So we went to a new vet on Friday I thought they were ok/good. he checked Jack out first weighting in at only 46lbs, said everything seemed and felt good, asked about his hips and we said he was fine, not sure why he asked but I guess it was nothing, he also showed us how to brush their teeth on Jack, he was not happy. then we moved on to Sierra who is weighing in at 60lbs!!!!!! oh my I have no idea why, both dogs get the same amount of food (jack a little more) same amount of exercise and all. they took some blood work to make sure it was not something else causing the weight, the doc kept asking if she was eating his food and we were like NO and then if we gave her extra treats or table food and again we said NO, he seemed to not believe us. he checked her hips and was feeling for lumps because being used for breeding I guess they are more likely to get a type of cancer I forgot the name of it. we asked about her eyes and the haze on them and he did a test on her with some strips of paper to measure her wetness in her eyes and I guess they are kind of dry as they should be at 25 and both of hers were 17. he wants us to see an eye vet ( about a $300 visit), he also said to just leave the broken tooth in as it was not causing her pain and her teeth were not that dirty for a cleaning and did not want to put her under, said if something ever happened where she had to be put under to pull it then. he tried telling us we should switch to nutro ultra food as it is a good food and because TOTW will not send them info on their food it must not be good. I told him jack cannot have a grain food and he did not say much about that. so with our visit we got 2 check ups, 6 months of heart worms for both he also said we should be using the frontline plus for the hiking so we got 3 doses of that, 2 tooth brushes and a tub of past, and the blood work for Sierra and it was $277. I went to pay and they did not take American express! I had no way of paying for the vet! they were kind enough to let us leave and I said I would call them with another CC number as I had destroyed all my other cards to pay them off, she entered the number over the phone and fudged the expiration date cause I did not have it and the card company would not give it to me and it worked thank goodness. so on Sat we got Sierra's blood work back and everything looked good to them so I'm not sure what to do with sierras weight except switch her to a low cal food, someone told me wellness has a grain free low cal food, I hate dealing with 2 foods, bad enough jack will not eat his food now let alone if Sierra gets something different. if anyone has any suggestions on getting the weight off please let me know, they are only getting 2 cups of food a day as it is.

Sounds like my piggy situation with Sioux (116lbs from 107!!!). I'm not sure if it's muscle mass with the others over the past year, but they all got big. Coco is 89lbs (+9), Bubba is 127 lbs (+3), Ridik is 71lbs (+7) and Tambi stayed constant at 4.45lbs. Their food intake has not changed and the exercise has increased, so we're going to a lower calorie food next round. She said their ribs and backs all feel good but the weight increase was significant. Basically our vet has us doing math. She wants us monitoring everything on a Kcal level and adjusting from there. We will probably be upping the raw chicken intake and lowering the kibble with more vegetable treats to keep them from annoying the crap out of me.

I have no suggestions. It seems like something that's all up to you really. We don't have grain problems so it's easy to just go grab a lower calorie food.

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Here4thePics has some good advice. If it helps, females are supposed to be much smaller than males (10-20 lbs on average). Hailey is full-grown at 45 pounds and Koda is between 55-60 lbs consistently. Koda gets 2.5 cups of food per day and Hailey gets only 2. They get the same amount of exercise too.

I would cut back Sierra's intake, not change the food. She shouldn't be getting the same as Jack. Because of the age thing though, I would look into a supplement to make sure she is getting the proper nutrients as well.

And about the vet's food suggestion: TOTW is not the most reputable food out there. There's definitely some sketchy/questionable things and the company doesn't have the best track record. However, I feed TOTW too. We've weighed the information, and honestly, the TOTW line has never come up with any issues (knock on wood). It's your decision, and I would be hard pressed to listen to a vet about nutritional advice.

$277 is a lot... but it all depends on area and the vet.

well we only feed sierra 2 cups of leveled food a day and Jack gets 2 heaping scoops of food a day, I would hate to cut her back even more on the food. we got the Costco food that is grain free and less cals. then TOTW so that might help. when we got Sierra a year ago she was big and we got her down on light food so might have to go back to that. what kind of doggy vitamin's should I be looking into?
Tori, the vet was only $80 for the 2, then $80 for the blood work, $75 for heartworm meds, $36 for the frontline and then I think $6 for the toothbrush and past and then taxes so it all added up.

Well... Sierra doesn't seem to be gaining MORE weight is she? It sounds like she just needs to lose weight. So whatever you do to drop her in pounds, you can go right back to feeding her what you are now because what she's getting now seems to be maintaining her weight. Don't assume that just because she needs to lose weight that you need to feed her differently forever.


EDIT: Also, why would you hate to cut her back? If she needs to lose weight, whether you cut her back in portions or calories, it's essentially the same thing Like I said, cutting back doesn't mean forever. It's just until she sheds her excess pounds. If she's gaining weight, then she needs to be fed less, no?

jbealer wrote:

Tori, the vet was only $80 for the 2, then $80 for the blood work, $75 for heartworm meds, $36 for the frontline and then I think $6 for the toothbrush and past and then taxes so it all added up.

Ah-ha... see, our vet doesn't charge us for the visits when we have to buy all the extra stuff. We just had the same visit (minus the toothbrush and adding Hailey's microchipping) and it cost $207... like I said, area and vet. It all depends. That would be expensive for here, but I'm guessing it's about average for Denver

Koda wrote:

Well... Sierra doesn't seem to be gaining MORE weight is she? It sounds like she just needs to lose weight. So whatever you do to drop her in pounds, you can go right back to feeding her what you are now because what she's getting now seems to be maintaining her weight. Don't assume that just because she needs to lose weight that you need to feed her differently forever.


EDIT: Also, why would you hate to cut her back? If she needs to lose weight, whether you cut her back in portions or calories, it's essentially the same thing Like I said, cutting back doesn't mean forever. It's just until she sheds her excess pounds. If she's gaining weight, then she needs to be fed less, no?

she is gaining weight since we last weighed her. I think it is the higher cal in the food with the higher fat % as well. for me I would rather find a less cal food and still feed 1cup 2x's a day I just don't want to starve her since we don't do much treats in-between meals. and this could all be in my mind as well and she might do ok on less food but I guess I would just feel better if that makes sense.

It makes sense Essentially, it's the same thing though. And if she's gaining weight, then yeah, I can understand you not wanting to feed her less food. It's one of the reasons we didn't stick with Evo. The idea of only feeding Koda 3/4 A DAY of food felt real wrong. So I understand