Sasha's Progress: Conclusion

I can officially say that Sasha is no longer a fatass!  Well, she's been a non-fatass for a while but I haven't written about it yet. I haven't posted about Sasha's progress since last September and I figured now was a good time for an update.

Anywho...

When I began to get Sasha to lose weight she weighed 70 pounds. She was a log, and at that time it was very easy to tell her and Juneau apart. The fat dog was Sasha, the skinny dog Juneau.
20 pounds overweight for a 50 pound dog is like, what, 60 pounds for an average human?  Not good.

Fatass

Mom hadn't done anything about it despite a very powerful and intimidating speech from the vet.

Then I moved back in. After switching the Girls off Pedig-crap to Taste of the Wild I did some serious portion control for the both of them.
In the past, the Girls' have both gotten a "cupful" of kibble. This cup is a huge blue drinking cup that holds 3 standard dry measured cups of kibble. Three cups! The fact that Juneau hardly ever finished her food should have been a clue that three cups was too much for her, but Sasha's "clues" were very obvious. Fat dog = too much food. Period. Even if she acted "starving" which is a common dog trait, she was not and was getting twice the amount (and more at times) she should have been getting. And on top of that she would eat Juneau's leftovers.

Pedigree says that a 25-50 pound dog should get 2 1/2 - 3 cups a day.
Taste of the Wild also says to feed a large amount, 2 1/3 - 3 cups for a 40-60 pound dog.
So they were getting the "correct" amount according to the bags. What's not stated is the age, activity level, or intact/altered status of your dog. All three effect how much a dog should eat.  Older dogs need less, inactive dogs need less, and altered dogs need less. That significantly reduced the amount of required food these dogs needed.

Anyways, once the Girls were on Taste of the Wild I began to cut back on both of their food intake. This began around May.
Juneau got as much as she would eat (came out to about 2 - 2 1/2 cups) and Sasha got 1 1/2 cups. Sasha was not allowed more than three snacks each day but was given eggs and raw food a couple times a week.
I also upped Sasha's exercise and took her on short walks at first since anything longer got her winded, then gradually lengthened them until she could go a mile without problems.

Still fat

It took until June to notice any difference in weight. Sasha dropped 5 pounds.  Not too much but you have to be patient with this sort of thing.
In July I began to address Sasha's teeth as well. Clean teeth are good for any animal, including dogs, and keeping them clean is one step in the right direction towards good health.

Sasha's teeth were nasty. Her breath was bad, and she had a lot of gross buildup on her canines, carnassials, and several pre molars and molars.  Until I moved back in the Girls were rarely given chews. A soup bone every few months or so was about it.  Now they got something to chew on once a week.

Nasty teeth

In addition to the weekly beef ribs and turkey backs, I added a bit of PlaqueOff to the Girl's food. The combination began to etch away the buildup on Sasha's and Juneau's teeth.

August rolled around and Sasha had dropped 15 pounds! Her teeth were looking better by the week.  I kept up what I'd been doing and just waited for her to lose a few more pounds and a bit more plaque before I'd call it quits.

The Girls enjoying some raw food

In September I'd reached my goal of getting Sasha down to 50 pounds. She was no longer tired after a short walk and could keep up with and occasionally catch Juneau (but not when she was in Greyhound mode) and seemed to be a lot happier now that she could actually play with her sister.

Better looking teeth

Her teeth were looking a lot better too. The PlaqueOff and weekly bones had scrubbed most of the nasty off, but the large bits on her canines remained.  I later took care of that myself with a tooth scraper thing.

On top of that, Sasha passed the Canine Good Citizen test.

In December, Sasha broke her upper left carnassial on something. I still don't know what did it. I doubt it was a bone since they had not been given any, or hard chews, for two weeks prior.  (Both Sasha and Juneau chew on sticks, and our backyard is largely comprised of rocks. It's easy to get a rock into the mouth while chewing on anything. I think a rock is what did it.)

Chipped

The chip looked as if it had just flaked off. This sort of break is common and normally doesn't need much done, other than watching it to be sure it doesn't break any further. While it has yet to be seen by the vet, I do not think it is as bad as Juneau's busted tooth that needed to be extracted.


It's been several months since the end of Sasha's diet plan. She is taken on hikes and walks, and sometimes to the dog park. She is still at a steady 50 pounds and gets from 1 2/3 - 2 cups of kibble a day.  Sasha can walk/hike several miles and I am working on building up her endurance with a pack.

I often don't talk about it with other dog owners in person, but I feel very strongly about overweight pets. They cannot control the amount of food they get (unless you have a thief, counter surfer or otherwise intelligent dog who can open anything) and you may not want to hear it, but it's your fault your dog is fat. Sometimes it can be attributed to a medical problem like hypothyroidism, but more often than not, you're just feeding them too much food and/or giving them too many treats or scraps.
The type of food you feed can also have a profound impact on their health.  The first thing you noticed when you walked into the house when the Girl's ate Pedigree was "dog".  It was very hard to cover up.  The house still smells a bit doggish but it doesn't smack you in the face like it did before.
Once switched off Pedigree, the Girl's coats lost their horrid grease, grew in lush and soft, and most of that generic dog smell vanished.  And those are only the cosmetic differences.

Sasha now

I hope to keep Sasha at a healthy weight for the rest of her life, even after I move out. It's better for the dog, and your wallet, in the long run to feed them healthy food, care for their teeth, and provide adequate exercise and mental stimulation.