I was wondering for those of you who have rescued a dog that was severely starving how long it took for them to start gaining weight? The dog we are still fostering (willl adopt -long story) we've had for 2 weeks now and the rescue we got her from has not been helpful as to how we go about safely getting her to gain weight. I've heard to feed her yogurt, peanut butter but I do not want to over-do. We are feeding her a high protein puppy dog food as well. Thanks for any help!!!

Hello from another from NE IL and if I read your name right, we are very close.
Am no expert on your question but I would think a good vet checkup would be in order to rule out any underlying problems. They can also give you suggestions for proper slow weight gain diets. I would think slow and steady gain would be the best. How old is she? If young and high energy, may take a little longer since she is burning off a lot of calories.
Congratulations on your new family member and thank you so much for saving her.

I agree a vet check is in order to rule out worms,underlying health issues etc.
They should have asked you to feed the dog several times a day, small portions. Dont let him eat as much as he wants as if he is emaciated he may gorge himself only to end up vomiting it up in a short while. Same with water, small amout, frequently.

I dont know what kind of food you are feeding but whatever the brand go with the puppy formula of it, as puppy food is higher in calories. A high calorie supplement, we use Nutri-Cal, will also help enormously. If you dont have that you can add puppy formula to his/her food, the dry powdered kind I find works best and is easily add to canned food.

If he is severely emaciated ensure he has no opportunity to jump. We had one so emaciated that our vet told us to ensure she would have no opportunity to jump off of a couch, out of a vehicle as she was in such a weakened state, with no muscle mass that she could not support that kind inpact and may break a bone.
I hope that helps.
~Caroline

Yes, we are planning a visit to the vet and she did have worms and has had a couple treatments, but we haven't set up an appointment because - long story short - we have not officially adopted her yet so I didn't want to pay for a visit if we don't plan to keep her (which we are planning to do so) ~ so in the mean time I wanted to make sure she was getting proper nutrition. We feed her 2 cups twice a day w/ healthy snacks in between (she loves carrots). They thought she was about 11 mos. old, so still a VERY active puppy!!! She loves to run around and go for walks which we are doing to burn off her energy!!! Right now we are feeding her puppy IAMS mixed w/ a sample of Natures Select (highly recommended by a very dear friend of mine that rescues pit bulls) and will be ordering the Nature's Select puppy formula. Here's the website they deliver to your door!!! http://www.nschicago.com/

She is quite the jumper as we try to block off our stairs w/ a baby gate (because she is stealing everything especially stuffed animals from my kids' rooms) and she jumps over it... we need to get her some training but again, we have to wait for now.

PopTop where are you located in Illinois? We are in Lake Villa, close to the border of Wisconsin.