Weight gain in senior doxie


Jewell

New Member
Hi all! I'm new to this forum and I hope I'm posting in the correct location.

A year ago, we adopted a 10 yr old mini dachshund when his owner had to enter a nursing home. At the time, he weighed 11 lbs and was a bit underweight. He was being fed 1cup per day of Science Diet lite kibble, which gave him soft stools and HORRIBLE gas. Also, he was constantly eating his own feces. So, we switched him to Blue Buffalo and reduced him to 3/4 cup per day. He stopped engaging in coprophagia, his gas went away, and he started gaining weight, although a little too fast, so we reduced it further to 1/2 cup per day. He still kept gaining. So, we decided he needed to be on a lower calorie diet and switched him to Diamond lite lamb and rice kibble, giving him 1/4 cup in the morning and 1/4 cup in the evening. He is still gaining weight!! What the heck??

We had his thyroid checked, which came back normal. We are at a loss. We don't want him to gain anymore weight, as he is already at 16 lbs. Plus, we found out after we adopted him that he had been paralyzed for a couple of months when he was younger because of his weight.

We have reduced his food to 3/8 cup total per day but the poor thing seems like he's starving. What can we do?


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Nell

Member
Hi and welcome from the UK!

A mini should be under 11lb but you said he was underweight, are you sure he is a mini?

To be honest I am not a fan of dried food / kibble, it just doesn't seem natural and I worry about the long term effects on their health especially their kidneys. I now feed a raw diet and I have found that it is much easier to keep their weight down, they are not so hungry all the time and there is the added bonus of less dog waste lol!

If you would rather stick with a proprietary brand of dog food then there are several sites where you can compare them but I would always try to choose the most natural food I could find, free from additives and preservatives if you can. Plenty of exercise will also help, just because they are small doesn't mean they don't enjoy a good romp every day :)
 

Penny

New Member
Try more exercise??? Hunting for a toy in the house can be done every day regardless of weather. Putting his kibble ration into a treat ball and having him push the ball around will get more steps in for exercise.
Hi and welcome. Hope you can get to the bottom of the problem soon.
 
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