Is your dog overweight? Then your vet will have advised that your dog should lose weight. According to studies, 20 to 40 percent of dogs are overweight. This applies in particular to dogs living in western industrialized nations.
Being overweight has serious health consequences. A few love handles too much, a beer belly and even obesity are diseases of civilization, not just for us humans. We eat too much, we eat wrong. This results in an excess of nutrients. This excess is deposited as fat in the body. And obesity is not just limited to us.
If you love your dog sometimes you feed it too much
After the death of their dog, my grandparents considered for a long time whether it would be justifiable to adopt another animal at their age. They finally decided to get a dog from the shelter.
We were all so excited to finally meet Topsy. She was six months old at the time and just looked funny. The legs were long and thin, the body was elongated, and the head was almost a little too small.
Topsy had a wonderful dog life with a huge garden, lots of exercise exercisesmily who adored her. But there was the catch. Because Topsy was allowed to eat whatever she wanted in addition to her daily portion of dog food.
Fat dogs suffer
Unfortunately, this menu was a disaster. Topsy drank fresh, warm milk in addition to a latte. Grandma got the milk straight from the farmer, so it wasn’t skimmed either.
Cakes, whipped cream, and bacon were among their delicacies, as were scrambled eggs and leftovers from the grill.
Any attempt to explain to our grandmother how bad this diet would be for the dog was in vain. Grandma thought Topsy would be happy because everything tasted so delicious.
The result was a really fat dog. The already idiosyncratic body soon began to look like a small cylinder. Topsy managed to walk through town with difficulty and hardly wanted to play anymore.
Every climb was a challenge and if the snow was higher, she had to be freed because she could no longer support her weight. It’s a small miracle that Topsy lived to be 15.
Obesity has serious consequences
Unfortunately, many dogs feel the same way as Topsy. The owners mean well and feed them too much and often the wrong food.
Obesity develops, which puts a lot of strain on the dog’s internal organs. This can lead to heart disease, breathing difficulties, reduced liver function, digestive problems, skin diseases, joint problems, and diabetes.