how can i improve my setters health ..:(

[shiva faridi]

just wanted to have a take on everyone's opinion ...zack is first of all my first dog ...so i need guidance ....he is now 10 months old ...and he is very active gets 40 mins of free run ,2 more walks of 30 mins each ...apart 4m that he plays in the park as well  so in short he gets plenty exercise n is active and the only health problem he has had is when he was 3 months old he had parvo virus and we almost lost him ....  he was  was unwell for almost 20 days n lost all the weight but thankfully survived ....so till then i used to give him only royal canine dog food for pups but after his illness since he was bag of bones the dc suggested homemade fresh food which worked wonders n he became his normal self .....so now what worries me is he is already at 10 months taller then his dad almost 2 inches but he is still not very fat ok fat is a wrong word to be used he is still thin ...and i just wonder if all are this thin at ten months or is it just him ....i give him 2 fresh meals everyday which is rice, yellow gram (pulses) for protein,carrots french, beans, tomato, spinach, peas ,cabbage ,kidney,liver ,heart ,and mince meat ...and twice a week i give him bone marrow broth and he still does not put on weight .....any tips ...and is not every interested in eating n i give him yogurt as well which he loves ...am i doing something wrong???

[Trish Haill]

I've got a thin girl, and I've recently put her on a raw diet and she's certainly putting on weight with this.

There is a lot of veg in his diet. Do you pulp this, or just chop it up? Dogs cannot digest vegetables very well, and their only real use is as roughage. I really don't know about uses pulses for protein - I've never heard that a dog can digest pulses the same way we do. Muscle meat (chicken, beef, lamb) is a good source of protein and will help your boy put on weight. The good staple diet is raw green tripe of course!

Offal meat should only form 5% of his diet, so if you're giving it to him daily make sure you're not giving too much.
. Rice is of no benefit except as a filler. Dogs do not need carbohydrate.
Just out of interest, where did you get his current diet from? Not heard of one quite like it before.

You might want to see my thread about how I'm feeding Bess.

[shiva faridi]

well i am from india ...and irish setters is a very very rare breed here ...and i give rice cause i cant give raw diet ...not too sure where the meat is coming from ...n how healthy the animal was so i prefer to cook it ...and organ meat i add like 6-7 small pieces n some ground beef  along with the veggies ....will check out ur page ...he is very active and pretty tall 4 his age 4m what i have been told by the vet and also taller then his dad just wish he would gain some weight as well...:)

[Trish Haill]

Cooked meat is unfortunately not so good for dogs. Have you spoken to your vet about the best diet for him? Also, does your vet think he's underweight? Setters are a slim breed. If he's taller than his dad he may just be going through a leggy stage. Do you know his breeder? S/he may be able to advise you better on diet.

With regard to raw meat, dogs can cope with meat that would be very dangerous for humans to eat, but I wouldn't want to advise you wrongly.

If you post a picture of your boy taken from the top down so we can see the width of his chest and waist you'll be able to get better opinions on whether he needs fattening up or not.

He must be an unusual sight in India!

This might be of interest. If you want to cook his food here is a lot of information about how to make sure he gets the right nutrients. http://dogaware.com/articles/wdjhomemade3.html#

[shiva faridi]

ya he is unusual sight here ...and his dad n mom are my frnds dogs and both are show dogs ...and my frnd keeps telling me he is not skinny and that her dog my pup dad was thin too till he was one and a half years old ..i have posted his pics in this group today the album is called zack ..:) and ty so much it feels good to know i am just being paranoid maybe ..:p

[shiva faridi]

http://irishsetters.ning.com/photo/albums/zack-1

[Teresa]

Hi,

I wouldn't worry too much about a 10 month old setter that is looking thin! If you look into past discussions, you'll see there are a LOT of discussions started by upset newbies with setter pups, including me! :-)

Here is a photo of my Pitanga with about 18 months: http://irishsetters.ning.com/photo/pitanga-5?context=user. She was much "fatter" than when she was 10 months (At ten months, all the ribs were showing, but gladly there are now full body pictures of that time!)....
....and here she is aged 3: http://irishsetters.ning.com/photo/pitanga-and-roma-5?context=user. I think there is a big diference, and in the end, nothing I did to put some weight on her worked... As she got older, she calmed down a bit and finally put on some weight. She's actually getting a bit chubby now (i'll take a photo this weekend, heh) :-)

Romã was never as thin as her mom, but she did not look like a "normal" setter until she was about 2 years old.

I guess, if I had a 10 moth old puppy now, my concern would not be putting on weight, but making sure the weigh he had would not be lost!

[shiva faridi]

no he is not losing any weight ..and like i said b4 he is very very active n smart ....does gets loads of exercise and free run ..:)

[Teresa]

:)

I wouldn't worry too much then ;)

[Fran Griffin]

Can you get digestive enzymes there? They work a treat. It will take several months, but providing there is nothing else going wrong with health, they work a treat.  One of my dogs was a picky eater and resembled a matchstick, he looks absolutely stunning now.

[Lesley Gilks]

It is true that a setter needs plenty of exercise but I think this is far too much for a 10 month old dog, particularly if it's free running. As a rule, 5 mins per month per day is ample. With this amount of exercise you are putting too much strain on the joints. If you need to get rid of nervous energy then try to combine the walk with games such as find the ball, hide and seek etc and he will then burn up nervous energy as he is also using his brain. He may then begin to put on weight as he is not using his food to fuel his body while on walks.

[shiva faridi]

@fran i do give him digestive enzymes n canine plus (vitamin) and calcium separately..:) @lesley when i say free run i mean i sit on a bench n he runs on his own ...if he wants to which he always wants to plays with his ball n stuff is that too much i m not sure 

[Lesley Gilks]

It is too much.  At his age, 50 mins per day is adequate.  As he gets older you can do more with him.