I've starved Beemer! I feel so bad. I've switched my two to a raw diet a couple of months ago. Sadie needed to loose a few ounces. She had gotten to 5 1/2 pounds and she really should be closer to 5. Beemer was 3.9 pounds in March at the vet. He could have stood to gain a little but he's a gangly teenager. I weighed them yesterday on my scale at home where I got on the scale first and then with each of the dogs. The scale said that Sadie was right at 5 pounds and Beemer was 3.2-3.4. I really thought that the method of weighing that I was using probably wasn't very accurate so I brought them both in to my office today where we have a calibrated very accurate scale. Sadie was 4.9 pounds and Beemer was 3.25. How could I not have noticed that he had lost so much weight??? He's had a ton of energy - I haven't noticed any sluggishness. Both of them seem to be doing great on the raw. Let me back up and tell you what I've been feeding. I give each of them 1 nugget (ounce) morning and night. This was the amount called for Sadie's size and a little more than for Beemer's size. I steam green beans and carrots and chop some up and add them to it. I wanted Sadie to lose a little weight but I didn't want her to be hungry. I have recently started adding about another third of a nuggot to Beemers because he seemed hungry. Both of them devour their food when I feed them but they love it and have been doing that since I started. Obviously I'm going to up the amount for Beemer and monitor Sadie closer to make sure that she doesn't lose any more. I'm also taking Beemer to the vet on Wednesday. He's supposed to be getting his rabies shot but I want to ask him if we should wait till I get some weight back on him. I can't tell you how bad I feel about this. Obviously I'm going to talk to his vet about this but do you think I've done any real damage? I hope not. It's funny - I really, really wanted him to be a little bigger dog - I really didn't want to stunt him!! Oh, and he's a year and a half old. Sadie will be three in August. |
Ok, first off - don't freak out here lol - even though the scale at your work is calebrated and correct, maybe the one at the vet office isn't. Just because a scale is at a vet office doesn't necessarily mean it's perfect. Dogs tromp and stomp on those things;). The clinic I worked at, we calebrated our scales about once per week and even though they were digital, they would still be off by a few ounces sometimes. If you take them to the vet and they have in fact lost weight, your vet can guide you from there about whether or not one or both of them needs to gain a bit back, if so, you'll just up the food amount a bit and monitor them. Switching to a raw diet probably eliminated some calories if they were on kibble before (especially if it had grains in it). Don't worry, just see what the scale at the vet where you got their original weight from says and go from there:). |
1 Attachment(s) Thanks for the response! I'm just worried because I'm pretty much going by all the methods I have of weighing them. Beemer hasn't weighed less than 3 1/2 pounds in forever. He was really close to 4 pounds and Sadie was 5 1/2 by the vet scale as well as my "scientific method" of stepping on the scale with and without them. I wasn't shocked that Sadie had hit her ideal weight. I could feel the difference when I pick here up. I just feel bad for Beemer. He's lost 20% of his weight and he really didn't have it to lose. I think part of the reason that I didn't see it happening is that in the middle of all this he got a haircut and basically got his body shaved. He looked like such a skinny little thing but I thought the difference was just hair vs. no hair. I wonder how much that hair weighed. It couldn't be more than an ounce or so. I just really hate the thought that he could have been hungry to the point of losing weight. It makes me sad. Last night and this morning I gave him two nuggets and Sadie about 1 1/3. I'm going to try to buy a scale that I can accurately weigh them on. I have a good digital kitchen scale that I used when they were puppies but they really don't fit on it anymore. I want to monitor them closely from now on. I'm enclosing a picture of Beemer when he first got his hair cut. This was about a month ago. You can see that he really doesn't need to lose weight! Before I switched to Primal, they were on Orijen. One of the things I like about Primal is that they are so enthusiastic about eating it - there bowls are clean within a couple of minutes and I don't have to worry about Sadie "cleaning up" for Beemer. I think that's how she gained the weight in the first place. I really do think everything will be ok - I'm just going to monitor it more closely from now on. |
Well, it's a little hard to tell from a picture, but I think he looks really good there:D (they always look skinnier after a hair cut;)). If he did loose some weight since then, he could probably stand to gain that little bit back (it is hard to tell from the pic, so trust your vet, not me lol), but don't go too crazy and end up in the opposite direction, lol. It's honestly better to keep Yorkies (any dog for that matter) on the "trim" side anyway, it helps prevent joint issues. You didn't starve him, don't worry. It's good that you monitor their body condition so closely, too many people have really overweight pets and don't even realize it or take the proper steps to fix it. Alot of the time when starting a different food some adjustments have to be made with monitoring - the package amounts are just guidlines - the only way to really know is by how the dog does on that amount after a while, you're doing everything right:D |
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