Newly adopted rescue-dachshund Danny--questions re: tail and thin-ness

[Dr. Deb]

We just brought a rescue dachshund into our house to meet new sister Lucy Lawless. He's had all his shots, is neutered, and negative for heart-worm. However, he is extremely thin and has what the SPCA called a "whip tail" (you can see his little cartilage through the skin).

I've got him on Nutro Lamb and Rice with Lucy and have added some "VitaGravy" to it. I'm giving him 1.5 cups a day in two installments. His ribs and spine stick out and his back legs seem to be weak--we are taking him this afternoon to the vet to make sure there aren't back problems. He also gets tired very easily. Does anyone have any other suggestions or thoughts on how to get some nutrition to him? He was abandoned for a week in a back yard before someone found him, spent 20 days in an animal shelter, and 10 days in foster care.

What about this tail business? It looks like this is an old problem/injury. It doesn't hurt him. Will the hair grow back? How can we prevent further injuries?

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[Owen's Mom]

Congratulations on your new adoption!! Here's a link to a wonderful health board so that you can get more input (I'm sure you'll get a lot of good stuff here too) http://216.34.232.28/club/bboard/fur/health/

As for thin, well.. Owen was very thin when I brought him home from rescue too. I was feeding Eukanuba at the time (before I made my official converstion to Raw Feeding) and to bring his weight up, I'd scramble an egg into his kibble every morning and microwave it together for 1 minute. I was able to put a couple of pounds on him in a fairly short time. Now that I feed BARF (Bones and Raw Food or Bioligically Appropriate Nutrition) he shines with health and his weight stays very stable. Here's a wonderful link on feeding in general http://members.home.net/mstraus/barfref.html

Also, if he was vaccinated recently, he may be feeling the effects of that. Here's a link to an article on vaccinosis http://www.asr-svcs.dircon.co.uk/wwwchc/vac_rslt.htm Hope it all helps a little.

http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/biggrin.gif

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~~Amy & Owen~~
22.8 lbs of Black and Tan Standard Muscle!!
www.dachshundrescue.org

[Tanya]

Feeding Seameal may help the hair grow back. That stuff can grow hair on a basketball. Be patient with the weight, it will come. Just make sure the vet rules out any problems. Congrats on your rescue. You will be thanked a thousand times over by this baby! Keep us posted.
Tanya

BTW...what's his name?

<FONT COLOR="#00FFFF" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by Tanya on January 04, 2001 at 04:03 PM</font>

[Wienergal]

Congratulations on your rescue, Dr. Deb! <IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm38.gif" border=0> And enjoy this rare moment in the life of a dachshund when you can concentrate on fattening him up, rather than keeping his weight DOWN, which is the more usual situation!

When I was fostering Arnold, the starved rescue, I gave him scrambled egg every morning, just like Amy. For dinner, he got nutritious kibble, roast chicken, and mashed potatoes with cheese!

That was when he weighed 7 pounds. He now weighs 21 and gets half a cup of kibble and two tablespoons of canned Innova daily... It was SO much more fun when he was skinny!!!

Good luck with your new pup!

[Dr. Deb]

Thank you all for your warm support. THe dachshund in question is Danny--full report on the adoption board--and he weight 12.8 pounds. We went to the vet yesterday. He did recently get shots and may not be feeling 100%. THe vet says he's fine, but because of his size would like him to be 14-15 lbs. So, I guess there are scrambled eggs in his future.

The reason his legs are weak is that he has 2 laterally luxating patellas! His sister, Lucy Lawless, only has one. We found with her that a gradually built walking program provided her with lots of muscle and gave her more leg control.

Thanks again all of you!<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm39.gif" border=0>

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[jadedpixie]

Tanya, where do you get the seameal from to grow the hair? Brutus has a couple of bald spots that I would like to fill up.

Jadedpixie and Brutus

[Tanya]

I order mine from my Solid Gold catalog. It is great stuff. I really like the solid gold dog food too. request a catalog! Even if you decide not to order, it makes great reading. Tells you what is really in some dog food...pretty disgusting. The website is www.solidgoldhealth.com (http://www.solidgoldhealth.com) . you can order online too I think.
Tanya

[Penny's Aunt]

Whether his tail will improve depends on how badly it was damaged. You usually see the worst on a dog that is in a cage, wagging his tail a lot. Sometimes that beating on the wire cage damages the hair follicles permanently. But sometimes it just goes along with poor nutrition, & will look better as he assimilates the better nutrition.

I understand that the slipping patellas is kind of a dachsie thing: the kneecap & its ligaments are like a bottlecap with a rubberband on opposite sides to hold it in place, & it rides in a kind of groove in the end of the leg bones. If the legs are crooked, the ligaments keep trying to keep the kneecap straight, but the reality of the crooked legs keeps popping them out of position. There is surgery that will fix them (usually one at a time), if necessary.

[dutchman]

Hi,

As far as food goes my personal favorite is AVO-Derm. It can be hard to locate a vendor in some areas since they don't sell through the major chains. I get it at a local feed store. It did a great job of helping Aggie's coat and skin problems when I first started her on it. Right now I'm mixing the Derm with AVO Active Care. Frank always gets complemented on his great coat. Tanner's coat has come a long way since I first to him. When I first got him (he is a LH mini) several people thought he must have some wire genes in him since his coat was so rough.

When I got Aggie I tried ordering some Solid Gold but between the high cost for shipping and the fact she turned up her nose at it I didn't stay with it. She was a mill mommy that I obtained from HUA and they feed Solid Gold so I wanted to try the food she was use to. She never was very fond of lamb based foods. Like some others have said one key point is finding a food they will eat and that their system will tolerate.

Despite an overall healthy coat Frank has a small bald spot on the top of his tail near it's base that I think we just have to live with. The vet has checked it out eve did a skin scrapping and said they didn't think it was any thing to worry about. It's strange when I first got him he did have hair there but it was a different color than the surrounding areas. Most of the top of his tail is black but that one area was a very light brown.

As far as knees go Aggie had one knee that the vet could pop in and out of joint. He even showed me how I should be able to give it a tug to pop it back in place if I ever noticed it giving her a problem. Se never did have much of a problem with the knee. We did develop a good walking program so perhaps that is what helped stabilize the knee.

Good luck,

Tom and the boys.

[pkmiddler]

Try Omega 3 caps.You can get them anywhere.They help hair growth and coat in general.The patella problem id a SMALL DOG thing a lot of Toy Breeds have that problem and since the Mini's were a breed down from mostly Toy Dogs that is where it came from.I would consider sugary on her legs to make her life soooo much better.Tudox