditions like diabetes mellitus, and heart, kidney, or liver diseases. If you notice your dog shedding pounds unexpectedly, it's not just about addressing the calorie deficit; it's about understanding the root cause.

Don't wait for the situation to escalate. Book a wellness exam with a veterinarian to ensure your pet's health and well-being.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the signs of my dog being underweight?

Typical signs that indicate you have an underweight dog include bone protrusion. If your dog's ribs are clearly visible and when you touch them, it feels like there is no layer of fat between them and the skin, then your dog is underweight.

Why is my dog losing weight but still eating?

If your dog is eating well but losing weight, it usually means they're not absorbing the nutrients and calories from their food. This could be because of internal illness or parasites. It's also possible that their diet isn't providing as many calories as their metabolism needs. You can start by increasing their food portion and consult your veterinarian for a pet health check.

What happens if a dog loses weight too fast?

Rapid weight loss in dogs can cause undesirable behaviors like digging into the trash. Additionally, it results in nutritional deficiencies, causing your dog to become weak and have stunted growth.

Why Is My Dog Losing Weight?

You should be concerned if your dog starts dropping weight without any effort by you. No increase in exercise and no change in diet. Before you jump to cancer concerns, lets look at simple solutions for why your dog is losing weight first:

Parasites. Take a fresh fecal sample to your veterinarian. While internal parasites are more likely to cause weight loss in puppies, even adult dogs can be dragged down by a heavy parasite load. If your dog is losing weight, it makes the most sense to get that fecal sample, so you know what youre dealing with and can deworm for that parasite. Whipworms can be the worst and might require multiple samples to be identified. Your veterinarian may decide to deworm your dog just in case, which is not a bad plan.

Dental disease. If your dogs teeth, gums, or mouth hurt, he may not be eating normally. That, obviously, will contribute to weight loss. A dog who approaches his food but wont eat may have a painful tooth or could be nauseous.

Environmental changes. Next, look at behavior and environment. Ask yourself these questions:

• Is your dog eating his meals?
• Is your other dog bullying him out of all or part of his food?
• If he is not eating, has anything changed about where or when he is fed?
• Have you changed foods or even flavors within the same brand?
• Have you changed bowls or noticed a chip in his old one? For whatever reason, your dog may be unhappy with his bowl.
• Is your dog in heat or is another dog in the house in heat? Hormonal turmoil can upset an entire household. Both males and females may decide to skip meals.

Serious Causes of Dog Weight Loss

If your dog appears to be eating his normal meals, he may later vomit the food back up once he is outside in your yard and possibly (yuck, I know) another dog is cleaning it up or hes vomiting in a spot you dont normally notice. Watch him when he goes out to see and look at the vomit. Check his stool, too. He could be pooping blood. A soft stool or diarrhea could indicate an illness. Getting to the cause for weight loss in your dog due to vomiting and/or diarrhea requires a gastrointestinal workup by your veterinarian. This will likely include a blood chemistry panel, ultrasound, and/or radiographs.

Dogs with diabetes often eat voraciously but lose weight. The same is true of some dogs with cancer, although other dogs will stop eating well and become very finicky.

Dogs with serious heart problems may stop eating due to cardiac cachexia, which is unintentional weight loss due to heart failure.

Many metabolic disorders such as adrenal problems, hyperthyroidism, pancreatitis, and intestinal, liver, and kidney conditions can all cause unwanted weight loss.

Act Quickly to Help Your Dog

If you cant quickly resolve the problem through the environmental reasons above for your dogs weight loss, you need veterinary help. Unintentional weight loss in a dog is a call for heads up. Waiting will only make things worse.

With any luck, a fecal sample check or quick behavior and environment check will show a reason for the weight loss. Otherwise, the best course of action is a full veterinary exam and diagnostic workup.

10 REASONS YOUR DOG DOESNT LOSE WEIGHT

The reality is clear APOPs 2017 clinical survey, showed that 56% of dogs were classified as clinically overweight (body condition score (BCS) 6-7) or obese (BCS 8-9) by their veterinary healthcare professional.

That equals an estimated 50.2 million dogs are too heavy, based on 2017 pet population projections provided by the American Pet Products Association (APPA). In 2016, APOP found 54% of dogs were overweight or obese. With all of the high quality foods on the market today, and pet owners expecting more for the health of their pets why is the problem getting worse?

Though you might think its obvious, heres another statistic from APOP. Even though we know that 56% of dogs are overweight, 93% of dog owners think their dog is a healthy weight. And even though 93% of dog owners think their dog is a healthy weight, 43% of dog owners actually admit that they dont know what a normal weight dog looks like. We cant help are dog lose weight if we dont know they need to lose it. Above is a diagram of what a normal dog should look like, but it can vary slight from dog to dog.

