When I last wrote, the stitches had just come out and Dizzy, although full of energy, was walking with a bit of a hop/jump system to get around quickly without having to use his leg too much. He's now much steadier and when walking on lead, at a slow pace it's pretty hard to tell that he's had anything done. He still chooses to hold his leg off the floor if he wants to make a quick turn and still does a funny hopping motion if he wants to try and get around quickly, but for the most part he's taking his time and walking pretty well on all four legs. Here is this morning, on his daily walk:
We've been very conscious of Dizzy's weight for quite some time before the operation. When we adopted him, he was skinny & odd looking so I am completely guilty of over feeding him & giving him far too many treats without even realising I was doing it - I think I was making up for the fact that he obviously hadn't been spoiled before. Then, when his leg started playing up, his exercise was limited to what he could physically handle, but his eating habits didn't change. His health has never been in danger and he has certainly never been seriously over weight, but he certainly was chubbier than he should have been.
We switched his food over to Pets at Home brand 'Wainwrights" - the low fat variety for overweight and under active dogs (he was a bit of both) and made sure he had as much exercise as he could handle. I can't recommend the "Wainwrights" brand highly enough - his weight came down steadily, his coat is healthy and even his eyes are brighter and less weepy than they where before. Dizzy is a fussy eater, so finding a food that he enjoyed was a bit tough but over a year on he's still enjoying every meal! He's on a mixture of the wet "trays" and the kibble (majority kibble with a small amount of wet to taste). He loves the food and his weight is under control.
We're keeping him on the low fat "Wainwrights" for the duration of his recovery and plan to wean him onto the normal version once he's up to a normal amount of daily exercise, but it is SO hard to be strict when it comes to treats! The vet warned us to be careful and to remember that what is a small treat to us, is considerably more fattening to a dog. We where also told to bear in mind that as long as he thinks it's a treat, that's the main thing. Raw carrots might be a healthy, boring snack to us but a dog, it's an awesome tasty treat! He loves them & it keeps him busy for a while so whenever I'm cooking veg, he always gets a carrot.
We've also tried him on some "Wainwrights" treats - they do a whole variety in Pets at Home; low fat, joint friendly, great for senior dogs etc. We opted for the "Vegetable Sticks" which are meat, dairy & gluten free - extremely low in fat. They come in a pack of three and in reality, he probably shouldn't have any more than one a week at most. Not a problem - he wasn't too impressed with them! Dizzy normally devours treats as soon as they are passed to him, but one vegetable stick stayed barely touched for about four days! It did eventually get eaten so I'm sure he'll get accustomed to the change in treats soon!
"What is this stuff you're giving me woman?!"
I've also been trying to burn some of his energy by doing some basic command training with him & it certainly seems to be wearing him out! We're not doing anything strenuous just working on things like "giving paw", "down", "leave it" and guessing which hand a treat is hidden in (he's slowly learning to tap the hand he thinks is holding the treat with his paw). Basically, just nothing that requires Dizzy to move around too much, but that take quite a bit of concentration from him. For that I've been using "Wagg Low Fat Training Treats", they're great bite size nuggets that are less than 4% fat. Still to be given sparingly & this isn't something we'll do every day but it's great fun for him every now and then and is a bit of a substitute to playing fetch and tearing around the garden.
There should be another post coming later today, or tomorrow as I've still got loads to talk about. I know this is getting a bit long, so I'll leave it there for now!
NB: We seem to be getting quite a few views, which is fab - if you are reading and have any tips, shared experience or anything you want to talk about please feel free to leave comments! Any tips on low fat treats would also be appreciated!
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