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How to help our old dog loose weight?

We have a dog that is extremely overweight (she should be around 15lbs but is around 40). She is also old and has joint problems so her movement is limited.

Because of her problems, it hurts her to walk. Even though we try to take her out often, she does not do very well. I know her aging legs cannot support her body weight.

For us it is a catch-22. In order to loose weight, she needs to get exercise, but in order to exercise; she needs to be able to move.

We are worried for her. Any ideas about how we can quickly (and safely) help her loose weight so she can move around better?

Also, we have been trying to give her pills (from the doctor) to help her pain but she refuses to take them as they don’t taste great. Any suggestions about how we can effectively give her the medicine?

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5 Responses to “How to help our old dog loose weight?”

  1. mmcrobinson said :

    Sure – Take her swimming.. if you have a neighbor that has a pool or in a lake.

    Cheese or ham rolled up

  2. Flora R said :

    ALL dogs gain weight when they get older, try switching their food to benefull. somtimes, their isnt enything you can do about it. 🙁

  3. OhIDoDoI said :

    1. With the pills… your vet can show you how to give them to her. In a nutshell you open her mouth, place/push the pill as far back on her tongue as you can reach, and hold her mouth shut until she swallows. Additionally you can put the pill in a bit of peanut butter or soft food or other things.

    2. Diet: What food is she on? the posters here will have a lot of great ideas as to diet that is both healthy and will help her loose weight.

    “vet recommended weight loss” brands aren’t always your best option either… However to get her to lose enough weight to be able to exercise better, you might need to try those for a few months.

    3. Health: I’m assuming your vet ahs done tests to rule out disease which could be impacting her weight? if not, get these done first, as there could be an underlying medical problem. Also if she’s not diabetic yet, she will most likely be soon.

    4. Exercise. Depending where you are, you can take your dog swimmping. Swimming is a wonderful non-impact exercise. This will only work if your dog likes to swim. (Although if it were me I think i’d be desperate enough to see some weight loss results that i’d place her in the water anyways and get her swimming whether she wanted to or not.) There are some therapy-pet places that have pools just FOR dogs to exercise and swim in.

    I hate to say it but pain medication and many very short (five minutes even) walks are your only option… every little step adds up, even if she isn’t going very fast. If she’s waddling along at a snails pace, she’s still moving and burning callories. Take wahtever you can get!

    What kind of a dog is it?

  4. Ariel said :

    Cut back on the food and treats (some people fed their dog properly during meal time, but go crazy with treats) slowly and go get a second opinion on your dog from a vet. Only a good vet will know exactly what to do with her.

  5. Jimmy671 said :

    I was taught by a Vet that specializes in doggy nutrition. He pretty much said to keep up a good daily routine of eating, drinking, and going out for good walks. Now he gave me a task, I had to drop the weight of 2 overweight pugs. There names were Gunnar and Greyson. These were some small, chubby dogs. They were so overweight that sometimes they would start turning blue because they just stopped breathing cause they were so overweight. These pugs were almost 40lbs. They are also over 10 years old each. I fed them less. Not a whole lot less, but slowly decreased their intake.

    Now what did I feed them??? IAMS, yes you all heard me, and I know a lot of people have their differences about it. Yes it has filler, BUT…….. Iams also makes different types of Iams but for different situations I.E. Liver problems, weight control, etc……

    Well I got the 2 pugs down to around 30 lbs in less than 3 weeks.

    Even my Pitt, she was getting on the chunky side, so I slowly changed it to about half of what she was getting, so she is a good size Pitt now…….




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