Is your Corgi Overweight??? Take a second look!!! UPDATE!!! 9/14/2009
Let me first start by saying... our Soffie is a tall girl and quite a bit larger boned than our Griffyn and weighs in at 38lbs. 3 weeks ago Soffie pulled up lame on her hind left leg. This following a full tilt run across the front yard. Hard to know exactly how the injury actually occured but.... the end result was a torn cruciate ligament. We had an appointment this past monday with an orthopedic surgeon (believe me we had already done so much research on this injury!! Pros / cons to surgery. Pros / cons to controlled maintenance) And here is a direct quote from the surgeon report and the very first thing listed on the Surgeons recommendations for Soffie's recovery.
"Soffie presented to the FVRC for evaluation of a left hind limb lameness. Her general physical exam was unremarkable, except she is moderately overweight. The orthopedic exam showed effusion (increased joint fluid) in both knees, but only the left knee was painful. There was no instability elicited. We suspect that Soffie has a partial tear of the left cranial cruciate ligament. Although surgery is an option, it is reasonable to give her time to see if the lameness progresses.
Recommendations:
1. Weight loss is the most important aspect of treatment. You should be able to easily feel the ribs when you pet her and she should have a visible waist when viewed from above. Begin by decreasing her food intake by 20%. If you would like to offer treats, please use rice cakes, carrots, or take kibble from the measured meal. She should be weighed in 2 weeks to assess progress. If she is not losing weight, then decrease intake by an additional 10%" (end of quote from surgeon)
Soffie's prognosis is the same with or without surgery. Arthritis!!! And she is only 3years 7 mos!!! And there are signs she will have problems with her right hind leg too! And her weight is the largest contributing factor!!
We're dealing with what we have to do now. And that is keeping her totally restricted. We have a pen in the house to keep her in a small confined area. At night she sleeps in her crate. (I miss her in bed with me!) We bought a ramp because she cannot do even 2 stairs out to the back yard! No walks! Out on a leash only for potty breaks! No jumping, no running, no sudden movements. No swimming ( until after her recheck in 4 weeks) imagine how hard that is going to be for my little swimmer when we're on vacation next week at the lake in Maine.
Anyway.... bottom line. Would we have been more diligent about her weight had we understood the consequences??? The answer is an emphatic YES!
We really didn't think Soffie was overweight because of her height! We were wrong! And I hope any and all of you out there that read this post will take heed and do what is right for your beloved corgis!!
"Soffie presented to the FVRC for evaluation of a left hind limb lameness. Her general physical exam was unremarkable, except she is moderately overweight. The orthopedic exam showed effusion (increased joint fluid) in both knees, but only the left knee was painful. There was no instability elicited. We suspect that Soffie has a partial tear of the left cranial cruciate ligament. Although surgery is an option, it is reasonable to give her time to see if the lameness progresses.
Recommendations:
1. Weight loss is the most important aspect of treatment. You should be able to easily feel the ribs when you pet her and she should have a visible waist when viewed from above. Begin by decreasing her food intake by 20%. If you would like to offer treats, please use rice cakes, carrots, or take kibble from the measured meal. She should be weighed in 2 weeks to assess progress. If she is not losing weight, then decrease intake by an additional 10%" (end of quote from surgeon)
Soffie's prognosis is the same with or without surgery. Arthritis!!! And she is only 3years 7 mos!!! And there are signs she will have problems with her right hind leg too! And her weight is the largest contributing factor!!
We're dealing with what we have to do now. And that is keeping her totally restricted. We have a pen in the house to keep her in a small confined area. At night she sleeps in her crate. (I miss her in bed with me!) We bought a ramp because she cannot do even 2 stairs out to the back yard! No walks! Out on a leash only for potty breaks! No jumping, no running, no sudden movements. No swimming ( until after her recheck in 4 weeks) imagine how hard that is going to be for my little swimmer when we're on vacation next week at the lake in Maine.
Anyway.... bottom line. Would we have been more diligent about her weight had we understood the consequences??? The answer is an emphatic YES!
We really didn't think Soffie was overweight because of her height! We were wrong! And I hope any and all of you out there that read this post will take heed and do what is right for your beloved corgis!!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Garrett, Katie, & Conan on
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She looks adorable in these pictures, though I'm sure she looks much healthier now. I'd like to see them too!
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Permalink Reply by Boo Buchheit on
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Poor girl. This does not look good at all.
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Permalink Reply by Cindi on
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I'll have to take one and post it. You won't believe the difference. I'll get Patti to take a good one with her fancy camera this evening after work. And now she's at 24lbs. and a total DIVA.
