Help! Fat dog. **PICTURE # 32**

[ChristyMarie]

Sam is a 16 month old english lab. He's struggled with his weight since he was about 6 months old. He looks at food and gains. In December he was at the vet and the vet said probably needed to get about 5 pounds off of him. Ok. Cut back his food, cut back treats, made sure he gets a daily walk. I thought he was looking better.

We go back today and he's gained 15 pounds. He was supposed to lose 5!

I'm at a loss. The vet said to switch him to diet doggy food. Great. Picked that up on the way home. I figue I can get an evening walk in while DH puts DS to sleep (DH is home to do this most nights). Obviously all treats have to go, though he doesn't get many. Vet wants him in once a month to weigh him and see what happens before we start looking for thyroid issues or other medical causes. He thinks he's probably too young for any of that to be an issue and really wants to try diet/exercise. He asked about his genetics and when he was at the breeder last month she wasn't surprised to see him a bit round. She thought he only needed to take off a few pounds. So I'm wondering if his family tree runs towards the rounder physique.

I've never had a fat dog before. I had a rescue dog who was starved come to me, balloon up but then settle off at a normal weight. I just don't know what to do.

Right now he gets a 2 mile walk a day. Obviously this is not enough. The vet said it is hard to say an exact distance - just to weigh him and see if it works and if not to adjust the next month.

Thoughts?

[rhiOrion]

I don't think he's neccessarily too young for any issues. My previous dog had a thyroid problem at two years old. He had to be on medicine for it, but the medicine was really cheap.

Could anybody else be feeding him without you knowing? Your kids?

I also don't think you have to absolutely cut out all treats. Could you try something like carrots (I'm sure there is some reason why this is bad...but something to that effect).

[blessedwithboys]

What's an Old English Lab? Do you mean a mix of OESD and LR? Either way, those are two large breeds. I always thought large breeds could potentially keep growing until as much as 24 mos?

Diet dog food is garbage. Have you ever looked in to raw feeding?

My toy poodle just went in for a heartworm test and I found out she was one pound overweight. I know that sounds silly, but she is a very teeny tiny little dog, so one pound is a lot. But I put her back on raw food and just made a point to get her running around the living room for 10 mins every evening and she's already halfway there after just a few weeks.

[ChristyMarie]

Originally Posted by blessedwithboys

What's an Old English Lab? Do you mean a mix of OESD and LR? Either way, those are two large breeds. I always thought large breeds could potentially keep growing until as much as 24 mos?

16 month old english lab = an english lab who is 16 months old.

He's um, round. Rather round.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._3042986_n.jpg

I am guessing he's getting treats from DH and my mom when she's here so I just sent out an email saying no more.

[nd_deadhead]

Oh yeah, that's a fat dog!

Our dogs get virtually no treats - no table scraps, no handouts when we're cooking. Once in a while they get popcorn, if we have amovie night at home, or an occasional carrot. I have a Cardigan Welsh Corgi who would weigh 80 pounds if left to his own devices, and I had an arthritic lab who suffered if he carried extra weight, we were are VERY strict about food. The side effect of not giving people food is that you get a dog who never begs, because he doesn't expect to get food.

We measure the Corgi's food - 2/3 cup, twice a day (he weighs 35 pounds). He doesn't get a lot of exercise, but this is a food amount that keeps him at a constant weight.

I agree about "diet" dog food - they simply have a lot more filler, and make the dog poop a LOT! I would definitely measure his food, and explain to all family members that feeding the dog is a life or death issue, and you want Sam to live a long, healthy life.

Good luck! And he has such a sweet face!

[greenmagick]

What food is he on?

Has he had his thyroid tested?

[Ola_]

Yup, he definitely needs to lose some weight. And I agree that diet food is not the way to do it - it usually has inferior ingredients, more fillers and carbs, and less meat. I wouldn't go that route.

I would however go right for a thyroid test, especially since cutting back his food and increasing exercise had the opposite effect that it should have. Make sure to get a full thyroid test though, many vets do only a portion of it which doesn't give you the full picture. I recommend Hemopet testing services - your vet needs to follow the instructions to send the sample in but it is pretty inexpensive (I wanna say around $75 for all thyroid tests available) and it comes back to you with Dr. Jean Dodds' personal recommendations based on the test results and your dog's breed and age.
http://www.hemopet.org/services.html

[Violet2]

Oh he's adorable--but a chunk.

If mom and DH can't cut out the treats, try to ask them to at least let you know what they gave him so you can adjust his dog food amount.

When we cut back the dog food, our dogs (both labs) lost weight fast. So the fact that he's not losing is a concern. I would push for the test too.

We happen to not give too many treats b/c our black lab got really sick once when we gave her grapes--we didn't know that was a no-no. So now we are really careful and they get almost nothing. Although last night they each got a bite of some ground bison.

V

[Mama Soltera]

Oh wow, that is *very* young to already have to be dealing with all these weight issues. Since he's so young, he still needs to eat twice a day but you cannot feed them the amount is says on the package. That is almost always way too much. Are you giving him a combination of kibble and canned? Remember kibble is dried so it expands majorly in their stomachs. I would only give him 1 cup kibble with 1/2 cup canned at the very most for each meal for now. A dog should be thin enough to where you can see their last rib and just be able to feel their ribs when you run your hand down their sad. There should be NO fat whatsoever. And, I know you don't want to hear this, but really 3 miles per day is the minimum, especially for active types of dogs. You can train him to go with you on a bike so it can get done very quickly. And if the rest of the family cares at all about his health (or your family spending SO much money on vet bills! ) then they will stop giving him treats.

