my fat dog

danih

Hello

My cavalier king charles is putting on a lot of weight. He is 7 1/2 year old. Last summer his weight was on upper side of the normal range - happy vet's view. My scales are broke, so I'm not sure how much he has gained - but he looks broader, and feels significantly heavier.

We have always free fed him - high quality dried food, (burns, clinivet, science plan etc, depending on spec offers.) He ate what he needed in evening, and rarely emptied his small bowl. He wasn't greedy, and ate til he was full, leaving yhe rest.

But things changed over the summer - new dog, a 1 year old westie. Same background as Max, both weren't being well looked after by prev owners, and were gived free to us.

Teo (westie) is a v content wee man. Max has anxiety issues which seem to be the issue now. He now finishes his food bowl, and Teo's, every feeding time. He now has an interest in chew treats - those raw hide ones that look like they should last for ages. Max will finish them in a couple hrs, to keep them away from Teo. He often carried them out on his walk. Wee teeny bit possessive!

They are walked every day. I have restricted their dried food to a sensible portion. Max does look for more - any thoughts on padding this out with veg or rice?

Any treat ideas - stuff that will keep.Max content for a while without significantly contributing to his weight?

Fosterdog

Firstly he should get a vet checkup just in case there is an underlying health issue, there are many causes for weight gain.

Secondly, try adding his food to a kong or treat ball instead of a bowl, it will take him longer to eat it, and it will exercise his mind too. Minimise the number of treats he is given, use his own food as a reward (out of his daily portion not on top). Use veg as a treat, mine love carrots.

How many meals do they get each day? If he's looking for food try splitting one large meal into two or three smaller meals.

How long/far are they walked everyday? Do they get any offload time to have a good run?

Why is he allowed to eat the other dogs food on top of his own? If you can't teach him a strong leave it command then maybe they should be fed in different rooms and each allowed to finish completely before the other dog is allowed near. Any food not eaten should be taken up straight away.

teddysmum

As you will know it is essential to keep down a cavalier's weight as they are very prone to MVD (mitral valve disease), though I'm very lucky that my Teddy is murmur free, at 10 and Joly, 11 in March only has a very low grade.


Are you feeding what the food manufacturers suggest, as, if so, it is probably too much. My boys, 12kg size, only have a cat bowl with about 100g of complete food, like JWB or Fish4Dogs or half a can of Butcher's Tripe with about two dozen pieces of mixer and, possibly, a few biscuits in a morning. Food is not left down and, if Joly fusses, his is taken away.


My two can be greedy and guard food, so they are fed at the same time but separately (one in the kitchen and one in his crate), so no issues.

danih

I'm not planning on rushing to vet just yet - will in a couple wks if my plan to tackle the most obvious cause doesn't show results, or any other symptoms appear. No other cause for concern except for the weight gain. He is due a booster in a couple of months, we always get a full check up then, including heart, legs/hips and teeth.

We have an unused kong, might get a 2nd and put them to use.

I planning to feed them twice a day - breakfast and dinner time, see how that works.

They get a morning and evening walk twice a day. Usually this is 15 minutes each time. At least twice a week they get a 2 mile walk where they both get off lead time. May need to up the short walks.

At mealtimes Teo doesn't usually finish his meal, eats what he needs and wanders off, Max cleans both plates. We knew Max was eating more dog food, but felt that it was balanced out by the lack of treats since Teo came along - Teo has a v sensitive tummy, so had to cut out the treats for both dogs. We have been generous with portions - Teo was v thin when we got him. Time to cut back I think. With smaller portions Teo won't leave any for Max to eat.

Max does stop when told. Better trained then new dog!



Any ideas for raw hide chews that will last ages?

trolleyrun

Reducing new dog's portions so old dog doesn't finish the left overs is a good place to start. Feed them separately, if need be. Only 30 mins excercise per day 5 days a week doesn't sound very much to me. Can you increase this? As for chews, I've heard Stagbars lasts for ages, as does Pizzles, although those stink a bit.

Btw, why on earth are you allowing Max to bring his chew on a walk? Leave it at home. Also, when Pipsqueak has a chew (rare because she's not really into them), I only let her have it for about half an hour or so at a time.

yorkshire_terrier_owner

teddysmum wrote: »

As you will know it is essential to keep down a cavalier's weight as they are very prone to MVD (mitral valve disease), though I'm very lucky that my Teddy is murmur free, at 10 and Joly, 11 in March only has a very low grade.


