My Dog Is Obese.

[Shpax0r]

Faith is a beagle/aussie mix. Her ideal weight is probably about 30 lbs, and she weighs 40. She used to be my mom's dog, and my mother never really cared to put in the extra effort it would take to stop free feeding and paying attention to her weight. Faith has become my dog since I moved out for college, and I want her to be around as long as possible. I've stopped free feeding, but I don't really know what to do now. Is it better to keep her on what she has been eating (Nutro Senior Formula) or switch to a diet dog food? If I should switch her, what brand? How much?

We are lucky enough to have a big off-leash dog park in my area, and faith runs around with other dogs for a hour or so atleast 3 times a week. Besides that, is there anything else you would recommend to facilitate her weight loss?

[Shpax0r]

Here is a picture of Her Fatness rolling in the snow this winter.
http://hallieshpack.250free.com/Faith.jpg

[prettypony]

I'm sorry I can't offer you any advice but my dog looks almost exactly like her! Are you sure shes a aussie/beagle mix?

[lneill84]

Join the club :). I have found with the diet foods, all they do is go right through them, without the dog absorbing any nutrients. However, I would take her to a vet first, and rule out any medical conditions that are causing her to be a chunk. Nutro is a great dog food. This is the advice I followed from my vet about my little fatty :). He got about 1/4 cup x2 a day of doggy food. In between, he got a snack-usually carrots, lettuce, sugar snap peas, etc. just enough to fill up his tummy with empty calories. How much food is she eating a day? Stopping the free feeding is a start, and probably will take care of most of the problem, along with the exercise. Nutro is a great high quality food-i would stick with that. Trevor at his slimmest was 28 pounds, and that took a lot of work. He's comfortable at 32/33. He got diagnosed with lymphoma and his diet has been thrown out the window. Its terminal, so it really isn't going to matter if he gets some ice cream or a cheeseburger here and there. He dropped down dramatically during the first round of chemo, and in reality, thank god he was fat, because the chemo would have really weaken him. My vet now wants him on the chunkier side, just in case he has a bad reaction to the chemo, or gets an infection from his immune system being repressed. She also looks a lot like a Corgi in the face, which is what i have and they are NOTORIOUS for having obesity problems. Good luck!

[KellyP]

I agree with Ineill before you make any radical changes to her diet have her looked at by a veterinarian to make sure that there aren't any medical problems causing her to be overweight.

If she has a clean bill of health, ask your vet what he reccomends to help her lose the weight she needs to. How long ago did you stop free choice feeding? Has she lost any weight yet?

[Shpax0r]

No, I'm not sure that she's half aussie - she's from the humane society - but I think it's a pretty likely guess. What sort is your dog?

She went to the vet about a month ago for a general wellness exam, but we didn't talk about putting her on on a diet.

Yes, she has lost weight with the portioned feeding - 2 whole pounds in only a couple weeks! I'm very proud.

[lneill84]

2 pounds is a lot when you consider her total weight. If they didn't take blood at her checkup, i would get it done. There is a host of problems that can cause obesity. I have a Corgi, and they always struggle with weight.

[head]

typically with obese animals (and dear judging by the photograph your dog is a BCI of 5/5 *1 extremely thin 3 ideal 5 severely obese) you want to examine with your veterinarian a gradual weight loss plan. yes ruling out hypothyroidism and other glandular disorders which can exsasporate obesity in pets is recommended however ideally you will want to put your dog on a reducing diet to decrease the weightloss then placing the dog on a weight management diet once the desired weight (recommended by your veterinarian) is reached. this can take a long period of time however it is worth it in the end as it decreases cardiovascular, renal, hepatic diseases and arthritis associated with obesity. i am quite surprised that the veterinarian did not reccomend a reducing diet or at least a weight loss regime.

[LUVMYSWISSY]

I had to put my dog on a diet (which he is still on). We cut his daily intake from 6 cups to 4 cups. He is a very large dog (155 pounds). His breed is large heavy boned and the male average weight is 140. The Vet would like him at 140 and I am hoping to bring him down lower to try and avoid any join problems as he is growing rapidly. When we cut down his food he initially lost 4-5 pounds and then maintained without loosing.

When we discussed this with my Vet he shared with us a theory. When in the wild - dogs/wolves often eat periodically more than regularly, depending on the time of year and food resource. When the body is not being fulfilled and satisfied it begins to store fat excessively to try and preserve energy for hunting etc. By the body storing this fat excessively it actually can cause a dog to “gain” weight or not lose weight simply by virtue of saving up excess fat.

With my dog, my Vet did not want to compromise the nutrients (necessary for him to continue to grow healthy joints and bones) by cutting food intake and or changing him to a diet food that may not have the nutrimental value my dog needed - given his size and age and join concerns.

He suggested “adding” more bulk with green/string beans. These beans have high nutritional value without the extra caloric content. In return, by supplementing the beans the brain/body will feel full and satisfied.

Immediately, without cutting food additionally he began to loose weight. The weight loss is slow and consistent. He has lost (in 8 weeks) an additional 5 pounds.

You want to keep your dog on a good quality food and you don’t want to stave her. See what the recommended requirement of the food for your dog is, ask your Vet how much to cut down without compromising health (Nutrition etc) and add string beans in bulk, and see if you get results.

It works for us, good luck.

[AngelZoo]

Yes first off is to bring her to the vet and make sure she's healthy.

After that you will need to learn to keep a close eye on her weight weekly weight measurements. You don't want her to loose weight too quickly.

I have a large list of low calorie dog foods, I'll try to remember to post them here for you. They are not all "diet" foods, many of them are just normal.
You want to find a high grade food, with lots of meat, preferably natural, etc, but also have a low k/cal per cup count.

[Shpax0r]

You guys convinced me. I feel ridiculous for taking my not-sick dog to the vet twice in two months, but I don't want to feel like I'm just guessing and the forcing my ignorance on Faith. So, she goes to the vet monday. The vet tec talked about a prescription diet made by purina... I hope that's not his standard advice. I pretty much hate everything about purina. I've heard about the string beans before, I will definetly ask about that. Are there any other things I should ask about?

[maryjane238]

love the green bean diet. co-worker does that every time her dogs start 'chunking up!' we recommend to our overweight patients, too.
purina makes some very good prescription diets. it's not like the dog chow or purina one stuff that they sell otc. we carry them at one of my hospitals and i know a lot of owners who can only feed purina or hill's prescription diet. i totally agree that both purina and hill's are awful as far as otc foods, though. i assume OM is the food he recommended?