Tips & advice for weight loss....or lack of it! please!

Hi,

Holly is currently 7.7kg. The vet has her on a strict diet as she was 8.2kg.
When i adopted her she was only 6.5kg and slightly underweight. The weight semms to have been put on since she was speyed.

The vet has put her on hills r/d prescription and at first she was having 50g twice a day but didnt loose anything, so this was reduced to 35g and now is on this twice a day. Nothing else. She has a daily dentastix (the only treat/chew she gets any pleasure out of) and a tiny amount of cheese on alternate days which i have to put her tablets in)
Despite my best efforts she really isn't loosing anything significant.

She has regular exersice, walked twice daily, we go running at weekends and do longer walks than in the week and she has an hours walk with a dog walker every Wednesday.

The vet has suggested testing her thyroid??

Before the Hills she was on Burns and i've only put her on Hills at the vets request (but im sure this is only becuase he wants the sales

I don't know what else to do really, anyone else been in this position??

Also, how much do your dogs weigh and how much do you feed them?

I have a big bag of Burns sat doing nothing and keep buying Hills (which is more expensive) would it be ok to still give her the Burns but just reduce the amount??

Thanks xx

smudge will never be that 'light' as he is a large dog. He has just been to the vet for his booster and is in good health apart from his weight.H was 15 k when we got him and is now 13.5. He has his dentastik 1/2 a small square of meat and 40 grms of winalot mixer plus 2 biscuits in 1/2's.
Exercise is a minimum of 2hrs. a day plus ball play. At weekends we go on the fells so he does between 6 &10 miles.Why he isn't losing weight quicker no one knows.I keep hoping that all of a sudden it will drop off. My husband says if we feed him any less he wont have the stamina for the fells.I think the excess weight he had before we got him likes him so much it does not want to be parted from him.
I would like some ideas should anyone have any.He wont chew carrots.

Smudges mum and a xxx from smudge who is sleeping beside me.

Well, first, good job at shifting that much weight already!

There's no reason I think to continue to feed the Hill's -- just give the same amount of the Burns, and if she gains on that amount, cut it further (I had one of my dogs lose a third of her total body weight and never fed anything but normal food and homemade). Do you know what she was being fed (amount) when she was at the lower weight? Does she have access to eating anything unexpected inside or outside -- eg even kitty poops in the garden or cat litter?

Some dogs need only about a fourth to a third cup of food TOTAL in the day as this really depends on the individual and the amount of active exercise it gets (eg a slow walk around the block that takes 15 minutes is better than nothing but isn;t really the same as a brisk walk for 30 minutes or a daily offlead run in the park or 15 minutes of fetch in the garden, etc etc). Metabolism varies hugely between dogs.

It could well be a thyroid problem if weight really isn't shifting. A spay/neuter tends to slow metabolism by 10-20 per cent and food needs to be cut back accordingly.

Foods all vary in calorie amounts too so you cannot generalise about amounts across foods -- however most will be pretty similar.

Anyone trying to get weight off a dog of course should do this in discussion with their vet, to make sure they are aiming for a weight that is appropriate to their individual dog, not the breed standard. Many dogs are larger or smaller than breed standard and are never going to meet those standard weights.

In the library section there's an article on obesity on cavaliers that has lots of suggestions for low cal treats etc.

BTW I have a dog at 6kg who only gets 35 grams ONCE a day -- so you have plenty of room still to reduce the amount she is eating. That amount wice a day is still a lot of food if she doesn;t have the metabolism to burn it off.

Feeding once a day also can make it a lot easier to control small portions like this. My mom's cavalier of about this size gets 1/4th a cup of food total daily, under 35grams.

I agree with what has been said-- just feed much less of the normal balanced food. If they act starved- you can add fresh/frozen green beans or a bit of plain rice cake etc...

All three of my spay bitches have put on weight. Dear hubby is part of the problem. He doesn't think I feed them enough, so he compensates. It isn't healthy to be overweight, especially in a breed that has heart issues.

Karlin said:

BTW I have a dog at 6kg who only gets 35 grams ONCE a day -- so you have plenty of room still to reduce the amount she is eating. That amount wice a day is still a lot of food if she doesn;t have the metabolism to burn it off.

Feeding once a day also can make it a lot easier to control small portions like this. My mom's cavalier of about this size gets 1/4th a cup of food total daily, under 35grams.

Click to expand...

wow, gosh that's interesting!

She was being fed WAG :grnyuk: and a variety of treats (trifle, biscuits) i put her straight onto Burns and she maintained this weight (6.5kg) for a few months until she was speyed in March then it started to creep on (it didnt help that she had a ligament injury and the vet said i was walking her too much and to cut it back to a small lead walk for 10 mins a day!!) Thsi didnt last long by the way!!
She has a good off lead walk/run everyday.

She does have the occasional sunday lunch at grandma's but this is only a small portion and mainly veg and in replacement of her dry food, not aswell as. (occasional being 2 in the last 3 months)

Does your dog at 6kg on the 35g constantly beg, search for food?? Holly seems to be never satisfied, licking the dishwasher, scavanging type behaviour and i don't like it, mainly the gulit i feel not giving her anything

Do you feed in the morning or evening for once a day?
Thank you for your advice, i will try cutting it further and see how we go! :xfngr:

xx

Hi, I'll tell you what worked for me. Breeze the newf weighed 150 lbs when I brought Scout home. She know weighs 135 lbs. All that playing with Scout over the past 15 months has slimmed her down considerably. Actually, she could put on a few lbs and still look great. So my answer is a second dog. LOL. Everybody's advice sounds great. My vet always recommended replacing part of the dog food with vegetables, carrots or green beans. Good Luck.

Congratulations on already shifting some of that weight.

Great advice has already been given. My only additional comment is to get a good set of bathroom scales, the type that weight in grams or ozs and weigh your dog weekly. You can do this by stepping on the scales while holding your dog, and then step on them alone & deduct your weight from the combined weight of your dog & you. By doing this you will know if you need to adjust the amount that is being given. Sometimes only a small adjustment is needed to finetune.

Also, make sure to measure or weigh out your dogs food as it is very easy to accidentally give just a little bit too much and then over time that really adds up.

Good luck!

Just wanted to bump in that R/D is basically crunchy air so if you switch her back to the other food, I would think you'd have to feed substantially less. Good luck with the weight loss!

I thought mine had a thyroid problem. Turned out he was jumping up on the kitchen table every morning to get the cat food. Was so sneaky about it that I think he got away with it for months! Thankfully with restricted intake, he's now losing =)

Honestly, what worked for us is getting a second dog! Abbey dropped 7 pounds after we got Gus!! She was so overweight when we got her, we cut her food and exercised her, but it came off, and stayed off, after we got Gus. She went from 24.5 pounds to 17.5. It's been amazing for her, she looks so much better and you can tell she feels better--turns out she's kinda hyper! :lol: It was the weight that was making her kinda lazy and slow; now she's a little zipper!