My chihuahua is so skinny!?

Question

He is about a year old. He looks like he is starving to death. He is very active. He has this cough he does sometimes too. I wonder if it could be heart worms? He does not have any other kind of worms. Also I like to how to make his skin more healthy. His skin is really dry by his tail.

Answer 1

Do you think maybe the dog needs to see a vet??????????????

Sounds like it doesn't it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 2

If you live in an area where there's heartworms (which is most of the US), you NEED to see a vet, have him tested, and have him put on a preventative treatment. If it IS heartworms and it's already causing coughing... it's already advanced and extremely dangerous. Heartworm is easy to avoid... with proper care. See a vet!

In any case... if the dog is extremely skinny and is being fed an amount that should not make him that skinny, he should also see a vet. It's impossible for anyone here to tell you what is wrong. We can all make guesses... but chi's are little dogs... they don't have much to work with when it comes to being underweight. Please see a vet.

Answer 3

IYou should have him checked by a vet for worms (tapeworm for instance, is usually not found on a regular stool check, but found when its at the stage of development to shed segments out the anus!) and if he isn't on regular heartworm preventative, he should be. Heartworm is present in most of the world, and it is much easier to prevent heartworm than to try to cure it (the cure has a 50 percent fatality rate!) A number of things can cause a cough, and all dogs occasionally cough to get hair out of their throat, etc. f he is eating normally, is free of parasites (including giardia, another common parasite that can cause a dog to be skinny), , the vet has checked him and says he is healthy, and he acts normal, you may be dealing with a growing stage of development. Teenage dogs, like teenage boys, can be lean, all legs, seem to burn the food off as fast as they eat it, and stay thin. Usually small breeds go through this stage at around 6 to 9 months of age, large breeds 9-18 months of age but there are many individual variations and bloodline variations in rate of maturing.

Answer 4

in case your chihuahua is so skinny you could extremely see his hips and backbone, then that's too skinny, even for a domestic dog. i'm satisfied he's lively though, as that's a strong signal. notwithstanding, does your vet look into all in touch over his skinny stature? Has your puppy been dropping weight, or develop into continuously this skinny? what form of nutrients are you feeding him? i trust i might want to attempt putting him on a better effective form of nutrients (gradually!), and word if that enables. in case your nutrients has corn, corn fillers, and animal through products indexed between the first of the aspects, that's no strong for any dogs. I feed Merrick form dry nutrients to my 7+ lb Shih Tzu and he or she is doing outstanding on it. keeps her weight properly, bright coat, lively and chuffed. Merrick cost slightly better, yet with small dogs like ours and each and every of the better they devour, we can easily manage to pay for it to have the healthful advantages that bypass alongside with the cost. strong success,and many chuffed and healthful years including your little chih.

Answer 5

I had the same problem but with an American Bulldog he was getting skinny, I gave him worm pills that I got from a pet store and that was sort of the problem, got rid of the worms and my pup still wasn't gaining weight, I finally figured it was the dog food, I was feeding him Iams, he wasn't gaining weight his skin and coat looked terrible and dry, so I switched his dogfood to Purina One and what a difference he filled out instantly and his coat and skin totally looked better within a week. Then we switched to Royal Canin which is much better, Maybe you need to switch your dogfood. Look for foods that have a named meat source as the first,second and preferably the third ingredient.Avoid foods high in grains,especially corn gluten meal which is pretty much a useless ingredient. Most brands available at the grocery store are no good.Dont bother with foods that list a grain as the first ingredient,remember our dogs are meat eaters,not grainivores. Some good dog food are: Innova small bites, Natural Balance Fish and Sweet Potato this has fish oil in it and helps with dry skin, Canidae, Royal Canin, Eagle Pack Holistic.

You could read up on what is good and what is bad in dog food at: http://www.dogfoodproject.com

You can compare one dog food to another at this website:
http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=comp-wiz

Example of a high quality product, first source of fat marked green:
Chicken meal, chicken, brown rice, chicken fat, barley, potatoes, flax seed, salmon oil, eggs, dried chicken liver, whitefish meal, dried whole milk, dried whey extract, nutritional yeast, kelp, ...

Example of a poor quality product:
Kibbled corn, poultry meal, soybean meal, feeding oat meal, wheat middlings, pork fat, fish meal, extruded rice, sodium bentonite, cane molasses, beet pulp, flax seed, ...

Answer 6

Good grief people!

VET!