Continual weight gain? Very low calorie intake? *Results are in!

[Diamond]

I'm not sure where exactly this belongs so if it doesn't belong here, sorry! LOL

When Roxy was at the vet's Monday after her adventure she was weighed. She came in at a whopping 97.9lbs! Approximately 6 months ago she was 92lbs. My vet reccomends that she's closer to 75lbs!

Roxy just turned 4 yesterday.

Roxy eats once a day, at night time, 1 cup of Orijen Six Fresh Fish kibble with a liberal amount of herring oil everynight. Once a week she gets a generous amount of treats at school. Regularly she gets a small handful of treats a day. A few times a week she gets left overs like a slice of ham, potatoes and veggies but her kibble is cut back on those nights. I would say she's moderate-high in activity level, spending hours outside daily weather dependent, walking, trotting and occasionally running around (she's quite lazy).

My question is this: How or WHY in the world does she keep putting weight on?!?!?

1 cup of food once a day hardly seems enough for a dog to put on weight!

I have a few ideas on my mind but I want to see if anyone has any experience with this or ideas so I can get a handle on it before I call the vet to make an appointment... so I'm not completely flabbergasted!

My first thought is a thyroid issue. We have a few dogs at dog school that have been diagnosed with thyroid issues, are on medication now and have lost a LOT of weight in a short amount of time. Apparently the testing is extremely expensive for this though, I asked the lady last Tuesday night. She said $700! Is that about right?

My second thought is perhaps one feeding a day is working against me on this issue by slowing her metabolism down. Perhaps I should start feeding twice a day, same amount of food but in two separate meals to speed her metabolism back up.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

[RoughCollies]

You know, Faithey has the same problem. She gets 2 cups of food a day, runs for an hour in the yard at the absolute least, generally more and doesn't get a lot of treats.

I'll be watching this thread as well.

[RoughCollies]

Oh, and my vet quoted me at about $80 if I remember correctly for a thyroid test. $700 is completely ridiculous. Call your vet.

[weezyNollie]

If it's just a T4 -- it should be under 100 dollars, as cheap as 50.00. If you proceed with free T4 or TSH, that's where it gets expensive. For all three at my clinic it is 170.00.

[Obedog]

Originally Posted by Diamond

I'm not sure where exactly this belongs so if it doesn't belong here, sorry! LOL

When Roxy was at the vet's Monday after her adventure she was weighed. She came in at a whopping 97.9lbs! Approximately 6 months ago she was 92lbs. My vet reccomends that she's closer to 75lbs!

Roxy just turned 4 yesterday.

Roxy eats once a day, at night time, 1 cup of Orijen Six Fresh Fish kibble with a liberal amount of herring oil everynight. Once a week she gets a generous amount of treats at school. Regularly she gets a small handful of treats a day. A few times a week she gets left overs like a slice of ham, potatoes and veggies but her kibble is cut back on those nights. I would say she's moderate-high in activity level, spending hours outside daily weather dependent, walking, trotting and occasionally running around (she's quite lazy).

My question is this: How or WHY in the world does she keep putting weight on?!?!?

1 cup of food once a day hardly seems enough for a dog to put on weight!

Diamond, I think I see the problem!! Stick to just kibble!! Mattie eats 4 cups of kibble per day, and she weighs 75 pounds, and is not heavy. Greda eats 3.5 cups a day, weighs 65 pounds. Fosta eats 4 cups a day, still filling out, and weighs 55 pounds, and I think she is thin! I know it is different food, but I think the extras are what is adding those calories... The herring oil may be good for her, but it is certainly adding on TONS of calories. The snacks, leftovers, etc. I would use her kibble as snacks for class. Omit the junk food... My humble opinion!!
P.S. I am not familar with that kibble... Are there a lot of calories in it?

[saluki-sue]

I would get a T4 done and talk to your vet about Cushing syndrom while your there. She may not be showing all of the clinical signs, but they can test her to rule it out.

Other wise you may want to split her kibble in to 2 small meals a day. Good luck

[Diamond]

Okay I just called and spoke to my vet for about half an hour.

Weezy she reccomended all three (something about testing at different times of day means different levels of TSH and you can't be sure if it's the peak or the trough) and it's $72.

She brought up Cushings and said that will probably be our next route if the other blood work comes back negative. I'm starting to think Cushing's might be more likely though as she said dogs with Cushing's often have chronic skin issues... HELLOO!! Roxy with her seborrhea! I don't notice too much water intake but it's not something I really keep track of, I see the bowl less then half full I fill it, we have two dogs and three cats here so I expect to go through quite a bit of water. The whole disdended belly thing, not really but she does have "funny" skin around her abdomen.

Her appointment is Tuesday at 2, and the results should be back the next day, the day after at the latest.

Thanks for the advice!

[saluki-sue]

Good luck hope it's only her thyroid.

[weezyNollie]

Originally Posted by Diamond

Weezy she reccomended all three (something about testing at different times of day means different levels of TSH and you can't be sure if it's the peak or the trough) and it's $72.

That is very reasonable! I would do it then. Good thing to rule out.

Cushing's is also quite possible. How is your obesity spread out? Normally Cushingoid dogs will have pot-bellied appearance. Most of their fat is on their abdomen. They have increased thirst and increased urination. The test for this would be an ACTH stim, but those are costly too. Around $150.00.

Let us know the results.

[Diamond]

I don't really think Roxy looks "obese" ROFL!

She has a very deep girth, not unlike normal Doberman's, but she doesn't have the nice tuck they have either. It's like the front half of her is Dobe and the back half is Rott so she's thicker in the back (stomach wise).

To look at her I wouldn't say she looks terribly overweight, most people say she looks fine for being half rott half dobe (Rotts are quite thick and stocky), it's just that to me, knowing the amount of food that goes into her body, the amount of excercise she gets and adding in that she somehow continues to put on weight. So it's not neccessarily her appearance that worries me, I'm just really wondering how she continues to gain with the ratio of calorie intake vs. activity level.

I think she said it's like $50 for the lab fee and $12 for the courier to ship the blood plus taxes. I don't think she's charging me the normal $45 examination fee for whenever dogs come in because I paid that on Monday after her adventure and they didn't really do anything as she was fine, (it wasn't my normal vet but I wanted to get her in asap).

I will let you know as soon as I do!

Thanks again!