So if you see that your dog is overweight and youre trying to get your dog to slim down but youre having trouble, heres 10 reasons as to why that might be happening.

1. Looks Hungry/Begging

If your dogs nutrient and caloric calories are met, as it relates to their ideal weight, then this is a behavioral issue. Dogs are master manipulators but with hearts of gold. Theyre not going to convince you to invest in their low budget movie so they can achieve their big break in Hollywood, but they will convince you that they need more food when they dont.

Theres a lot of things you can do to help your dog in this situation. For example, you can divide their food into more frequent meals. So if your dog gets cup of food 2x per day, split it into a cup of food 4x per day.

You can use their food as rewards for improved behavior. So instead of feeding your dog in a bowl. Every time they come around Looking Hungry you can have them perform the desired behaviors you expect from them and then reward with some of the kibble from their daily food rations. Or more physical activities like kibble chase.

You could play a game, or activity with them instead of giving them any food at all. For example, you can tug or fetch with them.

If you have to give them something different then kibble because you just have too, you can use low calorie treats such as carrots or broccoli, but make them earn it! We had an owner at The Martial ARFS use lettuce as a reward for the behavior we worked on in class.

2. Vocalization/Barking

Barking can be even more challenging because the increase in volume affects more people. In addition, you cant reward the behavior by giving any food, treat or engagement. If your dog vocalizes for food the best thing to do is ignore it, it will eventually stop. When it stops, even if its a pause and you know theyre going to start again, give them a low calorie treat or kibble ration during the pause.

Then, each time they pause, wait longer to give them the treat or kibble ration. In an ideal world, they will eventually stop barking for food, and simply wait patiently for food, which is very similar to begging, but at least now theyre being quiet. And we already went over how to handle begging.

If treating for pauses isnt working then you have to remove your dog from the situation. Teach them that demanding food by yelling at you to give it to them will only achieve distance, so either another room, garage or even the back yard. Once theyve stopped they can come back but still no food. Repeat as necessary until the make the association between vocalization and isolation.

3. Behaving Badly.

Because you have decreased the treats and the amount of food, Now Fluffy is getting in to the garbage and stealing food from your plate when you are not looking! (or even when you are looking!!) Keep in mind, this doesnt mean youre starving your dog. Again, its a behavioral issue. Need vs want are two different things.

First, youll have to remove her access to these things. So, barricade off the kitchen. Dont let her around when youre eating dinner. Yes, it may sound excessive. Like you have to do all this to stop your dog from getting food arent they not getting enough food? Wrong! As crazy as it is garbage is delicious to your dog. Same as cake, ice cream, pizza, burger king, or your favorite sea food, steak or Italian restaurant is to you. If you have that around you all the time you wouldnt be sneaking a piece here and there throughout the day?

Thats all your dog is doing. Grabbing bits and pieces of the food they like because they have access to it. It both satiates their appetite and it tastes good. Do you really need to fire off a couple of the chips, gummy bears, milk duds, cookies, or other snacks you might have around? Of course not. You have access to it, it satiates a craving and they taste good. Its only stealing for our dogs because we dont want them to have it because were aware of the harm excess weight causes our dogs.

When is the last time you went to the store just for chips? So keep your dog from having access to his favorite snacks and that will solve this particular problem.

4. Not Burning Enough Calories.

So you decreased the amount of food you are giving your dog but weightloss is not happening. Your dog only needs what its going to burn off in a day. So your calorie modification might have been great for the summer but on those short cold winter days Fluffy might not be getting the exercise she was getting all summer long.

So I know its cold and dark outside but youre going to have to step up the physical activity to burn those extra calories. There are endless ways to get more activity even in the house, be creative. As I mentioned earlier theres kibble chase, tug, maybe even fetch if you have the space. If you have some extra cash theres canine conditioning equipment to work on core strength and dog treadmills.

It might be time to consider the activities provided by dog training facilities like at The Martial ARFS if something is available to you in your area. Even if its just for the winter, getting together with other dog owners and dog professionals that you know and trust and have the dogs play and exercise together.

5. Food Stealing From Other Pets

This is an easy situation to rectify. Feed your dogs separately and not leave food out all day for any pets in the household. As with humans, when one person in the house is dieting it usually effects the way everyone has to eat. Slammin down pizza in front of your dieting spouse is grounds for divorce.If you have cats, and have to leave food out for them, you can feed them on higher ground so that the dog cannot get to it. Your dog canruin his whole weightloss program by eating just half of another pets food each day.

You might not think its fair to have to alter all the pets feeding habits but it is important to keep the importance of the weightloss for the health of your dog at the forefront. So like someone in the family trying to lose weight, if everyone makes a change its easier for the person having the most difficulty.