I also agree that diet food is not a good idea and you should consider switching foods. Would you consider a raw diet?

Remember that it is much healthier for a dog to be slightly underweight than slightly overweight. I'm not suggesting you should make your dog underweight, but most people seem to err on the other side, so it's good to keep in mind the danger of that and also keep in mind that your dog (from the looks of the picture at least) appears to need to lose about 20 pounds so, don't be worried when he gets thinner and thinner. He needs to! Good for you for being proactive about the problem. Hopefully it's just diet and not something else. Take care.

[nd_deadhead]

Our Lab made exercise easy - we stood still and threw a frisbee, which he would retrieve for hours on end (given a chance).

Here he is, in his prime. Look at that nice waist!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ogry/Jack1.jpg

[SquishyKitty]

For such a young dog, I wouldn't feed diet food. He is still growing and needs the extra nutrients the regular or puppy food can give him.

I would look at the portion sizes; most kibble is actually pretty high in calories, and you'd be surprised to find that you're likely feeding too much. Even though you already cut back, you may not have cut back enough, you know?

Also, instead of "Doggie" treats, give a baby carrot or some boiled chicken breast minus the skin for treats; low calorie, tasty and dogs will love it just as much.

[daisymama12]

That's an awfully cute dog!

I have a lab-sized dog, and I feed him 2/3's of the recommended amount on the bad, plus treats for training. He is a good weight, I think - around 55 lbs.

[ChristyMarie]

Right now he gets 2 cups a day of eukaneuba large breed puppy. I bought eukaneuba large breed weight control on the way home from the vet since the vet said that was a good choice.

I'm not ready to do a raw diet for the dog. I just don't think I can swing that right now.

However, talking to someone who also had this problem with a lab, they suggested Canidae grain free. There's a pet store right by me that sells it so I thought I would get that to try when this bag was almost gone.

Cutting out all treats, adding more exercise, weighing him once a month. If there's no change in 3 months we'll talk to the vet about testing for other issues.

[stephienoodle]

Originally Posted by ChristyMarie

I'm not ready to do a raw diet for the dog. I just don't think I can swing that right now.

If you get to the point where you're ready, it might be an easy fix. Our foxhound rescue was 106lbs when we got him. We couldn't get the weight off of him, reducing his food, trying diet food, and he only dropped a few pounds when we were walking him 5 miles a day. He immediately dropped weight with raw (and his yeasty ears, stinky breath, and skin issues drastically improved) and it is easy-peasy to keep him at a healthy 75lbs now. He gets walked a mile or two a day now. He's been eating raw for about 4 years and I really think it has helped him a bunch.

[greenmagick]

Not saying you have to do raw at all, but when you said you couldnt swing it, wasnt sure what you meant. It is usually equivalent and often cheaper than a quality kibble

And honestly, eukanuba is not quality Canidae grain free is a good choice! You may want to look at Taste of the Wild too, they may be a bit lower calorie than the canidae even...but not totally sure. You will feed less with grain free so keep that in mind.

[ChristyMarie]

Originally Posted by greenmagick

Not saying you have to do raw at all, but when you said you couldnt swing it, wasnt sure what you meant. It is usually equivalent and often cheaper than a quality kibble

And honestly, eukanuba is not quality Canidae grain free is a good choice! You may want to look at Taste of the Wild too, they may be a bit lower calorie than the canidae even...but not totally sure. You will feed less with grain free so keep that in mind.

Just that I cannot imagine adding to my schedule shopping and food prep for Sam. Not to mention the research and learning it will take to figure out what/how much etc to feed him.

I will check out Taste of the Wild as well, thanks for the tip!

[Ola_]

Good luck, I hope the plan works! Another thing you can try, if others really want to feed him treats, is keep some of his regular kibble out of his meals for that purpose. For example when we adopted Chaos she was a rowdy teenager and needed lots of training and thus lots of training rewards. What I did is measure her kibble into her bowl (this was before we fed raw) and then scoop some out into a little bowl or container. I'd put that bowl on top of the fridge and would grab kibbles out of it for little training rewards. She's very food motivated and was happy to have a treat even if it was her regular food. For walks I'd grab a handful of kibbles out of there and put in my pocket for training. Anything that's left at the next meal you can just add to his regular food.

And I did want to say that strenuous exercise is probably not a good idea at his age, especially not something like bike riding where the dog is forced to go along with you even if they're uncomfortable and it's on a hard surface. This is especially the case for dogs with hip or elbow issues such as labs.

[nd_deadhead]

Ola, I did the same thing with kibble when we were doing a lot of training with my pup. Luckily carrots are one of his favorite foods, and I don't mind feeding him a bunch of those (but kibble works better in my pocket!)

[ChristyMarie]

Originally Posted by Ola_

And I did want to say that strenuous exercise is probably not a good idea at his age, especially not something like bike riding where the dog is forced to go along with you even if they're uncomfortable and it's on a hard surface. This is especially the case for dogs with hip or elbow issues such as labs.

Ha! That would mean I'd have to ride a bike, ain't gonna happen.

We do walks. Walks are good. He might get up to jogging with me one day but not yet and certainly not in this heat.

[Mama Soltera]

Sorry you guys! I forgot they can't do that till they're at least two. Sounds like it's not happening anyway. I agree with the person about throwing the frisbee. After you get back from your walk you can do that as long as you can stand it. I also wanted to add, there's really not any preparation that goes along with raw feeding and if you have a freezer there's not a lot of extra shopping to do either.