[dralionagogo]

3 months ago my boyfriend and I rescued a 4-5 year old Am Staff who was/still is emaciated. She had been used as a breeder, and by the looks of her pretty much her entire life. She was extremely malnourished at the time, coat was very dry and coarse, skin red {she has very sensitive skin}.

We've been able to add some luster to her coat, though her lower back is taking much longer to soften up. The main problem is putting weight on her. Vet thinks it's her metabolism and this will be easier once she's spayed {had to re-schedule her appt twice now, once to include removal/biopsy of a breast tumor, the second b/c she went in heat}. Since we've had her she's put on 1 pound, putting her at about 40 pounds, still 10 pounds underweight. It's possible she's gained a little more since her last weighing, we're just starting not to see ribs.

She's gone from Instinct to Natural Balance to Wellness to Wellness Core, then back to Wellness again {long story about all the switching, but nothing to do with medical}. All gradual switching that she did pretty well with. She gets two Kong toys with peanut butter and treats a day, sometimes extra pb on Ritz crackers, lots and lots of small treats for all the training, two hard boiled eggs a week, daily fish oil...and I may be forgetting something. Occasionally tuna or other meat {I'm vegetarian and she doesn't give me time to cook!}. Off and on she has A/D added to her diet, when we can.

Her stool is perfect...now, and has been for at least a month. She had plenty of parasites when we found her, then had two more rounds of worms {still learning "leave it" while outside}.

She's bathed 1-2 times a month with a tea tree oil and chamomile shampoo - her skin is itchy with all the dry weather, one spot on her tail has been scratched bare. No fleas though. But we can't seem to help her much with the dryness.

Her nails have recently taken on a brittle look to the bottoms that we're going to have the vet look at. She seems very healthy aside from sleeping more than usual. I just can't say if that's from being so underweight or if there's another medical reason behind this.

We're worried she may have breast cancer or that there's something else going on. She goes to her forever home in the next couple of weeks and has her surgeries scheduled for the 20th, which is the last vet appt we have lined up for her before her care is entirely handed over to the new family.

Is there anything we can switch or add to help her weight and coat? We can't cook for her, all of our time goes to keeping the cats safe around this cat-aggressive dog. Money is also something of an issue, she's cost at least $700 so far, so we'd like to keep any extras to the bare minimum.

[Lunareclipse]

Holistic Dog - Satinballs Satin Balls

Try this for a few months. This is what a lot of rescues suggest for underweight dogs gaining weight. I've used it a few times myself and it really works great.

[dralionagogo]

That sounds easy enough. Thanks for the recipe. Hopefully we can plump her up some before her surgeries.

[lange]

I applaud you for taking her on! What a wonderful thing to do.

[dralionagogo]

Thanks a ton for the satin balls recipe. Not sure if she's gained anything yet, but she devours them. We're giving them to her as an additional meal so those extra calories have to catch up to her sometime. One of our cats came down with a nasty sickness, lost some weight and got a little anemic, so it's also nice having them around to help perk her up.

[Lunareclipse]

I'm glad she like them.