8 months old female 120 lbs - Page 2

Bhall:  So sorry that was such a nice litter.  I hope her hips and elbows are Okay.  I once had to take off 30 lbs from a fairly large dog;  "their vet said his weight was OK".  JHC.

Here is what I did:  Occassionally they get kibble but it's better if  they do not as there are hidden calories in kibble that  "real"  food does not have.  I Used shredded cabbages, both green and purple as my base.  I added several other vegetables;  carrots, celery,any greens you want like kale, spinach; dandelion; as well as zuccini, yellow crook neck or whatever you can find in season.  Broccalli.  Put the cabbages in pot, grind in food processor all other veggies to small chop or grind, don't puree unless you want to.  This makes a very large pot.  To the mixture above I added 3 pounds of some sort of ground meat, beef, pork, lamb, turkey, chicken.  Serve as is after it cools.  You can add vitamin supplement or coat stuff but it is really not necessary.  They will get really good nutrients from this.  Also add egg, shell and all; yogart you can give daily a spoonful, maybe l tablespoon daily or so.  Give or take.  Depends if she is going to do OK on dairy.  The weight will come off with this fairly rapidly with mild exercise but steady.  You can also put this mixture over kibble occassionally, maybe one cup to get those nutrients.  But only use kibble occassionally, say maybe 3 times per week one cup. 

I got the cabbage precut at Sam's club in large 3 lb packages which saved me a lot of chopping.  It was pretty cheap and stores pretty well; or just cut your own.  This is a complete diet in inself and to gain muscle you can add an occasional leg quarter of chicken raw or backs and wings depending on how much meat/fat you want them to have.  You can also give RAW knuckle bones to help them satisfy their chewing and give extra nutrients. 

Best of luck  Nan

They can have 2 cups of this mixture 2 times per day and they will still loose the weight.

terrible, but been there done that.  I give a normal but light amount of food, maybe 1.5 cups twice/day.  Not a starvation diet, but they will lose weight slowly but surely.  Combine that with as much slow steady exercise as possible - long walks is best.  short sprints (chasing the ball) may do more harm than good.  Muscles and tendons and joints can suffer from running/jumping.  Treadmill is great.  Just a fast walk/slow trot pace.

If you can house the dogs in a large outside yard or pen where they can move around as much as they want, that will help.  Keeping them crated or in a smaller kennel with no stimulation will make the weight loss program harder and slower, unless you get them out for exercise often.

The dog I got that was morbidly obese took several months to finally lose enough weight to see any sign of her waist.  A few more months before she looks normal.

molly

I've used Hill's prescription R/d

http://www.hillspet.com/products/pd-canine-rd-canine-weight-loss-low-calorie-dry.html

I have rescued two dogs. One was a small labrador unfixed male that weighed 99 pounds and I got him down to 70 pounds in 4 months.

Now I have a Papillon female, unfixed that weighed 11 pounds and now after a hunger strike on her behalf she is at 8.9 pounds.

She did not eat for 9 days, starved herself (but I'm pretty sure she was getting into the Lab's food when he wasn't quick enough) but now she is eating and doing very well.

She can clean herself now and walk mountains :)

Here is a photo of the lab I rescued two days after he came to me.

Just for further info:  All Science Diet formulas have ethoxaquin added.  Really bad for your dogs. 

Nans, that reminds me of the Cabbage Soup diet, except it is for dogs!  Be honest, there has to be some kind of after effects... like will she need Bean-O for dogs?

Cracked me up;  well probably but can't you put up with it until the weight comes off??  I mean really,  no worse than raw diet (pork neck bones) etc.  Let's face it, farts stink.  All farts stink, not just some.  By slightly cooking the cabbage it helps to release some of the caustic properties.  The yogart helps also.  I also used the above formula for another bitch I raised that was such an easy keeper that every time I looked at her she looked like she was gaining weight (on kibble) so I had to cut her down to l/2 cup kibble and  she could also have l cup of the above.  BOL  Nan  (PS that is l/2 cup kibble + l cup of above 2 times per day).  So she wasn't starving and was getting all the nutrients plus more than what was in the kibble.  She was very happy and trimmed down nicely.  She is now on complete raw and stays well muscled up and lean (lives with my sister). 

I would be so pissed off.  Don't people see what they are doing to the dogs or do they just not care?

Nans thanks for the cabbage soup tip.  It certainly sounds good enough to eat.

Well, sometimes I cannot understand why any dog on earth can be obese or even slightly overweight for the purpose.

A dog does not open the door of the pantry.

A fat dog reflects the mindset or mental stage of the owner.

My dogs WILL NEVER be overweight.

Just feed less and exercise. High quality food in limited quantity, easy enough.

A dog can be underweight even if the owner is mentally healthy, but never overweight.

What a shame! I'm sure you'll get the weight of quickly though its such a young dog and I'm sure she'll feel so much better.  I think its a form of abuse some of the dog we see in at our boarding kennel are HUGE.  We had a lab that's stomach rubbed the ground when she walked, it was pathetic.  Her stomach was missing a bunch of the fur from rubbing so badly.  The people were very overweight too and said the dog liked to eat their munchies.  I told them they were killing her with kindness.  BUT most people just don't seem to care? I don't get that?  Thank God you got this pup back now I'm sure you can help her and get her back on track. 
Good luck!

amy