Weight issues

Zapperzy

I can't seem to get my terrier to shift a little extra weight. He's 7.7kg the last time I weighed him, not grossly overweight but definitely pudgy. He gets an hour (plus or minus 15 mins) walk every day, and this is 90% on a 23ft retractable lead so he probably runs 4 or 5 times the distance I'm walking because he's constantly back and forth.

He should be on roughly 70g of burns (lamb & rice) a day but he only gets 30g plus roughly 1/6 of a tray of naturediet (so about 65g) in the evening and he gets offered about 20g of burns in the morning but he might only eat that 2 or 3 mornings a week so that's picked up again if he doesn't want to eat it. I only weigh out his food the odd time so obviously there are fluctuations in it but I'm fairly good at giving the same amount every day. All I can think of is he gets about 5ml of salmon oil every day, should I be reducing his food to account for that?

As for treats he gets the odd cow ear maybe once every 10-14 days, there pretty big so it takes him 2 days to get through one and I'l be honest I don't reduce his food by too much when he gets one of those. Apart from that he gets only 2 treats a day, one in the morning and one going to bed. Currently mutt and jeff sausage links, half a sausage in the morning, half in the evening. If not those he gets half a pedigree schmacko (I know pedigree :rolleyes: but their handy for breaking into little pieces if need be for training). He gets no scraps throughout the day and apart from the odd day he gets a chicken leg or some other sort of raw food instead of his meals his diet doesn't vary.

I just don't understand why I can't get his weight down. Could it be the salmon oil? Apart from swapping his treats for carrots and adding in another 20 minute walk I don't know what else I could do. I would have always said burns generally has a low RDA and usually keeps dogs on the slim side. Don't think it's a health issue as he's not drinking or peeing extra, no ravenous appetite and his poos are always healthy looking.

tk123

Could you swim him to get the weight off? If he's small and you have a bath all you need is a harness lol!! My guy is extremely lean from his hydro.

Zapperzy

tk123 wrote: »

Could you swim him to get the weight off? If he's small and you have a bath all you need is a harness lol!! My guy is extremely lean from his hydro.

He hates swimming. In quiet calm water he'l happily run in and out chasing sticks but refuses to go outside his depth, even with someone out there coaxing him in. Laughing at the idea of setting up a little hydropool in the bath, I wash and clip him in there so probably not a good idea to traumatise him with it.

bluecherry74

I would say the mutt and Jeff sausage links could be quite high in calories - maybe try swapping them for the carrots or something like james wellbeloved crackerjacks which I think would be better.

Obviously the salmon oil is high in calories but since the benefits are huge I wouldn't cut it out, but maybe reduce it to 4 or 5 times a week?

Maybe add in the extra walk on the day he gets the cows ear too. Cows ears are much lower in fat than pigs ears so they're a good choice for his big treat, especially since they last so long.

lorebringer

Reducing food by 20% is the great way to get a dog to lose weight when they are getting a good amount of exercise (which, your dog is!). Cutting out treats is also a good idea - maybe giving half a cows ear, cutting out the schmakos and giving raw hide sticks instead (low in calories!), giving raw carrots as treats... be creative!

Zapperzy

bluecherry74 wrote: »

I would say the mutt and Jeff sausage links could be quite high in calories - maybe try swapping them for the carrots or something like james wellbeloved crackerjacks which I think would be better.

Obviously the salmon oil is high in calories but since the benefits are huge I wouldn't cut it out, but maybe reduce it to 4 or 5 times a week?

Maybe add in the extra walk on the day he gets the cows ear too. Cows ears are much lower in fat than pigs ears so they're a good choice for his big treat, especially since they last so long.

I worked them out as about 25-30kcals per half sausage. How many kcals should a 7 yr old terrier be getting anyways?

bluecherry74

Zapperzy wrote: »

I worked them out as about 25-30kcals per half sausage. How many kcals should a 7 yr old terrier be getting anyways?

That's not actually as high as I would have though!

Dogs First has a calorie calculator and even though it's aimed at raw feeders it should still tell you roughly how much to feed your terrier:

http://www.dogsfirst.ie/makingdogfood/

Based on a weight of 7kg (a bit less than your dog) he should be on 3645 per week or around 520 per day. You'll prob need to go a bit under that if you want him to lose some weight though. Like lorebringer said you could try reducing his food by 20%, but I'd say try reducing it from his treat allowance rather than his food since he only needs a to lose a bit. I'm no expert though!

