I am looking for a high calorie, premium, well balanced wet dog food so my 10 month old shephard mix can gain some weight. We adopted her from our local pound and she is also being treated for Valley Fever. The vet recommends that she gains 10 pounds. She is currently 30 Lbs. She has had a total workup and the vet believes the weight loss is due to the Valley Fever and probably poor care from her previous home. Any help is appreciated!:)

We have a Shepherd that we've had some trouble putting weight on. We actually had a lot of success adding bread to her normal dog food. Just dropping a couple of pieces of white bread in with her a can of Pedigree wet dog food and a scoop of Handenflacken dry food and she put on 10lbs in a week.

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Originally Posted by tewoodford

I am looking for a high calorie, premium, well balanced wet dog food so my 10 month old shephard mix can gain some weight. We adopted her from our local pound and she is also being treated for Valley Fever. The vet recommends that she gains 10 pounds. She is currently 30 Lbs. She has had a total workup and the vet believes the weight loss is due to the Valley Fever and probably poor care from her previous home. Any help is appreciated!:)

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When our Springer Spaniel was younger he developed an allergy to his own blood and had to get a blood transfusion... he made it through the procedure, but lost a LOT of weight. We used Boost and oatmeal cookies to help him gain the weight he needed and it worked. He's nine years old now and is very healthy. Boost also helped my dad gain much needed weight when he was going through chemo treatments.

Wish you luck!

I would be very careful about giving a young Shepherd a bunch of rich food to promote fast weight gain. The vet that said she needed to gain 10 pounds might be a much better source of info than somebody with one dog. My guess is that best thing for her might be say dry Science small breed puppy chow. It is very high calorie, but free of rich or dangerous ingredients that might wreck her pancreas or liver. I hope she will eat it. Dry chow is better for a dog's teeth and jaws. At first, you may need to add a little chicken or beef broth. I have no idea what the long term effect of bread, oatmeal cookies, or Boost would be for a dog. As for raisins in the cookies, often the short time effect is a quick death.

I was once given a seriously underweight Lab. I spent 2 months bulking her up from 55 pounds to 70. As is typical of Labs, I had no trouble getting her to eat the 7 cups of Pro Plan a day I had to give her. I do hope your vet has enough experience with young Shepherds to understand it doesn't hurt for them to be on the lean side, even have the ribs show a little.

I can tell you there have been no long term effects of Boost on my dog - he's 9 years old now and can still keep up with my 3 year old dog on walks. He's not the only dog I've treated with Boost. As for the oatmeal cookies - who said anything about raisins?

If you look at the label of Boost it's loaded with vitamins and minerals and calories... very similar to milk replacer for calves.

I would recommend asking your vet for directions, when I got m Lab Annie she only weighed 40lbs the vet said she needed to gain 10-15 lbs. He recommended feeding her mixed dry and wet food so she would definitely eat all of it. Also to feed her 3-4 times a day instead of just 2.

I fed Annie food from Flint River Ranch Super Premium Cat Food and Dog Food, there food is delivered directly for your door it is super healthy so it won't put bad food in it, they also make a wet food you could mix it with...

Now I feed her Californian Natural from a specialty store, it's more expensive but she has allergies soooo.