Hi,

I have a 5 year old Lab that recently developed vestibular syndrome. As a result he has lost just over 3kg in weight and as he was very slim anyway he really needs to gain the weight again (We can currently see his ribs). He has not lost his appetite at all throughout being ill. He has had a full range of blood tests and an MRI scan so we know there is nothing else wrong with him. We used to feed him Bakers (pretty much all his life) but in attempt to get some weight on him we changed him to CSJ-lamb and rice (recommended by someone we know). We also increased his daily food intake by half again but when he went to get weighed last week he is only 0.1kg heavier (in just over 3 weeks) and so I was a bit disappointed. Really I am looking for a food recommendation to help him gain some weight steadily, not overnight and preferably not with the most expensive food in the shop! (Although if this was what he needed obviously he could have it!)

You will often feed less of the "most expensive in the shop" so it will actually work out cheaper in the long run. If you aren't adverse to feeding raw meat, breast of lamb is good for weight gain. Dry food, I'd go for something like Orijen. Wet food, Naturediet is good.

Thank you for that, I should have said i'd prefer to feed dry food. I'm not overly keen on the Raw idea. He does have some wet food mixed in with his dry though usually in his evening meal.

Just looked at your site,your dogs are lovely,my labs are from show stock,yes I can see Brian is a working lab as you know they are alot leaner anyway from show types,my elderly lab is on nature diet and she loves it,it is expensive but i think cheaper in the long run.my labs are not keen on dried food,Hope he gets back to his normal wait soon

Sheila

Just increase the amount of food you are giving him and try and stagger it over the days to make sure he isn't overloading his tum as dried food expands.

I would also supplement with tins of sardines in oil, tripe ( get frozen packs of free flow or blocks). You could also add raw mince in as well as that is not too stomach churning as some raw foods .. My youngest girl Betty is a working type and is a very lean girl and I keep her weight regulated by feeding raw supplementted by JWB kibble and pouches. She came to me as a rescue and had been fed on bakers by her previous owner.

I moved one of my boys onto Arden Grange Prestige recently from one of their other foods. I have started to notice a difference in that he is gaining weight now and looks good.
Maybe call the people at AG asking for their advice as they have nutritionists there who advised me to feed the above food for a while.
I use just under 1 15kg bag of food for one dog, which are large and in some people's eyes giant breed. I don't need to feed as much as say I would Bakers to fill the dog up, though if allowed i'm sure he'd try the whole bag in one sitting..:-)

Also have to agree with I think it was Pedlee that Orijen is also a very good food and also anything which is sold from Bern PetFoods.

Not suggesting yours was but many Labs are over weight and I would not be too worried as some weight loss, as with us less weight means less effort to move about which will do not harm. I find that with AG it is easy to add weight and if I need to slim my mob down a bit I feed Burns as I find that removes excess weight but not condition.