10 year old skinny boy :(

Question
QUESTION: Ok please dont-bash. I have a 10 year old boxer who I love dearly like one of my children. I do understand that his time clock is ticking. But here recently he has lost so much weight. Let me remind you he is utd on all shots and eats very well. The past couple of months he has dropped weight tremendously at one-point in time he was a good 100lb hunk of muscle. But now he might weigh 60lbs. He has greyed alot in theface and his skin is starting to sag and wrinkle like and old man.:/ He does not have worms still eats and has control oer his bowels. He does sleep alot and seems tired alot but he is so skinny it scares me. I have tried high protien foods, senior, eggs, yogurt, and no more weight comes back. Its really sad but like others Im having the hard time deciding to put him down because I love thim soooo much as well as the kids but he is litterally a skeleton with skin. Any advice would be greatly appreciatd. And please remember I love him and have taking very good careof him so again i ask no bashing...thanks

ANSWER: Age is the key factor. It sounds like you have tried to help his weight as much as possible on your own.

However, according to his age, he needs more help that you can give on your own trial and error basis.

I do highly recommend taking him to your vet for help.

The vet can offer a very high calorie food and calorie supplements to help. Of course, examine him for other causes as well.

Please, please, please, take him to your vet. It sounds as though you are taking wonderful care for your "old man" and the high calorie food and supplements will help in the time he has left in order to gain some weight (it will not ever be normal at his age) and help stop him from burning muscle tissue and badly needed, fat tissue.

It will definitely help with his quality of life he has remaining to put him on a very high calorie food with calories boosting supplements. Please do this.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Tanks for your advice. I live in rock hill sc what food do you recomend that I can find here.

Answer
I still recommend taking him to your vet for his skilled and knowledgeable recommendation.

You can research online high calorie dog food for senior dogs and order and buy from the internet dealer and have it shipped to your front door.

Or, research the same subject and see if your local pet stores carry it.

I still personally recommend the vet.

I had an aging cat with kidney failure that the vet recommended a particular brand of KD (kidney) cat food that I fed him and he lived two (2) more years with no symptoms of kidney problems. Two years later however, he did finally have complete kidney failure and I had to put him down.

Your boy still has time with proper diet (high calorie dog food and calorie supplements) to gain some weight to protect him from burning up tissue and fat, in order to live comfortably.

PLEASE see your vet.