Hi -

I'm posting this question on the behalf of my friend who recently got a neutered male GSD. The dog is somewhere around 18-20 months old and is pretty average in size (height) but he's really, really thin. I think he might be *almost* 70 lbs but he should definitely be weighing 10+ lbs more than that. His ribs and hips stick out and he appears very thin, though he has a decent energy level and his eyes and coat seem ok. My friend has had this dog for a few months now and has been unable to get him to gain much weight. He got him from a family that didn't really do anything with him - he wasn't really treated badly exactly, but he was neglected in so far as they didn't work with him or exercise him much or anything like that.

The dog has been checked out by the vet for the obvious things: worms, pancreatic deficiency, etc and apparently they didn't find anything. I don't know if they checked his thyroid but I'm assuming they did. The dog eats ok, but he's not a big eater and he doesn't seem to put on any weight. I believe he feeds some Innova kibble and a lot of canned food, and some chicken legs and some hamburger, and he gets an appropriate amount of exercise.

Any suggestions? Is it possible he could just have a really high metabolism and will simply be thin until he gets older?

How thin is he? I mean, what does the vet say?

If you got the actual diet fed, that'd help.

I'd want to *know* about the thyroid test.

Does he eat all that he is given? How many times a day is he fed?

Hey Connie - I'll have to find out the answers to these questions and then get back to you. It might be a day or two...

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(As for how thin he is, he's pretty thin. He's thin enough that when you see him with his ribs and hips sticking out you immediately think to yourself "geez that dog is really thin")