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I'm sorry Cindi..did not realize she had already lost weight. Good for you for helping her.
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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanton on
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I'm sorry about Soffie's injury. I know we blame ourselves for anything that goes wrong. But "right weight" is tricky. I have two Pembrokes, who are actually uncle and niece. Bertie is 5 and Ethel is about 20 months (and not growing any more). Bertie's frame is a good 50% larger that Ethel's, he's my "hefty cinch sak." I can clearly see his waist and I can easily feel his ribs under a slim layer of muscle (he also has a huge, thick coat that makes him look fatter, too). He weighs in at 38 pounds. Ethel also has a neat little waist and ribs, etc., and she weighs in at 25 pounds. Bertie has had some weight issues, but I do feel like 38 is good for him. He towers over other Corgis we meet, too. I worry about his joints, too, given how harmful extra weight is, but neither my vets nor I think he's really overweight at this point. Here's what they look like:
Bertie
Ethel
All 3 of us -- the only one with weight problems is... ME (thank you, middle age!)
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Both of your Corgis look good. Your tri is a big Corgi..very pretty and does not look fat, does weigh a lot though for a pem.
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I know! He's huge! His littermates were all fairly big too. He towers over other Pems we meet, but is still smaller than the few Cardis in the area. I also saw on another thread that early neutering can affect growth (and cause them to be larger, at least I think that's what I read....memory failing), and he was neutered right at 4 months. But he's healthy and active and there's just more to love, I say. And so many good nicknames -- Bob's Big Boy, Hefty Cinch Sak, etc. ;-) But keeping his weight under control has been hard, and figuring out what is an "ideal" weight has been guesswork too, mostly based on waist appearance and feeling for ribs.
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Permalink Reply by Judi, Dawn, Soffie & Griffyn on
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Thanks Susan! Today Soffie is having a good day. It's been 2 weeks and 3 days since she injured herself. It seems like it's been longer than that. And we're almost 1 week into her 4 week recovery period.
Both Dawn and I think that our vet was a bit casual about Soffie's weight. Don't misunderstand me.... WE are absolutely the ones responsible for keeping her weight in check. But unfortunately we fooled ourselves into thinking that because Soffie's stature was a little on the big side the extra weight was because of that. Also, please don't think I'm trying to say that every larger dog is overweight, or that every overweight dog is going to suffer this injury. We just want to encourage everyone who reads our post to really look at their sweet babies with a critical eye. And if they think it's necessary then to take the steps needed to help them lose a few pounds. For Soffie, the surgeon recommended just 4lbs!
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Permalink Reply by Deanna on
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Oh, goodness, I really hate to say this, but here it goes -- "If your dog is over weight, you're not getting enough exercise." That quote really hit me hard when I noticed my beautiful Ladygirl having a hard time breathing while sleeping, and walks were miserable for her. Where she used to chase after rabbits as a part of her fun and exercise, she would quickly tire and give up. My heart hurt as I just thought she was getting older and accepted it as a fact of life for her. However, she was not quite 10 years old at the time, and I just couldn't believe she was that decrepit so soon. The problem is, we see our beloved furbabies every day and don't notice the "gradual" changes. Then I did some research on diet foods for dogs. The best thing I did was spend an extra $5 to $10 (averaged throughout the year) a week at the grocery store on raw sweet potatoes. Every Sunday night I boiled, peeled, and mashed them all, stored them in the refrigerator for her feedings through the week, cut down on her kibbles and snacks, and let her eat all the time! -- the sweet potatoes that is. I only fed her a smidgen of kibbles mixed with her sweet potatoes morning and evening, and her snacks consisted of nothing but a large dobble of potatoes. I noticed after only a couple of weeks her energy level had increased and her breathing more relaxed at night. She lost 12 pounds in a year!
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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This does sneak up on us...I have my spayed female and she gets tons of exercise and keeps up with all but she is wide in the middle so I have started giving her less too...I like the sweet potatoe idea and my dogs love steamed broccoli also so I think I will need to be doing more of this as I just looked at Wynn last night and I can feel his ribs but I bet if I weighed him he would be up a pound or 2...he has been cleaning up food leftover from the others when I'm not looking...brat! I will probably have to buy the canned till I get somne tome...do you think that they can be frozen in ice cube trays??? I've done this with other mixtures...
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Hi, Jane, I don't see why they couldn't be frozen in ice cube trays. One of the grocery stores in town here sells frozen sweet potato cakes that look like little frozen Pillsbury cookies ready to be put in the oven, so I'm sure you can do yours with ice cube trays! Great idea! Can I copy that?
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