Zapperzy

Thanks for that, I forgot about that calculator I was only looking at it last week and forgot that it included calories.

For now anyways I'm going to weigh out his food as much as possible, especially his wet food as I'v a feeling he could be getting more than I think he is, I remember a tray used to last exactly 6 days, it's only lasting 4/5 days now. I'm cutting down on his daily burns a little bit, weighed everything out today and he got <20g this morning (which he didn't eat any of), and 20g this evening mixed with 85g of naturediet (more than usual because it was the end of a tub, bit too much for one day but not enough to stretch 2 days). He got an hour walk running like a lunatic and 20 minutes of a more dignified short lead walk. I'm gonna add in the extra 20-30 minute walk at least 3-4 times a week, won't do me any harm either as I'v 2 weddings coming up in the next 2 weeks! Bit more ball throwing in the garden a few times a day too.

I just looked at his vaccination card, this time 2 years ago the vet said he was overweight and wrote his weight on the back to monitor it, 7.2kg.

Zapperzy

Just weighed him, back up to 7.8kg!

irishbarb

Hiya, just wondering was he ever testing for Cushing's Disease. We had an old terrier who we could just not get to shift the weight and seemed to be always hungry. The vet tested her for Cushings and she had it. Once she was on the meds the weight fell off her.

lorebringer

I was just about to mention health problems - but was beaten to it!

There are quite a few metabolic issues that can be tested for in a blood test that could be the reason your dog cannot shift the weight (esp. considering you are so fastidious about food etc.). May be worth a trip to the vet to see if any of these are the problem. Most are very treatable and it would be a load off your mind to know the whole story.

Zapperzy

Going to monitor everything very closely for the next while anyways and he's due vaccinations in June so will investigate further then if need be. He has no other symptoms, I'v seen cushings dogs before and he has none of the symptoms. Hypothyroid possibly but again he has none of the typical symptoms except the weight issue. Think it's a good excuse to get insurance soon though, only been putting it off the last 4 years. :rolleyes:

He's got quick a thick coat, especially up front but as you can see he resembles a footstool or coffee table! No properly defined waistline, ribs buried under a layer of fat.

Zapperzy

7.9kg today despite 2 walks (90 mins+ of running around on the retractable lead) every day for the past week and a very reduced food and treat intake. Something's definitely not right and a vet visit is needed. Weird thing is he's perfect in every other manner, if I wasn't so careful about monitoring his weight I'd think nothing's wrong.

DBB

Zapperzy wrote: »

7.9kg today despite 2 walks (90 mins+ of running around on the retractable lead) every day for the past week and a very reduced food and treat intake. Something's definitely not right and a vet visit is needed. Weird thing is he's perfect in every other manner, if I wasn't so careful about monitoring his weight I'd think nothing's wrong.

Don't lose heart yet, weight loss seems to take ages in dogs.
You could always use my excuse, that fat is being replaced by muscle, which is heavier, which of course explains the lack of weight loss.
Doesn't it?
Yes. Yes of course it does.

tk123

DBB wrote: »

Don't lose heart yet, weight loss seems to take ages in dogs.
You could always use my excuse, that fat is being replaced by muscle, which is heavier, which of course explains the lack of weight loss.
Doesn't it?
Yes. Yes of course it does.

Yeah it takes a while - Bailey lost 1kg in 2-3 months (he's just under 30kgs now) from cutting his food back by just .25% luckily I only cut it back a little bit because he's skinny enough imo.
I actually said that to the nurse in our vets about muscle being heavier than fat a few months ago and they were :rolleyes: and told me he "still has some fat on his ribs" and quoted a figure from their Hills chart :rolleyes: I knew he was building muscle/filling out from switching to barf and his hydro getting more intense and also that his coat had gotten thicker from changing to bard so IGNORED her lol.
Here he is after his shower at hydro and fluffed up at home afterwards - looking up at the counter for a treat lol.

Zapperzy

I was only thinking the same thing about muscle! I just don't know, I don't expect it to drop off him just I wasn't expecting an increase in weight, seems odd given the amount of exercise he's getting coupled with the lack of food. I'l carry on the same anyways and see if I notice a difference in his body condition.

Assassins Creed

Try just feeding his regular meals and cutting everything extra out ie fish oil, treats etc for a few weeks. That way you'll be down to just his meals and as you said its below the guidelines for the brand, could indicate the food he's on is the problem.