Desperately trying to get my dog to lose weight

[sgs]

I have an 8 year old Pomski that is 55lbs, I am desperately trying to bring his weight down to be around 40lbs. I have a log listed at the end of this post with his tracked weight since 2021.

I have been calorie counting for the past two years, feeding him about 550 cal per day, including treats. I know exercise is important, only me and my dad are able to walk him and my dad has a bad knee so he cant walk too far. He gets a few short walks a day, up to about a mile total and now that winter has passed, we will be able to walk him a bit more. He used to play a lot inside with his toys but lately he wont get up because of his weight.

I was feeding him Nurti Source Senior dog food, Ziwi Air dried food, Ultra Oil for his skin/coat, and Super Snouts hip and joint cbd supplement.
(For 1 feeding twice a day. 1/3 cup Nutri Source, 1/4 cup Ziwi, 1 pump Ultra Oil, 1/2 tablet of hip and joint supplement)
Now I am easing him off his current foods and am slowly transition him to Farmina N&D weight management and I plan on making that his only food with added oil and supplements.

I’ve noticed the past week or two that his breathing has been getting a bit difficult and I suspect that it is because of his weight. I’ve worked with his vet and his bloodwork and thyroid levels are normal. I don’t know what to do anymore and need more advice.

A part of me suspected that it could be the Super Snouts because I started him on that two years ago due to him having arthritis and I feel like that helped but now that I am thinking back on it, he’s been having a slow increase in weight since I started him on it. I have tried two other hip and joint supplements that had glucosamine in it but he threw up because of them so I stopped trying other brands and stuck with the Super Snout.
Or his metabolism changed as he has gotten older, that could have affected it too.

His weight log. He has always been around 40-42 lbs until 2022
02/03/21 41 lbs
12/21/21 45.5 lbs
12/01/22 48.7 lbs
01/02/23 48.4 lbs
02/04/23 48.2 lbs
06/29/23 46.5 lbs
08/12/23 49.5 lbs
12/17/23 46.6 lbs (at the Animal Hospital)
12/30/24 51.6 lbs
01/13/24 51.6 lbs
03/13/24 55.8 lbs

 

[davey_0373]

@sgs It sounds like you need to cut back more on his calories. From Pet Nutrition Alliance's calculator, that goal weight of 40 lbs puts him at a BCS of 9 with a calorie intake of 486 for weight loss. You shouldn't reduce calories by more than 20% at a time, but if he's consistently been gaining weight at this caloric intake he needs less. Exercise is important but if he's already struggling to be active, it's going to take time to get there.

Has your vet suggested anything else? Did they say to reduce his food or try a weight loss food? If a diet/weight management food doesn't help then the next thing would be to get imaging done to see if there's anything else that could be contributing to the weight, but if his caloric intake hasn't been reduced at all over the period when he's been gaining weight then you have to start there.

 

[sgs]

@davey_0373 I’ll definitely try reducing it by 10% for now and work to around 490. My vet has told me to reduce it by 10% for now but I was worried I would be starving my dog, also the vet hasn’t recommended any imaging, maybe an allergy testing but my dog is not having and reactions that would suggest he’s allergic or sensitive to any ingredients so I don’t want to invest in that.

 

[davey_0373]

@sgs Allergy testing isn't scientifically validated for dogs and cats anyway. The only current valid way to test for allergies is through elimination diets, which usually involves putting the pet on a limited ingredient/novel protein diet or a hydrolyzed protein diet for ~6-8 weeks and then either sticking with it or trying to reintroduce potential allergens if symptoms improved during elimination.

Imaging isn't really necessary unless a diet/exercise plan isn't working, in most cases weight gain in dogs/cats is an issue of being overfed - it's just not ALWAYS the reason, and if diet changes aren't creating change then imaging would be a good step eventually. You definitely don't want to starve your dog into weight loss, which is why you only want to make gradual reductions, but you have to reduce calories if this amount is making him gain weight. Safe rate of weight loss is 0.5-2% of body weight per week, but ideally more in the sweet spot of 1-1.5% so you don't risk pushing it over the limit. Starting with a 10% reduction would be good, and if there's no change in a week I would reduce again. If there's no change after that, then you need to go back to the vet. Weight loss should be very slow to be safe, but you should see some results from a calorie reduction unless something underlying is influencing his weight.

I'd ask your vet if think a metabolic weight management food would be helpful. If you've had to cut calories and don't see any change, that would probably be the most immediate next thing to try, followed by getting imaging done.

 

[sgs]

@davey_0373 Thank you so much, this was very informative.
My dog was on prescription weight management food for a good 4 years but it got too expensive after Covid and plus I felt like I was forcing him to eat because he became uninterested in eating the same food every day.

I’ll definitely start with the slow reduction and see what happens after a couple months

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@sgs I’m not a vet but I work at an animal shelter. I see animals have great success losing weight on R/D hills prescription diet. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pricy, but if you feed it consistently and eliminate treats for a month or so it works really REALLY well. Even for dogs that can’t get a lot of exercise.

Otherwise, do the supplements add extra calories? If he’s not losing weight the math must be wrong. If you adjust again and still don’t see any results then you may need blood work to rule out hypothyroidism or another condition. Good luck! Thank you for caring and trying to get those extra pounds off him.

 

[sgs]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Thank you so much for the advice! He was on the prescription weight management, but it got very expensive after Covid. At this point I might consider it again but he was on it for 4 years and I felt like I was forcing him to eat because he became every uninterested in eating the same food every day.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@sgs Most of the dogs I see only need to be on it for a few months, maybe the formula has changed since then?

 

[kelving]

@sgs Here's how I helped my dog lose weight.

The amount of calories needed to keep at the same weight goes down when weight goes down and goes up when weight goes up. It takes more calories per day to stay at 50 lbs than it does to stay at 40 lb.

First I figured out how many calories my dog needed per day to sustain his *ideal* weight. I included an honest assessment of how much exercise he gets. I added up the calories in everything he ate during the day: kibble, wet food, treats, etc. I adjusted those amounts to bring the total in line with what he needed for his ideal weight. He naturally lost weight because he wasn't eating enough calories to keep the higher weight.

My dog only had to lose a couple of pounds. If your dog needs to lose quite a bit, pick a weight that's maybe in the middle as the first target. You don't want your dog to lose weight too fast.

Note that this method does not require that my dog eat a special diet food. He can eat whatever kind of food he likes.

 

[sgs]

@kelving Thank you so much! I will definitely reduce the calories and see what happens in a few months, I thought I calorie counted correctly originally but I definitely need to look at the calculations again