Skinny dog?

[Alera]

I have a rhodesian ridgeback/pit mix and she is 4 years old. She goes through these spurts where she gets real skinny where ribs show then she fills out again. About 2 years ago I took her to the vet because of it and she checked out perfect. She runs loose on 2.5 acres and she eats good. She does not appear sick or anything. Could this be just her genetic makeup? She had the runs a few times but I changed the time of day I was feeding both dogs. They sleep in the house and both of them had the runs during the night so I switched them back. My cattle dog had the runs once but she is as healthy as can be and has meat on her. Any ideas?

[Dax]

Switching back and forth could be the reason for the runs. Are they getting checked regularly for intestinal worms? Try to stick to a schedule for meals. Also it is possible that she's not eating all her food. I would feed twice a day and feed dogs separately so you know who is eating how much.

[NiveK]

my dog had the run's off and on constantly when i fed them alpo, then i switched to iam's for a brief period and it fixed that, now i cook for all my dogs and no runs ever

[Alera]

Now she's looking healthy again. They didin't start to get the runs until I changed their feeding times and tried to keep them in all night. They just couldn't hold it. The runs only happened when they were forced to stay in all night after the feed change.

Their little doggie piles are fine all over the property. Not the runs. Only when kept in the house without access to outside. Now I have them back on the regular schedule.

They get their yearly doc visit.

Now I let them sleep in the garage with the door half open. That way they can go do their doody at anytime. But now my poor cat has to sleep in a closed laundry room because we live in a rural area and if he gets out at night, the owls will get him.