I'm trying to get a few pounds on Kenzi. She is about 32# right now and 3-5# underweight. By underweight I mean she'll be a nice slim working weight if she gains 3-5#.

She had intermittent diarrhea a few weeks ago. Took her into the vet and he put her on 10 day course of metronzadole (sp?) ending last week. It solved the diarrhea issues and I worked her from a diet of cooked chicken/rice into a diet of poached chicken, Honest Kitchen Preference and a bit of cooked rice.

Are there other foods I add that will be easy to digest yet high calorie? I'm very hesitant to add in extra fat at this point because it was such a long process to get her digestive system back on track. She got some EVO kibble for training treats yesterday (1/4 cup?) and had mushy loose poop this morning(it was formed tonight but still soft). Sigh.

Any way you could sneak in another small meal/big snack?

Just thinking out loud.:smile:

How does she do with sweets? I know they arent real healthy, but they are fattening.
My dog goes nuts for Halloween candy corn, a great marker, clean in the pocket.

She is currently getting 3-4 meals/day. Her total intake is about 2.5 cups of cooked rice, 2/3 c (dry measure) of HK, and 12 oz chicken. I figure it is 1200-1300 kcal/day. Her activity is moderate. Maybe I'll just try to add a bit more into each meal?

She was not getting this amount while as we were working on getting the whole diarrhea issue in check and that's when the weight melted off.

I'm a bit hesitant of adding in sweets as I don't want to give empty calories. But she does need calories. What about something like molasses?

What about adding in some lightly scrambled Eggs, or some cream cheese, or full fat yogurt if you can find it. Peanut butter might be good too.

Well, the thing is that nothing but fat has more calories than protein or carbohydrates. More food is the only way to add more calories (without fat, and I agree with that hesitation).

Egg yolks, sour cream, peanut butter, full-fat yogurt -- it's the fat in them that makes them dense in calories. (The other way that foods can be calorie-dense is to be concentrated (less water) .... like the example {for humans} of dried fruits compared to fresh fruits ... or to contain less or no fiber. Water makes the fresh fruits less dense in calories. Fiber takes up room (lessening caloric density) in a similar way.)

Sugar has the same number of calories per gram as protein.

Three macronutrients provide calories:
Carbohydrates = 4 calories/gram
Protein = 4 calories/gram
Fat = 9 calories/gram

Molasses is sugar with a few extra nutrients, but no more calories than protein.

If there are forms of raw fat that the dog tolerates without diarrhea (like cold-pressed hemp oil, raw coconut oil, or almost any cold-pressed {mechanically pressed, no heat or chemicals} oil you will find {except for those refined to cook at high heat} in a natural foods store), then every gram adds more than double the calories of a gram of non-fat.

Healthy dogs deal with raw fat very well, in general, if added very gradually. But if not, if the dog still has an inflamed gut, then Michael's suggestion is the best, IMO:

"Any way you could sneak in another small meal/big snack? Just thinking out loud."







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Have I ever mentioned that I'm the eldest of seven and have a severe case of bossy-know-it-all-big-sister syndrome? (How's that for a bid for sympathy?)

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Have I ever mentioned that I'm the eldest of seven and have a severe case of bossy-know-it-all-big-sister syndrome? (How's that for a bid for sympathy?)

LOL! I completely understand how that works - 2nd of 10, oldest girl here

I do really appreciate your detailed explanation!!

Take Kenzi out today and the diarrhea is back (insert headbang here). So I gave her some pepto and she's going back ontiny multiple meals of plain rice and chicken. I'll call the vet in the morning. She was doing fine until I tried to add in the EVO kibble for training treats.

Have you ever tried the digestive enzymes on this dog? Some dogs really turn around with that. Food is "pre-digested" and then better absorbed.

I know for my dogs really hydrating the food makes a huge difference between feeling a little too lean and being well toned. So for THK I use about another 50% of the water recommended.

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Have you ever tried the digestive enzymes on this dog? Some dogs really turn around with that. Food is "pre-digested" and then better absorbed.

No I haven't. Sounds like it could be a good thing to try out.
Are there any recommendations for specific enzyme products?