I have a very small female chihuahua who's ideal weight is 4-6 lbs. She is 2 years old and weighs maybe 2 lbs. I feed her dry food and can food with lamb and rice. Her back bone and hip bones are starting to show. I am very concerned as I have 2 other chihuahuas that are just fine. I need some ideas on how to help my little princess.

If you've exhausted all you know of and she is getting so skinny... if she was mine I WOULD TAKE HER TO THE VET. :)

Does your dog have a dry dandruffy coat? Often times when dogs eat sufficiently and don't gain the weight we think they should they have an enzyme defficiancy. Take your dog to a vet and get blood drawn to make sure. It could be something like EXOCRINE PANCREATIC INSUFFICIENCY (ALSO CALLED “MALDIGESTION”)

Digestive enzymes include amylase to digest starches, lipases to digest fats, and trypsin and proteases to digest protein. They are stored in inactive forms inside special granules in the exocrine pancreatic tissue (the “acinar cells”) and are secreted into the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine after the stomach) when ground up food begins its passage out of the stomach. Once nutrients are broken down into smaller molecules (i.e. they are digested), they can be absorbed down the entire length of the GI tract. Without adequate productive of these enzymes, we cannot break down/digest our food. If we cannot digest the food, we cannot absorb the food. We get skinny, have especially nasty rather greasy diarrhea, or both. Often, a dog will develop a dry, dandruffy coat from inability to absorb dietary fats.

I am SSOOO worried! I have taken her the vet!! I work with a vet!! We have drawn blood, done skin scrappings and sent stools to the lab all comes back clean! I just wanted to know if anyone might have a good home remedy or suggestion that I ( or my vet) may have overlooked??

Is she getting weak and sickly? I would give her some extra treats ( cheese, butter bread, hamburger and rice ) maybe these things , if she'll eat them will help her gain weight.
I hope and pray she'll be OK .

I have not given her extra treats, because I feed her 4 times a day now, but at this point I am willing to do anything! I will try some cheese,butter bread and she loves carrots. She still has energy and is not sickly but I am afraid she will get that way if I don't get this figured out!:confused:

Why not feed her more more often than 4x a day. OR feed her between meals.
I really hope this helps you and the doggie.
Please keep me posted .:-)

My chihuaha is the same way! Some one told me to give it some chewing tobacco, like a reg pinch that some one would chew. Don't use too much because my friend gave his dog a whole can and killed his little dog, and I gave mine a tiny bit and it didn't do anything.so just a reg. amount you would take if you chewed

Uhhh, OK I wouldn't give it tobacco... Can't see the benefits of havng a dog "chew" tobacco will do besides kill it! My chihuahua is 3 and weighs a little under 3lbs and sems to have a little trouble gaining weight too, Im feeding him all the fruits he's allowed to have and lotts of treats and he seems to maintain his weight more or less... Not to mention I neutered him 2 yrs ago so yeah... Neutering them doesn't help them gain any more weight. Feeding them fatty foods is the only way;)

I bought a 4 year old chihuahua to get her out of a bad home. She was skinny. Her hair was brittle. She would not eat much. I had her vet checked and blood work. Nothing was found, but I suspected tapeworms, so I got Drontal Plus from my vet and sure enough, her next poop looked like mostly rice... it was tapeworm eggs. She started eating better and her coat became shiny and she is now looking great. It took over 2 months after the pill.

Hello I'm worried about my chihuahua she is a 1 yr old skinnie winnie I call her what to do she don't gain no wieght I feed her everything to make her gain no results I gve her good treats no results she so very active she has no worms and no fleas she has medicine help please.