10 yr old rottweiler

[meech008]

So, one of my very good friends has agreed to foster a 10 year old rottweiler due to the fact that his family is being shipped overseas to Guam. Silva is very sweet, but you can tell his back legs and hips give him a lot of pain. He struggles to get up from a down and seated position. It hurts him so bad sometimes he'll just drag himself short distances instead of getting up. That being said, he is otherwise doing well. He has a healthy appetite and his spirits are good.
I've heard good things about glucosamine as a daily supplement but would anyone recommend anything else? My friend asked me if I knew anything and I told her I would ask on here because so many other people know so much

Here is Silva

 

[leigti]

My 13-year-old dog has hip dysplasia in. She is on Rimadyl and tramadol and I recently added gabapentin. She needs bloodwork every six months because of the Rimadyl. I also give her this daily.
Her dragging her legs is a very bad sign. She's going to end up getting sores. I think the owners of the dog are going to have to decide, along with the person who is giving foster care, how far they want to go to treat it. It is going to cost money but the dog can still have good quality time left. Keep her weight down to decrease the pressure on the joints and make it easier for her to get around.

 

[meech008]

My 13-year-old dog has hip dysplasia in. She is on Rimadyl and tramadol and I recently added gabapentin. She needs bloodwork every six months because of the Rimadyl. I also give her this daily. View attachment 132877
Her dragging her legs is a very bad sign. She's going to end up getting sores. I think the owners of the dog are going to have to decide, along with the person who is giving foster care, how far they want to go to treat it. It is going to cost money but the dog can still have good quality time left. Keep her weight down to decrease the pressure on the joints and make it easier for her to get around.

I know the tramadol is for pain, what is the rimadyl? From what I understand he is a beloved pet and the actual owners are willing to pay for treatment she just has to talk to them. He definitely needs to go on a diet because he is kind of chunky. Should she still walk him with his hips that bad? I would think it would help keep the joints loose but I don't know that much.

 

[leigti]

The Rimadyl as for the arthritis itself. I think it is an anti-inflammatory. It can cause organ damage, I think the liver, that is why the blood work is needed. I really didn't want to put my dog on it because I had heard many bad things. But I think it has helped. She has been on it for years. I would walk the dog on a leash, avoid running and jumping and twisting. Avoid playing with other dogs because accidents can happen, she can get run into and really get hurt badly. Get serious about the weight loss soon.

 

[meech008]

She has two other dogs but they give Silva a pretty wide berth haha. He outweighs them by close to 60 pounds. She feeds him the same food I feed my dog which is the purina pro plan grain free lamb and egg dry food. I wonder if she should feed him a senior food for large breed dogs? Or does it make that much of a difference? I'm not sure how MUCH she feeds him a day though. Does fish oil help? Or is that for their skin mainly?

 

[leigti]

I think the grain free food is good. You could see if there are other green free dog foods that have less fat, check out the guaranteed analysis. It will break it down for you. The fish oil is good for their coat but it will add a lot of calories. Don't feed as much as it says on the bag, that is usually way too much. Don't free feed, feed twice a day. Hopefully somebody with more experience with overweight dogs will be able to give you some advice. I don't know where all the dog people are tonight.

 

[meech008]

I think the grain free food is good. You could see if there are other green free dog foods that have less fat, check out the guaranteed analysis. It will break it down for you. The fish oil is good for their coat but it will add a lot of calories. Don't feed as much as it says on the bag, that is usually way too much. Don't free feed, feed twice a day. Hopefully somebody with more experience with overweight dogs will be able to give you some advice. I don't know where all the dog people are tonight.

Thanks so much! I figured I'd give the thread a day or two to get all the information I can. It is the weekend after all. I looked online for some answers but there is a lot of conflicting information out there haha. I wonder if that's why he's so guarded around strangers. I met him for the 1st time a week ago while house sitting and he wanted nothing to do with me so I left him alone. Now he won't leave ME alone haha.

 

[leigti]

I'm not sure who all the dog people are on this thread. But let's send a shout out to a couple that I know of right off hand. @Tom @wellington there are also some veterinarians here but I don't know their names. Definitely give it a couple three days to get some more ideas and viewpoints.

 

[meech008]

Thank you for your help and information. This is the best place ever

 

[leigti]

I think people here usually give good advice. They want the best for their tortoises so they probably want the best for all their animals including dogs.

 

[mikeylazer]

Sometimes when the hips start to go, nothing can be done to really make the dog magically walk again. One thing i see right off the bat is that the dog is overweight. I am not calling your friend a bad owner, she just needs to cut down on his meals. If she offers food all day round in a bowl she keeps refilling, tell her to feed 2 meals a day, or three depending on how you divide them. Im thinking for a Rotty probably 3 total cups of food a day. If the dog can lose some weight, that will really take a lot of stress off of the hips, and hopefully that and medicine combined can really help out the animal.

 

[teresaf]

putting her on a diet Is always helpful because then she doesn't have to lift all that weight up off the floor. One of my Mastiffs is a naturally fatty dog. when she gets too heavy I just put her on a diet dog food. I don't change how much she eats. just how many calories she ingests. Usually weight management beniful or the iams equivalent.

