My daughter has a large dog that is 10 years old, a Golden Doodle, and she came down with an autoimmune disease and is on antibiotic and a steroid. In the meantime, we'd like to put some weight on her, and I suggested some kind of high calorie dog food diet, so I'm looking for recommendations. Would some super high calorie puppy chow, or special old dog high calorie dog food, or something along those lines be available ?

I suggested that if we get some meat back on her bony body and ribs, she may have a better chance of getting better before her time finally comes.

Any suggestions or advice appreciated.

Might be worth a call to the vet to see if a high calorie diet is a good idea in this instance.

I believe prolonged steroid use can have a lot of undesired
side effects, weight gain being one of them, at least in humans.

You may want to ask the vet if there is something they can give to help the appetite.
Whenever I've had that problem with an older dog the only real fix was to find the cure for the underlying problem. When that didn't work there wasn't any type of food that really helped.

There are things you can offer to increase food acceptance, but I’d check in with your vet. Sometimes the food itself can be problematic for an animal that’s already struggling. Digestion takes work. Slabsides is a vet on the forum,; I’m honestly not sure how often or if he checks these kinds of threads.

Good luck to your daughter and her dog.

Our Jake who passed recently (thanks again to all who responded) was on a steroid (Prednisone) for the last eight months of his life and antibiotics for parts of that time. Steroids can cause appetite and weight increases, so after the initial antibiotic and the steroid kicked in, we saw a marked increase in Jake's appetite from even the level before his illness, which had depressed it significantly. We had to increase his calorie intake with his additional dry food supplemented by chicken (Costco $5 rotisserie since the vet warned against raw with his intestinal issues). Since he was a big and smart GSD, we also had to be on guard against all the things he tried to sneak from the kitchen counter and pantry.

First, I'm assuming the dog is under the care of a veterinarian, who can recommend an appropriate diet for the dog.

Otherwise, high calorie food does not mean high quality food. They typically have a lot of fillers that are not nutritionally sound. I would look into maintaining her regular diet and supplementing with fish oil, salmon, or other source of high quality, good fats along with treats like chicken jerky, beef, sweet potato, fruits, etc. Just like humans, she just need a slight daily caloric surplus to put on weight, so you don't have to go crazy. And being overweight is one of the highest risk factors for a host of dog diseases, so watch her weight carefully.

I’m sorry to hear about your daughter’s pup.

When our dogs were sick and on various medications, we always substituted or supplemented, as appropriate, with chicken and rice. Baked chicken or cooked in the Instant-Pot and just Minute Rice. Pretty bland, but the dogs always loved it and seemed to help.

quote:

Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
First, I'm assuming the dog is under the care of a veterinarian, who can recommend an appropriate diet for the dog.

Otherwise, high calorie food does not mean high quality food. They typically have a lot of fillers that are not nutritionally sound. I would look into maintaining her regular diet and supplementing with fish oil, salmon, or other source of high quality, good fats along with treats like chicken jerky, beef, sweet potato, fruits, etc. Just like humans, she just need a slight daily caloric surplus to put on weight, so you don't have to go crazy. And being overweight is one of the highest risk factors for a host of dog diseases, so watch her weight carefully.

Get your advice from a vet. Just because food is high protein etc that alone does not discuss the quality of the protein and so forth. The quality of ingredients matter. Regarding protein specifically, the levels of phosphorus and calcium give some indication to the quality of protein in the food.

For adult dogs, I believe the guidelines state that calcium be less than 1.0% and phosphorus be less than .80% with protein being between 20% & 30%. You’d be shocked at how many foods and formulas blow through those numbers.

Science Diet and Farmina Grain Inclusives diets do well with most of theirs.

Not sure of the numbers for senior dogs.

I don’t know much beyond that but I do know that a higher protein diet is generally not recommended for older dogs.

No grain free and no raw is also generally recommended.

Talk to your vet.

Here’s a vet resource to get you thinking …

https://youtu.be/oJ8iaIsuvQo?si=U8cjcwCwBP1il_wR

And another from a retired pet food industry expert…

https://youtu.be/Rvg-whwOYEk?si=kzXIUnpxFGozaN9W