Hi guys,

I'm calling the vet tomorrow, but wanted to see if anyone on here would be as concerned by this as I am.

Backstory: My dog, Holly, is 9 1/2 years old; mostly labrador, but with a dose of 'something else' mixed in. My brother got her from Battersea 8 years ago, and about 4 years ago she started coming to work with me, then when I moved out of the family home she came with, and has been mine ever since.

A couple of years ago (not sure exactly how long) she weighed 27.5kg. She's always been slimmer than a regular lab, and the vet often says she's in great condition. So when I took her in for her jabs in March and weighed her to find she was 25kg I wasn't too worried. She doesn't get a huge amount of exercise, although always at least half an hour walk a day, and gets two meals a day (I currently feed her Iams, but her diet has changed between a number of dry foods over the last few years, depending on prices and availability. She's never had a bad reaction to a change in food.) these two meals are the same quantity and frequency as my mum's two dogs (one lab and one rottie x golden retriever) and they, being younger, get a lot more exercise. I must add that Holly's always bright, alert and does have her energetic moments - she doesn't act like an old dog. She is a quiet dog, however, and will lie curled in her bed all evening, if I'm not doing anything particularly interesting. She's not always interested in food if she's on her own, however if being fed alongside other dogs, she eats with a lot more interest.

We popped into a pet shop over the weekend and there were scales (they looked the same as the ones in the vets, but obviously were different, so might have expected some small variance) and she weighed in at 24kg.

I'm more than a little worried as she's lost a kilo in 4 months, especially having very gradually been losing weight before then. She doesn't look 'too' thin - she's currently lying in her bed and I can't see her ribs, but can feel them when I stroke, which I always thought was normal, but looking at pictures from 2008/9 she does look noticeably slimmer, and wasn't overweight back then.

Just wondered if anyone else had experienced anything like this; is it an age thing, or have I consistently been feeding her too little? Or could there be some other reason why she's not maintaining a constant weight?

If so, how did you 'fix' it? More food? Different food?

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My family;
Dog: Holly
Cats: Daisy, Bella & Dandy
Ferrets: tbc
Court52: A Ferret Blog