[sarahaf]

Okay, don't need any advice here, but I wanted to confess that we fattened up our girl too much. Vet confirmed she's a porker (okay, not morbidly obese, but she needs to trim down). I thought it wasn't possible with the breed and her getting 3-4 hours off leash 5 days a week. But she loves to eat. We know we need to cut back, though. Anyone else manage to fatten up a vizsla?

 

[Mischa]

From what I've gathered on the forum, you seem to have created a miracle!

 

[DixiesMom]

I am a member of a training club and there are 2 female Vs that come and the look like redhot sausages on legs. Their sides are completely smooth, no tuck up at all.

 

[sarahaf]

Granted, she isn't huge (see pic--can't really see the problem from a distance...but who's defensive?). Those who don't know the breed don't know what we're talking about and say, "she looks svelte." But we could tell she could pinch an inch in a number of places, and the vet said when he did the surgery he could see the fat both under the skin and deeper in her abdomen. I'm hoping since she's only 9 months and very active, it won't take her long to respond to reduced intake.

So we made the hall of fame, huh?

 

[Vfloyd]

Hiya

Afraid your not the only one with a pudgy Vizla.When we took Floyd to get castrated our Vet told us he was overweight! We had been going by what the food packet told us, but in hindsight he was also getting treats for training (and ok, i spoiled him because he would look at me with his big puppy dog eyes..). So that was two months ago - i felt like a terrible owner at the time, but he was only 7 months and has plenty of time to grow into a shapely adult. We cut back his food and treats and he is also getting lots of off lead running, so hopefully the weight will shift - we have seen a difference already! Don't feel bad, you're not the only one xx

 

[Mercutio]

Merc is apparently "well-conditioned" At least thats what the other gun-dog people tell me. The vet says he is fine

I have noticed he loses weight over winter though and puts it on over summer so maybe that will help Rosie too?

 

[bridget247]

I think when my oldest V was 4 or 5, I took him to the vet for his annual shots and the vet told me the same thing. I was shocked - we always had a problem keeping weight on our little man. I don't think we recognized the extra pounds because we were relieved not to see his entire rib cage. It took almost no time to get him back into shape - we were still feeding him 4 cups of food + treats (he is really active), but we gradually cut down to 3 cups and we watched our treats. For the past two years, his weight has stayed between 48-50 pounds (he is a smaller V so when his weight hit 56, you could pull more than an inch from his neck!).

I remember feeling really offended - like the vet just told me I was being a bad parent because my kid got a little pudgy! We laugh about it now, but I felt awful.

Our female puppy is all legs right now - cannot wait to see what size she is when she reaches adulthood!

 

[sarahaf]

Thanks, Bridget. We weren't too shocked or offended with Rosie because we had already guessed she was over, the vet just confirmed it. But yes, it's embarrassing. I appreciate your story, my hope has been that like your guy, with Rosie being young and active, it won't take too long to get her back on track. Also, I don't think she is dangerously obese or the vet would have been more stern about it (and it would be more obvious), so that is a comfort too in terms of knowing it won't be too hard to correct.

 

[sarahaf]

Anyone know about what weight range would be normal for a 10 month old female? I looked at sort of a pictorial guide showing dogs who were normal/fit, overweight, obese, and morbidly obese, and I'd say she looks in the overweight range. Let's just say her tuck-up and muscular definition is nothing close to this pic...http://www.vizslaforums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=337 But it would be helpful to know what other dogs around this age weigh to get an idea of about what range we should be shooting for. I think she's 50-something lbs now. How much do they continue to gain between 10 months and full grown?

 

[Crazy Kian]

how tall is Rosie? Do you know what size her parents were?

Kian is about 24" to the withers and weighs about 45lbs. He is wide though. He's 13 months old.
Now his father is the same height, maybe a half inch taller and 60lbs, very wide and muscular.
At 10 months old Kian was about a half inch shorter than he is now and weighed 40lbs.

Hope that helps.
Here is a shot of him...sort of from the side. This was taken about a month ago.
He's the the short lighter one going to the right.

 

[sarahaf]

He's a lot trimmer than Rosie in the pic!

 

[Crazy Kian]

Post a side pic of Rosie if you can.
But also remember she is still growing so she might have a growth spurt still. They stop growing at about 18 months (height wise) and then fill out at 24 months. This is what my breeder told us.
Mind me asking how much you feed her in a day? Perhaps her kibble is full of fillers?

 

[sarahaf]

Kian,

True confessions, she started out eating pretty high end food (evo, canidae) but at this point, she eats dog junk food Combination of us giving in to her tastes and desire for variety and Rosie's *other* owner's shopping selections. She refuses foods when she gets bored with or doesn't like them, and we're pushovers. She was getting meals 3 times a day; since we found out she is overweight, she has been getting two. I do think she's losing weight since we reduced. Each meal consists of a packet of moist n meaty (yeah, I know) and some pedigree or cesar wet food (again, yeah, I know). She'll eat evo kibble if some wet food is put on top, but now that we spoiled her with the wet food, she would be pretty pissed if we took it away.

Here are some blurry side pics I just took (my only camera is my cell phone's and it doesn't have flash). You can kind of see her shape, though. We caught sight of some ribs while she was running around today, but you can't really see them clearly under ordinary conditions, and they can't be felt without pressing down. My guess is that she's still overweight, but not obese.

Sarah

 

[Crazy Kian]

Sarah,
you have a pm.
by the way, she looks pretty good in those pics.

 

[madaboutvizslas]

I reckon they get to around 20 months and start to put on the fat. When they are puppies it is hard to keep them from looking like skeletons as they are growing so fast. However once this rapid growing phase is over they can put on weight quite easily.

However a bit of excercise and change of qty of food and they can lose it real fast as well.

 

[sarahaf]

That's what's weird, she's really still a puppy, only 10 months. But no skeleton I think simply overfeeding (she gets plenty of excercise) and maybe she's a rare bird who doesn't tend toward lean constitutionally.

 

[bridget247]

Hey Sarah,

She will lean out - if you are reducing her food and making sure that she gets her daily dose of endorphins (i.e. exercise), then she will definitely be okay. We were worried that Ajax might not lose the weight because he was 4 or 5 at the time, but he was back to under 50 pounds in a flash and, as a 6.5 year-old, he stays between 47-49 now (we have been to the vet a few times so I have had a chance to track his weight this year). He has his lean, muscular shape back again - people think he is a puppy! If it wasn't for the white on his muzzle, you would never know that he is growing into a grumpy old man

It's funny that you mention feeding Rosie 2x/day. When we brought our new puppy home, we felt terrible for Ajax - he could not bear to watch her eat 3x/day while he ate twice. We moved him back to 3x (I know - not ideal for an adult dog, but we couldn't watch the poor guy pout). We continued to feed him the same amount, but spread out over 3 meals - he actually lost another pound . .. and he is much happier eating more frequently.

Rosie will get there!

 

[sarahaf]

Thanks Bridget. I can't tell if much is happening yet, she's too big for us to weigh at home. But her ribs are still pretty well covered.