New Foster Corgi - overweight and looking for advice

Hello everyone

So this evening we brought home a 7 year old female spayed corgi from the shelter to foster as she was stressed out in the shelter and not doing to great. Obviously I cant say alot about her personality since she only arrived a few hours ago but we all went outside and sat in the park and I gave her a brush which got about a gargabe bag of fur out! :( Anyways Astrid is obese, we havent weighed her but she is probably about 40 pounds (possibly a bit more) She struggles to walk but did great tonight and had us all giggling with her running attempts. Needless to say we will be putting her on a diet but I was curious what we should be feeding. The shelter was of no help and really didnt eve consider her over weight but also didnt know much about her breed as it is not a popular breed in Quebec. She seems to be fairly food obsessed as the only way I could get her around the apartment tonight was with a carrot :) Her hips do not seem too great and we will most likely have her checked out at a vet but it will be at our cost so may take a week or two... I was considering waiting to see if loosing weight would help. Any advice on feeding would be great!

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Permalink Reply by David Whitehouse on April 1, 2011 at 3:48pm

I rescued an overweight corgi about 2 months ago. He weighed about 36lbs when we got him. I would also advocate the "green bean diet". Twice a day, I feed him 1/3 cup of kibble (Blue Buffalo Longevity) and 1/3 cup of frozen green beans. I also put in a tablespoon of canned pumpkin (no sugar added). He loves it. He has already lost 2 lbs and is much more active. You have to be patient. It could take months before you can get him down to a better weight, but you have to start someplace. Also, for treats, he only gets baby carrots.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah K on April 1, 2011 at 5:56pm

We adopted Snoopy at age 6. He too has a bit of a weight problem & is hugely food obsessed. He's on 1/2 c. food in the morning & 1/2 c at night...he's down to 40 from 48 with quite a ways to go :) Exersize & thyroid treatement(if neccessary) helps a lot. His treats are frozen green beans & sometimes if he acts like he's truly starving to death...he'll get a 1/2 cup of them (which he loves).

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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on April 1, 2011 at 11:06pm

You sure are a great foster mom! If you can, have a thyroid check done by the Vet, that would show if the dog has just been overfed and under-exercised, or if it has low thyroid function, which makes the dogs gain weight even on very little food and can affect everything in the body. Maybe the Vet, under the circumstances, may agree to just charge to have the blood drawn and for the test, without a visit... worth asking The condition is very common. If it's low thyroid, the good news is that it's easy and fairly inexpensive to deal with. The medication, in conjunction with diet and exercise, will do wonders for how the dog feels and looks. Bless you!

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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on April 2, 2011 at 7:30pm

http://www.mycorgi.com/forum/topics/best-ball-for-a-corgi

Just remember to start her out very, very gently -- she's overweight and her skeleton is not used to much exercise. But if she enjoys pushing the ball around the yard, that'll get her started playfully.

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Permalink Reply by Emily Trupiano on April 4, 2011 at 8:27pm

I adopted a 43.2 pound corgi a month ago, he is now about 36 pounds. We feed him 1/2 cup in the morning and a tad less than 1/2 cup in the evening. He'll get like, one or two small low-fat treats a day. We try to take him for a 15-30 minute walk everyday. And yes, it helps to feed a good quality food that doesn't have by-products listed in its top 5 ingredients.