A little advice?please.

Hey,

Before I start. I want to assure you, the dog I am talking about below is not mine. I have advised it's owner and nothing is being done. It's owner is a very very stubborn man and a very good friend, I don't want any arguments over it with him, and all I am doing is finding out a little more information. Also the only other thing I can do for him is go up the vet's with him and go into see the vet with him, because he's half soaked, ignorant and dull.(That may sound harsh, he never attended school + grew up rough.)

Anyhow, he has a lovely American Pit X English bullmastiff. She is a fantastic character of a dog.

Now the problem is she is underweight. She has the structure of a boxer-dog except, shes extra-skinny. Like real bad.

She is eating normally. Drinking properly. Pooeing and weeing. And there is no signs of anything blood in either of them.

I have in mind that it is a gastric problem. Maybe where she is gulping her food down and wind is getting trapped and damaging her somehow. She has been wormed for 'all sorts' apparently. I wasn't there, but I doubt her owner would lie about such a thing.

Just a few ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

I am currently working on getting her up the vets at sometime, problem is though, the owner is really not my parents fave. person at the moment, what with him being a total idiot to alot of people, and the fact hes ten years older than me, but hes alright with me but parents don't understand. But really my main concern is his dog.

By the way she is 7 1/2 months.

Thanks.

Hmmm, well if the owner will not listen to you what can you really do? Since hes treating the dog well in regards to food, water and shelter, you cannot call animal services on him.

If its a financial thing and you could offer to pay the vet bill if you have the money?

If its an education thing you could print him off some articles for him to read to prove that your concerns are serious?

I wish I had some other advise, but from all you have said he sounds like hes to stubburn to listen and feels that as long as the dog is eating and popping there is nothing wrong. I know the type...

Do you know if he is feeding her enough?

Has she had bloodwork done? There is such a thing as malabsorption in dogs. Hypoglygemia can cause it, as can an enzyme deficiency, IBD, or a bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine.

If possible, try and convince your friend to take his dog to the vet. If the dog is THAT skinny, and he doesn't, then I would report him to the ASPCA. If nothing else, they will insist that he put her under a vet's care.

Find a food that is meat based(if the dog has no skin allergies) That will pack on the lbs as meat based food sticks better then wheat or corn based.

Or at 7 months old, try Nutro Large Breed Puppy food. My dogs are on this and let me tell you, it is very rich and packs on the lbs as well. Puppy food has alot of protein, which will put weight on.

Watch it though, before you know it, the dog can become very fat! Just outta no where. When my pitty had her litter, she looked malnutritioned. I had her on the Nutro after the litter was born and she packed on the lbs. She ended up weighing more after the pregnancy then throughout. I had her on puppy chow during the pregnancy for nutrition, but it didnt work very well.

He has to bump up the amount he feeds the dog too, just for a week or two, then cut back to the directions.

Try it if you can.

If you need anything else, lemmie know, you can also pm me. I have been dealing with the bully breeds for a long time, not that that has anything to do with it, but I like to help out fellow bully owners!

thanks for all of your replies.

Just one thing, i could never report him to the RSPCA, hes a very good and trusted friend, oh also hes a gypsy. so that says it all if i screw him over he'll just torch my home and burn what I have. Where I live, it's sad to say it works that way.

he knows himself something is wrong and hes saying hes going to take her to the vets..but i'm like.. 'when?' and hes like when I have 5 mins. But hes always got 5 mins, when I go out i'm usually at his place just chillin' nd watching tv. urgh it windes me up some what rotten. But thanks guys!

He's not gonna burn your house, maybe rob you blind being a gypsy, thats about it!

Id anonymously call, seriously, that's disgusting and it sounds as if he is not responsible enough to own a dog let alone the breed. Such a shame-Id call anyway, maybe he will just move on one day as a gypsy does and you will never know the dogs fate!


That makes me sick.

who needs enemies when you have friends like this... honestly this is a dog message board, but I think just going with what you said I agree with your parents about not liking this guy!

What does the dog eat normally? I mean what brand of food?

Does your friend actually feed the dog enough?

Is this dog tied up to a dog house for most of his life?

What has the dog been dewormed with?