MIranda has gained 10 lbs. in one year!!!
My sweet Cardigan Miranda has had problems with her weight this year. We switched foods several times, we have tried diet foods, grain free foods. She has not seem to loose weight. With the low fat food she seemed to break out in a full body rash, so now we are on grain free fish based food. Wellness Core and she loves it.
She gets 1/3 of a cup 2X a day with a handful of cut up carrots. We have increased her exercize level, but that has not helped either.
So now we have gone to the Vet and we had blood tests done yesterday to check her thyroid. Part of me hopes it is the problem. Then it is a simple matter of giving her a pill twice a day. If it is not her thyroid, I am running out of ideas what is wrong with her.
If I exercise her too much she limps on her back leg. She pants when she walks around and she is alwas tired. The vet said that her skin condition mght have been a side effect of the thyroid condition. So now we are playing the waiting game.
Wish us luck, I just want her to be happy and healthy!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alice on
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She'll get there. You're on the right track. Any idea when you are supposed to get her bloodwork back?
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Permalink Reply by Derek on
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I found out an hour ago. The vet said her thyroid is fine, so we are just going to have to try something else. We have cut out the olive oil, we are going to do 2 walks a day min. and we are going to look into the cottage cheese diet someone suggested. The vet she wants to do a perscribed diet, but I am going to see if we can make any head way on our own before we go that route. Just 2 months, to see if we can exercise it out of her.
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I'm with you on not buying into the prescription diets. They tried to get us to put Finn on one when he had diarrhea for over a month but when we switched to an unusual protein food he was fine. That's how I found Natural Balance and when I was looking into low cal, low fat foods I found that the Sweet Potato & Venison formula was very low and Solid Gold Wolfking is lower still. We want to rotate his food every several months to avoid allergy development so we are using two Natural Balance foods and for the 3rd we're going to try Wolfking.
I think if you cut back to 1/3 cup twice a day and even replace part of the kibble with veggies and limit treats as you've been doing, you will see improvement. You can cut back the kibble even more and as Joanna said you can even fast a day here and there, but if you do, I would start her on a daily vitamin just to ensure that she still gets the proper nutrition.
On your walks, try to keep to a fast paced walk (in the beginning, use your best judgment as you don't want to overdue it if she get's winded very easily) rather than a slow, meandering walk. You could even try a treadmill or swimming. Swimming is easiest on the joints and we should do it with Finn since he limps after heavy activity due to his hips. He does well with a fast paced 15-20 minute walk a couple times a day though.
Let us know how it goes. I'm glad she is otherwise healthy. :) -
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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If it's not her thyroid, check for hidden calories too. Is she getting into cat food or cat poop somewhere? Could someone be giving her treats you don't know about?
When Jack got pudgy, unbeknownst to me there was someone he saw every morning who was giving him a couple of medium-sized milk bone dog biscuits every morning when my husband had him out. Those things are like 40 calories each; for a dog getting about 300 calories a day, that is a LOT of extra calories.
And yes, the olive oil does have tons of calories too. Most decent kibbles already add oils now, so there is probably no need to add extra to her ration.
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ya the olive oil is gone so that will help. and she only gets treats from us and thats not much. low calorie treats, only 3 a day max and she has to be very good, she is acting like she is in prison. they are begin for everything. she is on caloric lock down
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Permalink Reply by Michelle on
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This has always worked for us. We generally only do this diet for a week or week and a half at the time. Our doggies LOVE the Cottage Cheese and will beg for it--they are not being deprived
We feed once daily at night so what ever your normal feed schedule is substitute green beans and cottage cheese for their normal kibble or can food. I normally give my female (she is closer in size to Peanut) about a half a can of green beans and about a quarter of a cup of cottage cheese (we use low fat). If Peanut acts like she is feeling deprived give her a few more green beans they are practically calorie free. Your dog will love it if your corgi is anything like ours. We even continue to give them a couple of "cookies" (medium size milk bones) as that has become a part of our fun time. We walk them just a little extra - maybe an extra 10 minutes a day and you will be surprised at how quickly you start seeing that waistline again. We normally are able to go back to our normal slightly downsized diet within 7 days. Sometimes we have to do this once a year or so with our male. Our female is a Skinny Minnie but begs for the cottage cheese when she smells it....so cottage cheese for all!!!! Good luck!
I should have clarified that we do not give kibble when we are doing our green been cottage cheese regm.
Hi, just got online. Green beans 7 to 8 ounces and about 4 ounces of cottage cheese. Hope it goes well. Happy New Year. We are going to have to put JR on the green bean Cottage cheese diet he overdid a little during the holidays!
I posted the above diet plan over a year ago. This is a practice that has been suggested by our breeder which has numerous national and international championship titles and is an accredited herding group judge. I sway that so you know that we didn't just pluck it out of thin air.......We have a very large male cardi, most people look at him and comment on his size....he has a very broad chest, large head etc. As long as you can see a waistline.....feel ribs but not necesarily see his rib cage he is within an acceptable weigh range. Just remember our males might just be larger than your "normal" cardi. Weight control helps ALOT with the joint issues. We also give our two glucosamine/chondrointion suppliment which I personally believe helps with bone and joint issues.
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Do you think the same diet would work with either of these veggies: Carrots, Sweet potato, Squash, apples. Miranda will not eat green beans, she went a day and a half with out touching her food because I dared to put green beans in with her kibble. If you think it will work I will try it with her starting next week.
Thanks
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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Derek, mine love broccoli you could also try that.
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I saw some post about carrots. try looking at old post in the fat corig group....there were some interesting alternative to green beans there.
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Permalink Reply by Kitty Kirwin on
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Good Luck. Poor baby I am sure your vet will find out why she is a big girl. Gwenie a bit chubby we have her on a diet & we walk her twice a day. She also gets loads of play. Gwenie loves her carrots, celery and apples. She also loves to help me with my Pilates! Good luck I am sure it will all work out for the best.
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Permalink Reply by Tamara Aylor on
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Hi!
There are some great tips I have been reading. I have just come to the ugly realization that my corgi, Henry, is overweight. I think I was ignoring it because it is my fault. He is 35 pounds and I need to get him to an acceptable weight. How much should I be feeding him and is there a really good food out there? I would love some recommendations because I am very sad and don't want to shorten his little life. Thanks everyone!!
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Hi Tamara!
There are several old discussions on food ,how much,exercise and amounts if you look back under past discussions you might be able to find some. I would recommend to NOT use "lite" food but cut down the amount of a good food and increase his exercise! I have a spayed female that I feed 3 x's a day with the rest of my dogs but instead of a 1/2 cup I feed her a 1/3 cup.
Jane
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