Why don't they understand they're killing him?

[cockahoot]

I have a cocker boy come to stay when his owners go on holiday and I also trim him for them.  I've been telling them for years that he is overweight and for his sake he needs to go on a diet.  Anyway, I collected him today for a trim and was shocked to see he had put gained even more weight

Having given him a good trim I weighed him, 28.8 kilos, the poor dog can hardly walk.  That's more than Izzy and Millie's weight put together.  It makes me so angry because underneath all that blubber he is a really nice dog.  My mother owns his full sister, and despite being nearly 80 (my mum that is ) and being crippled with arthritisis, she still manages to keep her dog a healthy weight.

I've told them that by letting him get so fat they are killing him, but "he's our baby" she says patting his morbidly obese belly.  Not their baby for much longer if they don't stop feeding him.  Today his mum quite calmly let slip that he has a boiled egg every day for lunch

[Nicola]

God that's awful    Tilly is a big cocker but even when she was a bit overweight when I got her she was still 'only' around 21kg. There's a blue roan cocker bitch who lives near us who is the same age as Alfie (2) as they were in the same puppy socialisation class and she is morbidly overweight. She looks like a barrel with a little leg at each corner and it is horrible to see. She can't run at all and just waddles along panting heavily on the 15 minute walk they deem suitable for her each day. I've spoken to her owner about it but all she says is that they're trying to get her to lose weight but 'it's really hard' as she scavenges, the weather's too bad to walk, Granddad feeds her treats etc. etc.... basically just a load of excuses. Every time I see her I'm itching to grab her and keep her for a couple of weeks to see what I could do with her, poor wee thing.

[ladylola]

Why do people think by overfeeding they are showing love. It's just cruel to let a dog get this overweight. I've seen some dogs who can hardly get a breath due to obesity. Its so sad.

[*sammy*]

we see a few over weight cockers on our walks. they too look like barrels. i said to connor the other, look there's a dog like sam' his reply, he's not like sam he's HUUUUUGGGEEE' the owners heard aswell. it's really bad. people can chose what they eat but a dog has no control.  

[sarah25]

Well he wont be there baby for much longer unless they get the weight off him.  

[Rhona W]

Blimey!    I've just put Casper on a diet as I thought he was looking fat and he's just under 16kg.     
I don't know if boiled eggs are particularly bad for dogs.  I know a lot of people feed their dogs raw eggs. But I would imagine that at nearly 29kg, he's eating a damn sight more than that. 

[cockahoot]

I've suggested they go on a round the world cruise for 6 months so I can have him for a bit longer than a week at a time and try to shift the weight.  What I can't understand is why the vets are allowing him to continue gaining weight - well actually I do - the owners are overweight too so I think the vets would find it difficult to say he is obese

[bluegirl]

I'd be trying to tell them what is happening on the inside too as this is what will kill him much sooner than they hope probably.

We had a cocker cross years ago when I lived with my parents and she was huge, cocker sized and 3 stone in weight. She liked anything she shouldn't have, and she was a fussy eater on top. I slimmed her down to a very reasonable weight but I now believe that years of over eating led to her demise as she developed chronic renal failure at 8 and died. I loved that dog to death, literally.
As she lay dying I would have given my right arm to have reversed things.

[Robbie34]

I will never understand.

There was a Golden Cocker who lived in one of the cottages near me and she died recently.  She was grossly obese and could barely walk.  She developed diabetes and passed away at seven years of age.

Sheer lunacy on the part of the owners who were constantly warned about their dog's health.

[cockahoot]

The really sad thing is, his half brother died last year, not as a direct result of being overweight, but because of fitting.  The problem was that because of this weight the vets found it hard to control his medication, and he was prone to pancreatitis which was a result of being overweight.  I took Izzy with me today when I returned Billy to his owners just to show them what he should look like, Izzy only weighs 10.4 kilos, which for a showing is probably a bit on the light side but she is only 15 months so there is time for her to bulk up a bit, if only she would eat.

[cazza]

Unfortunately got a regular in the shop like this with their cav    Yes I know I should be selling treats and food for the dogs but I refused to serve these people and I'm so grateful my boss understood and didn't sack me 

Don't think I did the profits of the shop any good - but have made myself totally clear to this customer that they are killing their dog 

[happydog]

 

She looks like a barrel with a little leg at each corner and it is horrible to see.

If there's one thing I cannot bear to see it is an overweight spaniel. I have a neighbour whose poor dog is exactly the same, only in the ten years I have lived here I have never seen her take it for a walk   . When she went on holiday and left her dogs alone in the house for three weeks (with someone 'popping in to feed them'   once a day) I seriously thought about going round and kidnapping the poor thing, putting it on a strict diet and walking it daily in the hope that she would think it had been stolen and wouldn't recognise it when she returned and saw me walking this slimline spaniel down the road  
Having said that when Fern was a teenager she shot up to 18Kg   . In my defence a) I thought it was puppy fluff and b) I wasn't used to the cocker shape, having been used to the body shape of sturdy working springers  I thought she was Ok and c) OH insisted on feeding her bread crusts and digestive biscuits -whenever he had one, she had one   . She's 12.75Kg now.

we see a few over weight cockers on our walks. they too look like barrels. i said to connor the other, look there's a dog like sam' his reply, he's not like sam he's HUUUUUGGGEEE'

  Out of the mouths of babes. Can I borrow Connor please- to say that in earshot of my neighbour?
I don't understand the excuses people come out with though, as if it's really difficult to control what goes in to your dog, or the amount of exercise it has   . If they could only hear themselves. It's pathetic, shameful and nothing short of cruelty imo  

[*sammy*]

Out of the mouths of babes. Can I borrow Connor please- to say that in earshot of my neighbour?

have him. he told a man in our street who never ever walks his dog 'that he's not a good dog carer, dog need to be taken out everyday'

he also leaves his dog when he goes away. his mother comes round once in the morning, once in the night

[cazza]

we see a few over weight cockers on our walks. they too look like barrels. i said to connor the other, look there's a dog like sam' his reply, he's not like sam he's HUUUUUGGGEEE'

  Out of the mouths of babes. Can I borrow Connor please- to say that in earshot of my neighbour?
I don't understand the excuses people come out with though, as if it's really difficult to control what goes in to your dog, or the amount of exercise it has   . If they could only hear themselves. It's pathetic, shameful and nothing short of cruelty imo  

[/quote]

That's it I need to borrow Conner    The cav i see is square with a leg in each corner  the only walk I think (note I think here as I don't know for sure) is a walk to the doggy sweet shop 

[KellyS]

I have seen the same thing, dogs that can't hardly stand no muscle tone and you know they don't get walked... you try to tell them but they don't seem to want to listen, it is heart breaking

I've seen the same thing when I've been in the vets - grossly over weight dogs...my vet gets really p****d off with it!

All you can do Cockerhoot is advise them unfortunately you can't make people listen. At least you have tried to tell/advise them and that is all you can do unfortunately....