Hello all, first time poster here. Hoping you can help our little guy Frank lose some pounds. He is at about 22-23 lbs and should be closer to 15-16. My wife and I are struggling trying to get him to lose weight, and are hoping some wisdom from these forums can help.
A little background: Frank is about 3 years old, non-mix, supposed to be a "tweener" between mini and standard.
He was diagnosed last year (after $4,000 of vet visits and specialist consultation) with sterile canine panniculitis, a deadly potentially systemic auto-immune disease. More at this link on that: Sterile Nodular Panniculitis in Dogs and Cats
Because of this, he has been on prednisone for over a year. For his quality of life, the prednisone has basically saved his life. He is happy and energetic (and unfortunately very very hungry). We tried tapering over a period of a few months to nothing at the beginning of this year, and it came back, and we had to put him on it. He's at about 5mg a day and stable now. One pill in the morning. We are thinking of trying tapering again but are scared that we will start losing him again. Our specialist vet (who is awesome and extremely well-regarded in our area) has recommended that we try to taper him very, very slowly and that low-dose steroids while not good to use long-term, in very small doses, perhaps 1/4-1/2 what we're administering now, could not be too harmful if it keeps his disease at bay.
Unfortunately throughout his treatment he has gained probably 7-8 lbs, which is a LOT for a little dog like him. We totally get that. We love Frank dearly and want him to be around (forever really of course) but understand at this point it's just about maximizing his life. He eats only a half cup of limited ingredient food twice a day, and that's rounding up. We feed him very little. Little to no treats, just NylaBones to keep him occupied when he's dormant. No human scraps. We try to exercise him but he loves being indoors and can be reluctant. We bring him out for short walks every day (around our apt. complex) and longer walks on the weekend (at parks).
Does anyone else on this forum have experience with getting dogs to lose weight on prednisone? We feel like we're doing everything we can, but obviously it's not enough and I'd love any ideas or perspective on what we can do for Frank to help him lose weight.
A little background: Frank is about 3 years old, non-mix, supposed to be a "tweener" between mini and standard.
He was diagnosed last year (after $4,000 of vet visits and specialist consultation) with sterile canine panniculitis, a deadly potentially systemic auto-immune disease. More at this link on that: Sterile Nodular Panniculitis in Dogs and Cats
Because of this, he has been on prednisone for over a year. For his quality of life, the prednisone has basically saved his life. He is happy and energetic (and unfortunately very very hungry). We tried tapering over a period of a few months to nothing at the beginning of this year, and it came back, and we had to put him on it. He's at about 5mg a day and stable now. One pill in the morning. We are thinking of trying tapering again but are scared that we will start losing him again. Our specialist vet (who is awesome and extremely well-regarded in our area) has recommended that we try to taper him very, very slowly and that low-dose steroids while not good to use long-term, in very small doses, perhaps 1/4-1/2 what we're administering now, could not be too harmful if it keeps his disease at bay.
Unfortunately throughout his treatment he has gained probably 7-8 lbs, which is a LOT for a little dog like him. We totally get that. We love Frank dearly and want him to be around (forever really of course) but understand at this point it's just about maximizing his life. He eats only a half cup of limited ingredient food twice a day, and that's rounding up. We feed him very little. Little to no treats, just NylaBones to keep him occupied when he's dormant. No human scraps. We try to exercise him but he loves being indoors and can be reluctant. We bring him out for short walks every day (around our apt. complex) and longer walks on the weekend (at parks).
Does anyone else on this forum have experience with getting dogs to lose weight on prednisone? We feel like we're doing everything we can, but obviously it's not enough and I'd love any ideas or perspective on what we can do for Frank to help him lose weight.