6. Doesnt Like Diet Food

Diet food is never what we like to eat! So you can understand if your dog doesnt like it but because they need to lose weight they have to eat it. Simply saying my dog doesnt like that food and going back to his normal food isnt fair to your dog. If your dog didnt like to come when he was called would you still let him off leash just because he likes it better?

There are a variety of diet foods on the market so you may have to offer a variety until you find one your dog likes. Buy small bags so if they dont like it you dont waste too much money. Be sure tointroduce the new food gradually over a week mixed in with the old food. Each day put less of the old food and more of the new food until its all new food!

Some dogs wont notice, others are more crafty. So much that theyll pick out only the good food and leave the rest for a more gullible dog. If youve done your diligence, or even if you just want to try this first, cut back your dogs normal food to 80% of their ideal weight recommended feeding before switching to a weight loss food. In many cases this will at least get your dog started on their weightloss way before having to switch to something else if they plateau.

7. Weightloss Plateau.

This happens in all weightloss programs. The body needs time to adjust. Leptin is a hormone secreted by fat which controls appetite. The more fat, the more leptin that will circulate in the body, the less your dog should want to eat. And the less fat, the less leptin, the more your dog should want to eat. Sounds like a case for carrying extra fat right? Wrong.

When the leptin level in the blood is elevated for long periods of time, the body eventually gets used to having it around. So when your dog loses just a little weight, the elevated leptin level, which is now considered normal will drop and it will signal the brain to increase your dogs appetite.

Your dog is signaled to eat more and slow the metabolism down so that your dog will continue to maintain the current body weight. But do not fret! With a little time and a few adjustments to the diet and exercise program, the weightloss will resume. This is a time when patience is needed.

8. You Are Frustrated!!

Your dog doesnt like the food. You spend more of the little time you have walking your dog. Your dog seems miserable. You have had enough and just want to give in! This is completely understandable! But do not give in to your frustration. Remember this is important for the health of your dog and she is counting on you to do the right thing. Weightloss is not an easy task.

Consider joining an online support group where you can vent your frustrations and get support from other dog owners going through the same problems. And again, this might be time to consider the activities provided by dog training facilities like at The Martial ARFS if something is available to you in your area. The activities and professionals there can help follow through with your veterinarian recommendations by making it fun and supporting you along the way.

9. Youre Still Overfeeding

A 30lb dog only needs 480 calories per day. Thats one 6oz steak per day. But if your 30lb dog is overweight, lets say by 7lbs, then they should only eat about 400 calories per day, which is about a 5oz piece of steak. So you might think youre feeding him the correct amount, you are not.

This may still not be enough, you might need to cut your dogs food to 80% of their ideal weight caloric intake. So if your dog is 30lbs and 7lbs overweight, theyd need about 400 calories per day. 80% of that 320 calories. Thats about one 4oz piece of steak per day. So its easy to see how you still might be over feeding your dog.

Keep in mind it actually gets harder to grasp how few calories your dog needs the smaller your dog is. If your 20lbs dog is 5lbs overweight and you cut his ideal body weight caloric intake to 80%, it would mean youd only need to feed him 216 calories per day. Thats about 10 french fries.. per day. Thats how few calories your dog needs to lose weight. And hopefully that makes it a lot easier to understand why they might not be dropping the pounds.

10. Non-compliant Household Members.

Theres one in every house. Grandma, Mom, Dad, the aunt, the uncle, the in-laws. These people, yes, these people. They can and often derail a weightloss program and it can be the hardest one to rectify. It can become personally offensive to your loved one to accuse them of harm to the beloved household pet. But its true. Get them involved with veterinary appointments. Let the professionals around you help. They are killing the pet they love so much and it needs to stop. Sometimes it takes an honest sit down, sometimes its a lifelong battle, but isnt your dog worth it?

There are still things you can do. With the help of your veterinarian set up a structure. And again, sometimes it helps to bring them not just to the vet, but to a training facility like the Martial ARFS that also promotes health. The more they see the benefit of a healthy weight, or the negative effects of being overweight the more they may get on board. Education is key. Using websites and handouts can help show your housemates how important it is that your dog lose the weight. Many owners or others dont know what a normal dog should look like so its important to help them understand.

But there are things you can do. Pre-measuring the food for the day can help family members stick to the diet so if they have the urge to feed the dog, they can use this food and stay on the calorie budget. Feed your dog less and allow for the excess from others. This excess is always best by way of their daily rations, but can include all the other low calorie treats weve mentioned here. Many families and individuals within family equate food as love and it seems to make Fluffy so happy. Your dog will love them not matter what, but physical activity and belly rubs will create the same bond of love and they will be healthier to boot without the extra food.

Author:MARTIALARFS

Link:http://martialarfs.com/blog/10-reasons-your-dog-doesnt-lose-weight/#more-1458

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