It's Real Life, Not "Ideal" Life

Charlie, begging for a treat next to his breakfast.

Veterinary medicine, like the rest of life, evolves.

Sometimes we are 'changing with the times' because research and studies prove new advances in health care and sometimes we change because the 'old way' isn't working anymore.

My dogs are my lab rats for the new diets, new treats, new shampoos, new flea and tick preventatives, the new heartworm preventatives, etc. If I am going to sell a new product in my clinic I am going to give it to my pets before I recommend it to my clients. After all, if I wouldn't give it to my pets who could I possibly recommend it to yours? If my dogs won't eat it, or if their hair falls off, or if I am worried about giving it to my pets then I won't sell it in my practice to yours. Sometimes I learn which products work and which don't,  and I know my clients appreciate my personal perspective rather than that on the manufacturers supplied literature.

I actually stopped using a very widely advertised and publicized vaccine because I almost lost a very good friends dog to it. She had heard about it on the show circuit, and because she shows her dogs frequently she wanted to protect her dogs with it. She was one of the first clients that we gave the vaccine to. Within an hour of the vaccine injection her dog was being carried lifelessly back into our office almost in a coma. Now, being the scientist that I am I thought, "OK, first patient and first (although this was one of the worst adverse reactions I had ever seen) adverse reaction, I can't let my study group and results be from only one patient. So I reluctantly vaccinated a few more dogs who's owners requested the vaccine. In that one first tray of vaccines (20) I had four adverse reactions. That did it. Although my dogs are at an increased risk of the disease the vaccine is supposed to protect from I was too afraid to vaccinate my own dogs. So we now only vaccinate dogs considered to be at 'significant risk' and only after recounting our own in-house concerns with parents about the vaccine.

Granted this is the extreme case, but my point is that I will not advise anything that I am personally uncomfortable with, or hypocritical about.

When I was in vet school we were all taught to recommend a high-quality commercially available dog food, and to keep that food consistent to reduce the likelihood of a change in diet causing gastro-intestinal upset. We know that the dogs that are garbage can surfers are at a greater chance of getting pancreatitis. Pancreatitis can be life-threatening, difficult and expensive to treat, therefore we try to safeguard against it by being pro-active by advising a consistent diet.

But we all know what happens with any good intention?

I have practiced what I preached for decades. UNTIL I got a young ever sniffing for vermin beagle, an actively aging crotchety beagle, and a stubborn pit bull. Put them together and I now have three dogs who are picky, and all for different reasons.

Our youngest beagle Jekyll has realized that he can scavenge for tastier treats in the form of our own home grown RAW foods in our fields. He doesn't need boring kibble from us, he can ring the doorbell and let outside to forage in our fecund fields for moles, mice, bunnies, and cast away carcasses.

Charleston, the pit bull is just bored with his food selection. He is protesting by not even making the effort to get up from his bed in the morning, when I ring the breakfast bell.

Charleston, begging for a treat while his boring breakfast sits beside him.

Savannah at 17 is having a hard time walking and standing at her food bowl. The simple task of keeping the food in front of her is made harder by the mysterious fact that it keeps slipping forward from her. She starts out standing at the bowl and within a few minutes she's slumping in front of it, and within another few minutes she is a foot behind it. I have a short limited time frame to get her to scoff up the food in front of her. Due to her age, muscle loss, and general lack of interest I keep her eating as much and as often as possible. Our big challenge is to keep her interested, eating, and moving. She is on the slippery slope of trying to manage the balance between sleeping about 22 hours a day and not being able to get around well anymore. When I can no longer keep her eating enough of the 'good' foods I will go to the 'anything goes' foods.

Elderly Savannah.

To curb the poaching of our wildlife, bend to the will of my pittie, and appease my worries about my geriatric pup I have adopted the following feeding plan.

We feed measured amounts of a mixed combination of two high quality dry foods. To this I add a few tablespoons of a wet food. I vary the flavors of the wet food, but they are all a very high quality brand. To Savannah's food I add omega-3 fatty acid, Dasaquin, and occasionally an NSAID for the rough days.

This variety has added a little spice to their lives and has kept the breakfast and dinner bowls emptied.

Maybe those garbage surfers are like those of us who tried the Atkins diet. Worked OK for a week or two, then left us feeding feverously crouched over an empty box of mac n cheese like some rabid zombie? maybe if those bored dogs had a buffet style table they wouldn't scrounge for any crumb they could find?

As for Jekyl, he is a helpless chattell to his nose (at least that's what he tells me). He is coerced, entranced and prisoner to it. He can't be held responsible for his actions if he suffers from temporary mental incompetence, can he?  I can't be mad at him for his neonatal hasenpfeffer snacks, can I? (I AM!)

Jekyl the land shark.

My official advice (for the moment) is to keep your pet on a high quality commercially available dry food age, breed, lifestyle, and health status appropriate and supplement with some canned food (same criteria applies). If you have any questions or concerns about how well, or what your pet is or should be eating see your veterinarian  or a veterinary nutritionist.

Please refrain from seeking advice about food from a pet store employee, a television ad, or some random-self-proclaiming nutritional guru that you find on the internet, (Yes, I am alright if you bunch me in the last category,,,  ;-) I'm not a hypocrite, I keep trying to establish that..)

The Weigh-Ins Begin

Tuesday I saw 3 dogs on appointments who all came in and were all overweight.

I thought that I would begin to introduce them to you.

