losing weight

Question
My 7 year old female boxer Maggie is losing weight. For a while she was 83 pounds and in 2 months is down to 73. I have never had trouble with her losing weight. I always had to watch her so she doesn't gain. Could it be her age? I switched dog food about 4 months. We went from Hills Science diet to All Natural from Sam's Club. My sister also feeds her dog the same and I have a doxie that also eats the food. The vet took a blood sample and nothing came back. This was done at her regular check-up.

Answer
Hi Cindy,

I don't know anything about the 'All Natural' brand as I don't shop at Sam's Club.  However, Hills isn't the best food for the money so I can't imagine it's any different.  5 lbs. a month is a lot for a dog to lose.  

These are the first ingredients of Natural dog food from Sam's Club:


Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, soybean meal, wheat middlings, animal fat preserved with mixed tocopherols (form of vitamin E), brewers rice, ground wheat, natural chicken flavor,

It's nothing but grain and filler.  I've not seen food with ingredients this low quality in quite some time.

I don't know what formula of Hills you were using but these are the average first ingredients of their formulas:

Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Dried Beet Pulp, Soybean Oil, Dried Egg Product, Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride,

Only slightly better than the Natural.  Hills is actually a terrible food for the money.  I'd not use either.

If you were paying money for Science Diet (I can't find a price for Natural, it's not available at my Sam's so won't give me a price) you can afford a much better quality mid-range food.  Purina One or Nature's Recipe may be options for you.  Higher quality foods, that are a bit more pricey, include Solid Gold, Chicken Soup pet foods, Wellness and Canidae.

My first suggestion would have been that perhaps you aren't feeding enough of the natural, but the formulations are so similar, you should only need to feed as much of the Natural as you were of the Science Diet.

My suggestion now, after looking up the food, is to switch to something better.

You don't say when her blood sample was taken or what the vet checked for.  Call and find out if they specifically checked for thyroid issues...these are common in Boxers and can affect weight.

BTW - 83 pounds if overweight for a female Boxer if she was bred properly to standard.  At 73 she's closer to ideal weight.  You should be able to see the outline of her last two ribs and a nice definition to the hips.  If you can see hip points, vertebrae and more than the last two ribs, she's lost too much weight.