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  1. #1
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    New member looking for some advice

    My wife and I recently rescued a black lab from the county animal shelter. Its our second dog. The first dog was a lab dachshund mix. Yeah I know who would do that? Sadly she passed away from cancer at 4 years old. She weighed 31 lbs. So, a few months later I found a 31 lbs dog at a clear the shelter event at the county shelter. When we arrived we found a badly malnourished black lab with almost no fur from a flea infestation and paws burned so badly she couldn't walk on anything but grass. That was 8 months ago. The goods news is she has regrown her coat, paws are heeled and she weighs 57 lbs. The issue is she can't walk more the 1/2 mile in the neighborhood without having to stop and rest. She also doesn't play for more than 15 minutes at a time before she plops down to rest. The vet says she is healthy but I don't think its normal. Does anyone have experience with malnourished dogs? She is an mainly an indoor dog.

    -img_1633-jpg The day we rescued her.
    -jpg Today

  2. #2
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    Your sweet pup is so lucky to have been found by you...good job with her rescue and progress toward good health. I agree that it doesn't sound normal but I have nothing to share from experience. I'm thinking that the malnutrition affected her growth...a chance that her mother wasn't properly nourished while pregnant, either, and that she was negatively impacted even in utero. It's good that the vet says she's healthy now...my guess is that you just keep on a slow path to have her gain/regain her strength/stamina. Guess.

    The board slows down a lot on weekends so you probably won't get much feedback till tomorrow or Tuesday.

    My mutts and I welcome you to the board. (Sunnie rescued pregnant but seemingly adequately fed in the shelter, though not properly for being pregnant.)

  3. #3
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    Welcome to the board. That's a nice change in her coat, in those two photos. It might change a lot yet, took my boy's coat two years to fully return after illness. First, what is her name? How old is she? I echo Barb in wondering if malnutrition at a young age might have impacted growth and now she has anomalies in bone structure that make walking painful? Or, she's older and just isn't into walking and playing. And, it could take a while yet for her to realize she is home and loved and safe. Our rescue took a year to really settle in. Are the walks on leash? What about a safe place off leash? What about a friendly dog to play with? Have assumed your Vet has done all the health checks for thyroid, Lyme etc.
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  5. #4
    Senior Dog smartrock's Avatar
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    I'm so glad for your pup that she is now in a home where she's getting the love and care that she so clearly needed.

    I guess I'd get her checked for heartworm disease again, assuming she'd been checked when you got her 8 months ago and she hasn't been checked again since then. A neighbor who adopted a dog that was thought to be heart worm negative turned up positive 8-9 months after they adopted him when he got retested at an annual physical. They believe he had contracted heartworms before they got him but it was so early that he did not test positive at the beginning. I'd also make sure she has no tick-borne diseases. I think all those can be done in one test. We don't currently live in NC but did in the past and have family there who we visit often. Our dogs pick up many more ticks in NC than they do in MD and have had to be treated for Lyme, ehrlichiosis and the like. Since you don't know her history before 8 months ago, it's possible she was exposed but like the heartworms, it was too early to show up on the test. Plus, you don't always find ticks before they've done their dirty work.

    I don't know what the long term effects of malnutrition are on heart function or other muscle function. Maybe she just needs more time to completely recondition. How old do you think she is? What are you currently feeding her? I ask about her food because there seems to have been an increase in dogs being diagnosed with a form of heart failure who have been fed foods that are high in legumes/peas/potatoes/other non-grain carbohydrates. Many of these food are marketed as being superior nutrition-wise but for some reason, that is yet to be definitively identified, some dogs do not do well on them.

    I hope you can find the answers you're looking for! Stick around and let us know how she does!

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    SunDance (05-05-2019)

  7. #5
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    My wife chose Bella, Latin for beautiful. She’s 4-6 years old according to the vet and had at least 1 litter of puppies. She does have more energy than when got her. She’s our only dog she plays with our neighbors old pit bull. I guess my question is how long does it take a dog to recover from malnutrition? Is it a slow process? We feed her Blue Buffalo w/salmon that the vet recommended and some table scraps that she does not recommend. Loves tater tots and carrots.

  8. #6
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    smartrock ~ good call on the heartworm. Our first Lab Brutus was 3 when we got him and had had heartworms/treatment about a year before that. Bru was always highly susceptible to warm temperatures/exercise overheating...that's the reason his moving-to-Florida owner gave him up. Bru didn't have the stamina that our same-age Akita had and the puppy we subsequently got really wore him down (and that's how we unintentionally ended up with four dogs...we had to get Hershey a suitable playmate). I hadn't even considered the timing thing for heartworm detection.

  9. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by DRF-1 View Post
    My wife chose Bella, Latin for beautiful. She’s 4-6 years old according to the vet and had at least 1 litter of puppies. She does have more energy than when got her. She’s our only dog she plays with our neighbors old pit bull. I guess my question is how long does it take a dog to recover from malnutrition? Is it a slow process? We feed her Blue Buffalo w/salmon that the vet recommended and some table scraps that she does not recommend. Loves tater tots and carrots.
    Depending on the timing, that litter of puppies easily could have been the start of her malnutrition...if she wasn't getting adequate high quality calories to support herself in addition to nourishing the puppies and then providing milk for them.

    We thought Sunnie had HAD a litter of puppies when we got her (and she obviously had at least one litter before) but didn't know for the first five days that she was also presently pregnant. She was ravenous...impossible to fence out of the cat food...no wonder. We had been feeding her the right amount for her weight...not the puppy food in quantities she needed to support six. Luckily, she was only about 45 days along at that point and ate right to the end of her pregnancy/whelping.

    Sunnie had a weakened hind end that may or may not have been due to inadequate nourishment...she has hind end issues to this day and has never liked going up hills. Now that's complicated by age/hip dysplasia/arthritis/something spinal, too.

    Tater tots...funny how easy it is for rescued dogs to train their humans, isn't it?

  10. #8
    Senior Dog smartrock's Avatar
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    You may want to ask your vet again about her food. I'll attach a few articles and a link to a Facebook page that discuss nutritionally mediated dilated cardiomyopathy. I will say up front that some of this information will seem a bit overwhelming, particularly the huge amount of discussion on the Facebook page, but if you start with the information in the Units section, that will be a good starting point. Some dogs are genetically pre-disposed to dilated cardiomyopathy but some appear to have an acquired form that may improve with a diet change and medication. Those with the genetic form can be controlled or helped by medication but do not typically improve, those who improve with meds and a diet change to specific foods often show improvement in their condition. Some vets seem to be more informed than others about this issue but you can do some reading before asking your vet again about her diet so you feel like you have some info to go on. Blue Buffalo foods are not currently on the list of recommended foods.

    https://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2018/11/dcm-update/

    https://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2019/03/stop-reading-your-pet-food-ingredient-list/

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/TaurineDCM/

    Those "forbidden" links do work if you click on them, and I'd start with those articles before attacking the FB page. Those 2 artciles are written by vets at the Tufts University Veterinary Nutrition Service.
    Last edited by smartrock; 05-05-2019 at 09:55 AM.

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