![]() ![]() His energy had returned, and he was loving his walks again. He was immediately put onto a thyroid supplement, and when I checked him three weeks later, he was like a different dog. I took a blood sample from Alfie, and the test results confirmed the diagnosis. Everything slows down, including heart rate, body temperature, hair growth and enthusiasm for exercise. If these hormones are absent, it is as if the foot has been taken off the accelerator pedal of the body’s metabolism. For some unknown reason, the thyroid gland sometimes stops producing the thyroid hormones which keep the body whizzing along at its normal healthy rate. Little dogs like Alfie normally have two or three heartbeats every second.Īlfie was showing classical signs of a disease called hypothyroidism, commonly known as an underactive thyroid gland. As I continued my examination, I discovered that his heart rate had slowed down significantly, and just more than one beat per second. I took his temperature with a thermometer, and it was sub-normal. When I put my hand on the bald area on his back, it was as if he had been in a fridge. When I checked Alfie over, the first thing I noticed was that he was very cold to touch. Nathan realised now that there was something very odd going on with Alfie, so he brought him in to see me. He lost his bright, healthy, thick coat, and a large bald patch of skin developed along his back. At this stage, he started to develop another problem. He had ballooned from just over two stone to almost three stone in weight. Nathan had been giving him less food than before, to compensate for his lack of exercise, but despite this, Alfie was getting fat. ![]() Over the following few months, Alfie began to gain weight. It was as if he had matured from an energy-filled adolescent into a sedate but healthy adult dog. ![]() He was just a slower, sleepier dog than before. When he was on walks, he just moped along, with none of his usual bounciness and excitability.Īt the same time, Alfie was showing no obvious signs of illness. He had to be almost physically dragged outside to go for a walk. When Nathan took out the dog lead and headed for the door, Alfie just lay there, barely lifting his head. He started to lie around the home more than before, sleeping instead of being active and energetic. Last summer, for no obvious reason, his personality seemed to change. These animals require medical treatment for their obesity, and nothing else will work.Īlfie had been a slim, trim, active little dog who loved going for walks. There are some medical problems that can cause pets to become obese, and in such cases, there is no point in just putting the dog on a diet. However, if you ever read advice for owners of fat dogs, you will see that the first recommendation is usually “get your pet checked over by a vet”. Special low-calorie diets for pets make it easier for weight to be lost in a controlled, manageable way. The answer to the problem is to give less food and more exercise. Owners simply feed their dogs too much food, and do not take them for enough exercise. Pet obesity is as widespread in Ireland as it is in the UK, with excessive weight causing problems for many animals. Less than a year later, Rusty had lost four stone in the care of the RSPCA, and he is living a much healthier and happier lifestyle. Eventually, the RSPCA had confiscated the dog, and proceeded with prosecuting his owners for cruelty. The brothers had been warned, and told to seek veterinary advice, but Rusty had continued to be hugely and grossly overweight. “Rusty”, a Labrador, had ballooned to over eleven stone because he had been over-fed and under-exercised. ![]() A few years ago, there were two brothers in Britain who appeared in court because they had allowed their dog to get fat. ![]()
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