Anyone succesfully gotten a dog to lose weight?

amy180 · 11-03-2009, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosinante

I reduced my dogs' weights just by - literally - giving them less. Not all of them but when I feed them, just twice a day, I supervise so that no-one nicks food from the others.

This, but also I should mention that the vet put my dog on purina veterinary diets. Nothing against this food, but I'm sure that feeding with other foods could still result in weight loss if you pay attention to the calories. My best friend, who hadn't seen the dog in a while, came over and said the poor thing was built like a tank.

Mine is a border collie. When I left for college, the parents didn't walk her much and my dad gave her WAY too many snacks. A border collie should weight about 45 pounds, she weighted a whopping 93. This was 3 weeks ago when we took her to the vet and got the new dog food. Feeding her 2 cups of this per day has resulted in a 5 pound weight loss. The vet says that it may take a year to get her down to a reasonable weight and then we can have her maintain it. I think this is about 1000 cal/day right now of dry food, then she can get a few hundred calories of snacks (with no snacks, she can eat 3 cups of food/day instead of 2 cups/day). We have also been taking turns walking her several times a day, a couple of short walks plus a longer one in the middle of the day.

Basically, pay attention to the snacks, because these can add up. There are lower calorie snacks you can feed, look on the websites for them for an idea of calories. Some have a lot more than you'd expect. Try to avoid human foods/table scraps too for weight loss.

My dog won't go near green beans, but I have heard that it works wonders for some dogs.

GatorgalstuckinGA · 11-05-2009, 11:20 PM

As a vet..here is my 2 cents...yes cutting down on the snacks and how much the dog gets fed may be enough. You would be surprised how quickly calories add up with kiddles and treats. If the dog loves them...raw baby carrots are a great treat. Also, like some one states earlier...loving your pets does not = feeding them to death. Studies have shown that dog's that are a normal body wt live 2-5 years longer than obese pets. They get many of the same issues as human. Increase the exercise (just like us). Keep the pets seperate when feeding so she doesn't get the other pet's food. Take away the bones for a while...yes it sort of sucks for the other pets...but honestly too many bones for dogs in general aren't good. But in many cases...perscription diets are needed. And exact measurements are needed. Sometimes everyone needs tough love even if its the pet needing it. Make sure you are always measureing the food with a measuring cup (liek us) and minmize snacks. And watch fatty dog foods and treats. Just like us...we need to minimize calories. As a vet i do believe in the perscription diets..i have seen some sucess with minimizing the amount of fodd the pet gets..but sometimes...we all need help and the prescpition diets help by increasing the fiber and decreasing the calories. Just like when we are trying to loose wt. Good luck!

fighting hungry · 01-24-2010, 05:54 AM

Fred was always fit until a few years ago when I went thru a divorce. I moved in with my parents. My dad insisted on keeping the cat food on the floor.. Fred would eat it up! He quickly packed on the pounds!

As soon as I moved into my own place- he was no longer getting a steady diet of cat food and the weight just melted off. Dad was amazed at how much longer the cat food was lasting after we moved out too!

Although I have always fed a high quality kibble, I did try a raw meat diet on Fred for a while. After a few months on that, he was in the best shape I had EVER seen him in. I tried kibble again for a few months and already can see a little bit of belly flab again, its not fat, just some flab...so back onto the raw.

Advantage of the raw is his teeth were also cleaner.

SuchAPrettyFace · 12-04-2011, 01:32 AM

My dog would not have lost weight if not for being on his thyroid medication. He had to take 2 little yellow pills every day & the weight melted off. He went from looking like a blanched pecan to a regular dachshund in about 6 months. (He was a rescue & the former owners also fed him canned dog food, we switched him to dry food, too)

Rapunzel · 12-04-2011, 08:32 PM

My dog while growing up was a chunky girl.....then we found out she had no thyroid, and she dropped all the weight once she went on a pill.

My brother's dog got fat and the vet told him to feed her green beans. She LOVES green beans and she lost all the weight she needed to.

I have a friend who makes her own "dog food" for her dog. Mostly it's whatever she's got in the house, working off a list of foods that are good for/safe for dogs. Lots of beans, rice, tomatoes....not sure what else. Her dog will eat just about anything given to her. She said her vet seemed fine with it.

Aunty Jam · 12-05-2011, 02:22 PM

I'm glad your pup is taking off some weight! The veggies do work so stick with it.

When my old girl got pudgy, I reduced her food and supplimented canned pumpkin in it's place, I also reduced the number of snacks. We were fairly active so the weight melted off, she ended up losing 7 pounds and being a healthy 37lbs until she passed in February at 15 1/2 years.

BrettnLaurynsmommi · 01-10-2012, 05:45 PM

I have a bassett hound, and they are known to be a bit chubby,,well mine is more than a bit chubby. We cut back her food, and she only gets baby carrots for a treat. She was doing really well, you could even see a little waist on her until she developed further skin issuses than what she already had and re-occuring bladder infections. The poor girl even developed an allergy to the meds for the bladder infection so we had to put her on another med to stop the itching that was making her skin raw. After 6 months of bladder infections they put her permenantly on perscription dog food to help reduce struvites in her urine that cause bladder infections. So now we are infection free but the meds for the itch is known to cause weight gain...so we are no further ahead. Has anyone dealt with this kind of situation before?

cherrypie · 01-10-2012, 06:03 PM

My dog is starting to get a little pudgy too. He's a springer spaniel and most of the older ones I've seen around are fat. I switched him to lower calorie food and he's never gotten many table scraps. A saying I read once keeps going through my head "if your dog is overweight you aren't getting enough exercise"

I think that is the root of the problem.