Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/12/05/helping-my-fat-little-dog-not.html
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Z lets me know when she doesn’t feel well by leaving the liquid-y poop in places I’ll find it. Yuck.
I am so glad I have cats.
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Have had big dogs and little, little dogs definitely require more ground rules then big and the most important one is food. The little ones eat breakfast and dinner NO SNACKS EVER. They are cute and much better at training humans to their bidding then big dogs maybe because we let them do stuff big dog can’t like sitting on people, a dominance thing to dogs (full disclosure my 14 year old 17 lbs dog will sleep on my chest if hes cold).
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Lucky you that you don’t have my Other Cat.
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She sleeps on my head.
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Just a FYI from a veterinarian:
The cardiac disease that Cavaliers die from is generally hereditary in nature, and valve disease related. So… while maintaining a healthy weight is good for a number of reasons, it’s not going to make an enormous difference in regards to breed related Cavalier heart disease (they do not tend to get cholesterol/lipid related atherosclerotic disease like a human would).
It’s going to be much more helpful to have regular check ups with a good vet who really gets a good auscultation of your dog’s valves.
Also, if you’ve got a dog with weight issues, and can deal with the “volume effects” of diet foods, a high quality food like the Nutro food mentioned is a good place to start. If you’re not getting much effect, you’re either doing it wrong, or you may need to have your dog’s thyroid function checked. Many dogs trend towards (and into) hypothyroidism as they get older.
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More walkies!!!
…and I would add to this very good advice: do your dogs get enough exercise? Dogs were selected to run 10 hours a day after game or cattle, so there is that.
Yep, with a caveat, that if you have a dog with any suspected cardiac disease, get approval for exercise levels from your vet or vet cardiologist.
What about a German Sheperd who refuses to eat practically anything (his entire life, not new) and will run and play until he bleeds from the paws?
Vet gave her heart an all clear for the year. It is only a matter of time for all Cavaliers, it seems.
Urgh… GSD person myself, and the finicky food thing can be such a pain in the butt (especially when my wife is a “labrador” (i.e. canine industrial vacuum) person).
If you have trouble keeping weight on your shepherd (I’ve had this problem with one of mine), you can go with a really high cal food. The plus side is that foods like that are often a bit more appetizing, and you can get a bit more of a calorie dense food into a dog that really doesn’t care about food before they decide that they’ve had enough. The main problem I’ve had is that with the oh too frequent GSD “sensitive stomach” sometimes the same dogs don’t tolerate really rich foods too well… Had one like that. What I did was just go with smaller meals more frequently.
Yeah, that’s what we’ve been trying to do, and it’s working better than our previous efforts. Figured out he likes gravy, so we’ve been doing that.
He’s a weirdo, he can’t eat unless he’s done something to “earn it”, like he has to go get his frisbee and will wait by his full bowl until you chuck the disc to him then once caught he can give himself a mouthful of food.
Then we repeat the dance over and over for about 2 hours until he’s not eating anymore.
The last dog was a lab, and his job was to keep the floors clean of crumbs and grease. When he got real old the vet always warned us to bring him in if he stops eating. We always told the vet that if he stopped eating he’d have to already have been dead for awhile.
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Two more and you’ll have what is called a Three Dog Night [really, it’s where the name came from].
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