Foods to help dog gain weight

Question
Cindi,
I am sure that you usually have questions about nutrition and dogs that are overweight. Well, this is just the opposite. I have a lab that is about a year and a half. We noticed late in the summer that she was losing weight. We took her to the vet and had her wormed but did not help. She continued to lose weight. After many trips to the vet and many questions about the dog he felt that she has a problem digesting her food. We did have her on IAMS. The vet recommended we put her on prescription i/d dog food. That has helped and she has gained about 8 pounds in a month. She originally lost about 15. We also found that she has a hernia around her stomach which we want to have fixed when she puts on more weight. My question is would it be okay to feed her green beans to help her in her weight gain along with her regular food? I have heard that others feed their dogs green beans and they don't seem to be fine. I also give her a scrambled egg once a day to see if that will help her any. She does love them.

Answer
Adding green beans is a common trick to fill up a dog that needs to lose weight.  Even then, it may not be a good idea because they may have too much salt.  I don't think it would be a good idea for your dog.  It sounds to me like the i/d is doing the job.  I don't like the idea of the egg.  It could throw off the careful balance of the i/d.  Have you discussed it with the vet?  Rich food can lead to pancreatits.  

Having gained 8 pounds in a month, in another month she should gain the other half of the 15 pounds she lost.  Rapid weight gain isn't good even for an underweight dog.  I would continue doing exactly as your vet says.