It’s official, Porter is fat. Lady Jaye took him to the vet today to have his anal glands expressed, and he has actually gained a pound and a half since putting the dogs on a diet. We’ve already tried to only keep food out for them if they eat it within the first thirty minutes (although we’ve been slipping a bit on that). We have also cut out giving him treats on a regular basis, to no effect. The strategies offered up by our vet weren’t of much immediate value: feed Porter much less, and feed him separately from Rosie. We’re talking about two dogs that eat out of the same bowl.
I’m going to start walking the poor guy, plus we’re going to reduce their food even more. The vet suggested changing food, they’re on Eukanuba adult maintenance. I’m not so sure about that, either. Euk is supposed to be relatively high in fat, I’ll have to look into it more.
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OK I’m skeptical – he seemed smaller the last time he sat in my lap on his couch. And 1.5 lbs at his size is significant — unless it’s muscle and not fat.
So obvious questions. Did he need to use the doggy potty and didn’t go before they weighed him? Have you weighed him at home on regular basis and seen his weight going up? Do you believe that their scales were right today – could it have needed to be tared back to true zero? Did he forgot to drop the purse, winter jacket and heavy boots before getting on their scales? :-)Then on the other side of the coin. Have they checked his metabolism? His thyroid levels (TSH, T3, T4 (and either T3 or T4 uptake) — I think they do all of them for dogs)? I can’t remember the other things they can check for metabolism but could probably find out.
One other thing are they getting fed once a day or are you splitting it into 2 seperate feedings?
Yah, walking him or playing fetch or whatever won’t hurt him — but I still don’t believe that he’s gone up that much in the past few months.
If you have to deal with the issue of feeding them seperately there is a trick that a friend had to use with her two cats that might help. Nappy was a rail thin cat and Mica, well her tummy came close to dragging on the ground. They shared a food bowl and my friend was told that she had to feed Nappy more and Mica less. Finally she started putting just a little bit more food into the shared bowl than Mica was supposed to get. The two of them would eat together – Mica eating most of it but not too much. To increase Nappy’s intake my friend hid another bowl of food on a bookshelf that Nappy liked climbing on, but there wasn’t a prayer in the world that Mica could get up to it. Nappy would go and eat on and off all day long and Mica didn’t get more than she needed. Just thining that Rosy is so lanky and nimble compared to Porter, is there a way to put up a barrier that she could get over (to get to food in a room, like the guest room or spare bathroom) that Porter can’t? Then the question is would she be interested enough in eating that she’d go to the trouble to get to the extra food? It’s not super kind but …. something to think about? :-)
I prefer to think of my grandson, Porter, as chubby…I still love him anyway.