[beaux_beaux]

PLEASE HELP my buddy is hurting he is a 3 year old yellow lab and he is fed everyday and is losing weight as if he was never fed. Now his paws are swollen and having trouble walking cause of it

[paleophlatus]

If he is losing weight from having been a more normal weight, it isn't the food, (unless you have changed to a less expensive food?) and I suspect you haven't been to the vet yet? If this is the case (not the going to the vet part), then something is wrong with him. There is an open book of possibilities. There may be a relationship to his feet swelling.

Is he an outdoors only dog? Are you living in a warm part of the country (whichever country it may be)? For swollen feet, it may be hookworms that he is contacting by walking on infected ground a lot. The larvae from eggs passed in dog BM's will hatch in warm, moist ground and can penetrate the skin wherever it touches the ground. This isn't the normal sort of infection, but can happen. It's called "plumbers itch" as applied to people (from crawling in the dirt under a house, where dogs also spend a lot of time), or more accurately "cutaneous larval migrans", meaning the reaction the larvae cause as they migrate through your, or the dog's tissues. If so, hookworm infection could be the cause of both problems, and if so, needs to be treated fairly soon. A link to this follows.

Another causes may be another parasite... heartworms, especially if you have never had him on heartworm preventative (a once-a-month pill, usually). In time this causes a congestive heart failure condition, which often is accompanied by edema of the extremities, weakness, and loss of condition.

Best advice we can give is to have a vet give him an examination. We can't diagnose, at most, we just try to give realistic reasons you should have a vet examine your dog and provide the proper treatment and medicines.

http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/activities/dogdocs/animaldoc/animaldoc_dogw.php