My first fat dog of the night was Dazzle the Dachshund. She is a middle aged, spayed female short haired walking foot stool. She is so fat that her already stubby legs look to be half the length of what they should. Her dolichocephalic (long nosed face), looks like a little mouse, small pointy nose and ears that go straight out to the side because her face and neck are so fat. (To describe it more graphically her short streamlined body looks squat and stout, and she waddles.)

Her mom had brought her in specifically to address the weight issue.

I think that in my seven years practicing that this is maybe only the second dog that has walked in to see me for this reason. In most cases the owners try to slip by the fact that their dog is overweight. They hope that I won't notice, or that I ''have given up on them trying to correct it for the fourth year in a row."

For those owners that I actually can convince that there is a weight problem, I am happy to sit down and go through the very long conversation about every aspect of their pets life that has contributed to where the scale is now.

This conversation needs to be a 30 minute office visit.

We all need to sit down and discuss the entire home life. I am going to start with the basic questions of ;

1. What do you feed?

2. Do you measure how much you are feeding?

3. How many treats do you give?

4. What kind of treats do you give?

5. How much exercise does your dog get. (OK, pet peeve here is that putting your dog outside in your fenced in yard is not exercise. I almost guarantee that a fat dog is not exercising. Certainly not exercising enough. I want the exercise period to be interactive. I want you and your dog to be outside playing. Either you throwing the ball, or going for walks, or runs, or swims, etc). I want you to be able to tell me how long you are playing and at what intensity.

6. Who else lives in the household? Or who else is responsible for any of the pets care? Here's the concern here. I have many clients who have fat dogs because their kids are spilling their food, and/or offering lots of their own food to the begging, glued to their kids side or high chair, dogs. How do you tell a four year old to stop feeding the dog their vegetables? The other doomed weight loss scenario is the elderly retired and now living at home with their adult children grandparents with Alzheimer's. These poor owners are measuring their dogs food, exercising them, and have told their parents that they cannot feed the dog anymore! How do you tell your elderly parents who are home all day with the begging dog not to feed them? Or worse yet, these parents don't even remember they were told not to feed, or forgot that they did feed. That one is a toughy.


For these owners with the difficult challenges at home monitoring and mandating the feeding I do the following; I recommend that they put the daily food allowance in a Tupperware container on the counter and then lock up the rest of the food. Once the container is empty that's all the dog gets.

For the families with small kids, you have to put the dog in a separate area at feeding times.

I love the use of a calendar to help manage the pets flea & tick, heart worm preventative and even feeding and exercise schedules. Have everyone participate in keeping a calendar of your duties. When you give your monthly dose it gets crossed off of the calendar. When you go for your morning walk it gets crossed off the calendar. At the end of the month see how you did, and see what your weight looks like. All of this information is really helpful in helping us adjust the diet for your pets weight loss plan.


After I went through all of this with Dazzle's mom I learned the following :
Dazzle has always been fat. She lives with another Dachshund who is skinny. The skinny dachshund never finishes her food, so Dazzle does this for her.
OK, Dazzle is eating too much, and Skinny sister is being offered too much. Lucky for Skinny sister that she can self regulate her feeding, (we should all be so lucky) but clearly Dazzle cannot. When Skinny sister leaves her bowl the rest is tossed. DON'T leave it out for Dazzle, because of course she is going to eat it.

Dazzle is a couch potato. Skinny sister is a very active dog. (Not too hard to figure that that's why Skinny is skinny and Dazzle is not). Dazzle needs to be more active.

Dachshunds are a breed that tends to have weight issues. And of all the breeds of dogs these are  one of the breeds of dogs that need to be kept thin, (that and brachycephalics (smooshy-nosed dogs). Dachshunds are also very susceptible to intervertebral disc disease and this is seen more commonly in the overweight Dachschunds than the physically fit Dachshunds.

Dazzles starting weight is 26 pounds . My target weight for her is 22 pounds.

I always try to give a target weight but I always also give a time frame for target weight and a request that we check it monthly together and adjust as we go. I don't want a dog to be going on a crash starvation diet because this is not safe, healthy, or effective long term. I want the dog and owners

The quick fixes in life rarely last. My goal is to restore long term health and happiness.

The hope is also that if there is any underlying medical condition we can discover it earlier vs later. Maybe at the first re-check. I have been shocked to find some very under active thyroids in many of these overweight dogs. Don't overlook the medical conditions!

The amount you feed will likely vary with the season and the activity level.

Keep an eye on the scale and start to also keep an eye on your pups waist line. Ask your vet care professional to start training your eye to recognize body condition score.

In reality I don't care what the number on the scale is. I care what your dog looks like. There should be a taper at the waist when looking from above and a tuck in the abdomen when looking from the side. I am also using my hands to feel the weight and muscle mass of dogs, especially those dogs with heavy dense furry coats. And to my own Beagles defense he may not have a tucked narrow waist (he is built kind of blocky). But that boy has some massive quadriceps, and he can, and does, run like the wind. He is solid muscle! and there isn't an ounce of fat, even though he is short and stocky, on him. (But he is still soo cute!)

OK, let me know what questions you have about weight loss, obesity, etc. It's springtime, time to get ready for our bikini's, and get out there and exercise!

Update: 2013 Dazzle's reflection in the scale teetered a few pounds up and down for about five months. Our best attempts to help her elderly dad exercise with her daily were foiled by his own health challenges. I believe that he saw her greatest happiness on the other end of a biscuit, and in the end that tail wag from the short term bliss of a snack meant a bigger "I love you" than a walk and a boring bland diet that neither one of them really wanted to participate in.

For many of us it is very difficult to convince you of the long term gains when you are living exclusively in the moment.