Are you feeding what the food manufacturers suggest, as, if so, it is probably too much. My boys, 12kg size, only have a cat bowl with about 100g of complete food, like JWB or Fish4Dogs or half a can of Butcher's Tripe with about two dozen pieces of mixer and, possibly, a few biscuits in a morning. Food is not left down and, if Joly fusses, his is taken away.


My two can be greedy and guard food, so they are fed at the same time but separately (one in the kitchen and one in his crate), so no issues.

My Cav is 9, has the heart murmur, but also low grade, like yours. I think the greediness and competitiveness over food is a cav thing - all my cavs have been the same!

yorkshire_terrier_owner

To the OP, having owned cavs all my life (although I decided some time ago the old one I have left is my last one - I now have papillons and Chihuahuas), they are food obsessed. I feed my cav separately to the rest of my dogs. I've never found free feeding with cavs has worked with mine as they put weight on. It sounds as though you have had another dog which has brought the competitiveness cavs have over food to the fore. Cavs are stubborn so and so's and like their own way - I have always been consistent with mine, don't give them chews, treats etc except for training and monitored their food intake carefully, as just as teddy'smum says, keeping their weight down is vital with this breed.

krlyr

Certainly worth adjusting diet first to see if that's the issue. However, you mention anxiety which made me just want to mention hypothyroidism.

My Rottie x developed separation anxiety when we moved house, and started to get more and more anxiety related behaviours (reactivity towards dogs, becoming noise sensitive, getting spooked by new items outside (e.g. buggies, despite being fine with them - or rubbish bags blowing on the pavement, tarp blowing on a driveway, etc) and so on.
After several months of not having much progress with her behaviour, I had a thorough MOT done at the vet including a full blood panel with thyroid levels. Her thyroid levels were on the low side, so my vet agreed to trial Soloxine (artificial thyroid hormones) and she improved massively, behaviourally and physically (all these subtle signs I'd chalked up to other things - excessive shedding I thought was down to having central heating in the new house, weight gain I'd put down to leaving her with Kongs and giving treats to tackle the separation anxiety, less energy due to her age, and so on). If her levels start to drop (hypothyroidism is progressive as the thyroid deteriorates over time), she begins to gain weight despite her food/exercise staying the same, her coat loses condition, she becomes more anxious etc.

Could be worth having a full checkup done at some point. The thing to bear in mind with hypothyroidism, that not all vets are aware of, is that a simple TSH and/or T4 test will not always give an accurate diagnosis, so a comprehensive panel that includes things like T3, free T4 and so on is better.

http://www.cavalierhealth.org/hypothyroidism.htm
https://my.imatrixbase.com/clients/14145/documents/Hemolife_Literature/FAQs_Thyroid_Diag_Rx.pdf


One thing I do with Kiki when she's gained a bit more weigh, is sometimes pad her food out with veggies. Raw, but blended so she can get some nutritional value, and normally mixed with something like a small amount of fish or an egg just for some flavour and so it becomes a meal rather than just plain veg (she's raw-fed, so a raw egg or raw fish would do her as a small meal - but for a dog on a regular diet you could just mix in some lightly cooked or blended veg, or mix with a bit of wet dog food).

I tend to freeze meals in Kongs for her quite often as this takes her a while and occupies her for 20-30 minutes, rather than the 20-30 seconds she'd inhale food in from a bowl! Also I find the Green feeder 'bowl' helps slow them down too, this works with raw food as well as biscuits or wet food.

danih

We do need to up the short walks, be good for both dogs.

Max has only taken his chew for a walk a couple of times. So infrequent that its not worth stressing him out to get it off him. Doesn't seem to be becoming a habit. (and he looked ssooo cute).

we have stopping the treats due to Teo's tummy, its the feed portions and rawhide chews that seem to be the problem. Max responds well to praise and affection when training. Anything food oriented seemed to distract him too much.

the food portions have only been reduced over past couple days, so its early days.

will try those stag thingys - have seen them in Jollies

Great to hear from other cav owners! There are so few others where we live, we don't get to compare much.

danih

Will bear the hyperthyroidism in mind too. I know cavalier s are prone to poor health as they age, luckily he's bn so healthy so far.

krlyr

Just to be nitpicky - hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) is the one dogs tend to get , hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) is less common (tends to be the one cats suffer from though)