 

[meech008]

Sometimes when the hips start to go, nothing can be done to really make the dog magically walk again. One thing i see right off the bat is that the dog is overweight. I am not calling your friend a bad owner, she just needs to cut down on his meals. If she offers food all day round in a bowl she keeps refilling, tell her to feed 2 meals a day, or three depending on how you divide them. Im thinking for a Rotty probably 3 total cups of food a day. If the dog can lose some weight, that will really take a lot of stress off of the hips, and hopefully that and medicine combined can really help out the animal.

No, you're right he's definitely too big she does kind of offer food all day long In the sense that if they don't finish their food she let's it stay in the bowl all day. If I'm to understand correctly she should remove all the food after a half hour correct?

 

[mikeylazer]

No, you're right he's definitely too big she does kind of offer food all day long In the sense that if they don't finish their food she let's it stay in the bowl all day. If I'm to understand correctly she should remove all the food after a half hour correct?

Well the meals are probably too large. For our male golden retriever, he gets one and a halc cups of food in the morning, one and a half again at night. If his bowl is getting filled and letting him eat as much as he can in an hour, he is getting way to much. I would reduce the amount of food and get him on a set amount for breakfast and dinner. Start with 2 cups a meal. It will seem like a small amount, but it is a healthy amount.

 

[leigti]

That's what they say, if they don't eat it in a certain amount of time pick it up. I would feed twice a day and you might find the dog doesn't eat it all because you are breaking it up. Changing from free feeding to twice a day feeding will surprise the dog a little bit but he'll get over it.

 

[meech008]

Okay great! How far would you suggest walking him?

 

[leigti]

I would walk him as far as he can tolerate without his legs getting too tired. You don't want his legs shaking and giving out on him partway through the walk and you don't want him to be completely worn out for the rest of the day. Maybe better to do two or three short walks a day rather than one long one. And don't try to hurry him, just a nice leisurely walk. Don't get too far away from home that he can't get back.

 

[teresaf]

In my 47 years I've haf no less than 60 dogs...we have always free fed our dogs and try as I might I can only think of three instances of obesity and one instance of food aggression.

the food aggression issue was a dog pound dog that evidently didn't get enough to eat way too often. Since she's been with us being free fed (with food bowl always full no matter what) her food aggression has mostly disappeared.

The 3 obese dogs: one old collie mix that became less active due to old age issues, one diebetic poodle on thyroid meds, and my mastiff who takes after her wonderfully thick boned daddy. The mastiff gets put on diet dog food(free fed) about once a year(or twice), at which time she'll lose 10 or 15 pounds. We like her at 170lbs but she has broke 200 before. English mastiffs can be extremely lazy sometimes.

sorry my post was So long. I know there are sO many people against Free feeding including a lot of veterinarians(most of which just assume everyone does it wrong so tellS everybody not to) but if you do it right(always keep the bowl full and weigh your dogs regularly ) there are no issues.

 

[leigti]

In my 47 years I've haf no less than 60 dogs...we have always free fed our dogs and try as I might I can only think of three instances of obesity and one instance of food aggression.

the food aggression issue was a dog pound dog that evidently didn't get enough to eat way too often. Since she's been with us being free fed (with food bowl always full no matter what) her food aggression has mostly disappeared.

The 3 obese dogs: one old collie mix that became less active due to old age issues, one diebetic poodle on thyroid meds, and my mastiff who takes after her wonderfully thick boned daddy. The mastiff gets put on diet dog food(free fed) about once a year(or twice), at which time she'll lose 10 or 15 pounds. We like her at 170lbs but she has broke 200 before. English mastiffs can be extremely lazy sometimes.

sorry my post was So long. I know there are sO many people against Free feeding including a lot of veterinarians(most of which just assume everyone does it wrong so tellS everybody not to) but if you do it right(always keep the bowl full and weigh your dogs regularly ) there are no issues.

I love huge dogs, a 200 pound mastiff is just wonderful to me did your other two dogs lose weight when you use lower calorie food but still free fed? I actually always free fed my dogs. Now I feed raw so it's not applicable. But I never had issues and my dogs never got fat or were food aggressive. It seems that stopping the free feeding and feeding two or three small meals a day would help with weight loss but maybe not. It would be interesting to hear how other people have gotten their dogs to lose weight.

 

[teresaf]

no, we didn't bother making the old dog diet because he was soooo old. the diabetic poodle with the thyroid problem Was a different story. no matter how little I fed her she didn't lose weight. the that kept telling me to reduce her food, reduce her food, reduce her food. in hindsight it was kind of sad and cruel. I stopped taking her to that vet when she was down to nine pieces of kibble a day. no joke. He thought I was giving her table scraps. That is a big no no in our family. Poor dog was always hungry and miserable. she would sit by her food dish after eating up her 5 pieces of diet dog food(half Her daily allotment) and whine for more. after a couple of months of that I stopped going to that vet. I doubled/tripled her food. She never gained anymore but she had never lost weight either. with the sHots I had to give her and the pills that she needed to take it was more important that she was happy.