# Spaniels and  Mothers!



## Clodagh (23 April 2018)

I have spent the morinng at the vets with my mother whos old collie has got pancreatitis. She has been admitted and I hope to pick her up this afternoon. (Dog not mum!).

While waiting for the bloods to be run my mother lectured me about our spaniel pup. She is 5 months old. She is quite skinny, you can't see her ribs when still but you can certainly feel them. Mum's dog is obese. Apparently spaniel is far too thin and may have something wrong with her, and I should have fed puppy food. 
I should also take her to the vets as she pees/sprinkles when excited or nervous. I said I had asked about and it seems quite normal for spaniels. Apparently it is not and there is something wrong with her there too.

So I have a very poorly spaniel. She looks fine to me, full of energy and on the go, go, go all day.

I have to spend the afternoon with mum too, taking her to hospital and hopefully picking the dog up again afterwards. It may be a long day.


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## PapaverFollis (23 April 2018)

:lol:

I'd have been in trouble when my spangle was a pup then! You *could* see his ribs and he peeeeeeeeeed all the  time. Plus he refused to eat a lot of the time cos life was just too exciting. He got over that quite quickly though. 

Have a lovely day! :lol:


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## Clodagh (23 April 2018)

Why thank you.
She soon learned not to leave her bowl and come back to it later, with 3 labs about you only get one chance!


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## Auslander (23 April 2018)

Can you drop the obesity thing into conversation whilst at the vets? Sure they'd be delighted to advise her to get some weight off her own dog!


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## Clodagh (23 April 2018)

Auslander said:



			Can you drop the obesity thing into conversation whilst at the vets? Sure they'd be delighted to advise her to get some weight off her own dog!
		
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When she said that she knew collie was ill as she hadn't eaten for 2 days I pointed out it could only do her good. Love = feeding though, didn't you know?


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## meleeka (23 April 2018)

Your Spaniel sounds perfectly normal, even down to the peeing! The vets must have mentioned your mums dogs weight to her before? Perhaps she has selective hearing?


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## EventingMum (23 April 2018)

My dad was very strict about our dog's diets as I grew up and none of them were allowed to get fat. Roll on several decades to his last dog, a collie, which became hugely obese. Dad seemed to have lost the ability to recognise that the dog was carrying far too much weight. To be fair he (Dad) was starting to get confused and the vet's warnings seemed to have no effect. Eventually we persuaded him to put the dog onto a weight loss diet and carefully found a scoop which would measure the alloted amount for his meal. Needless to say I was absolutely horrified to walk into Dad's house one day and find him grating cheese over the kibble as "the dog liked it that way"!! It was only once Dad couldn't live at home any more that we actually got the dog to an acceptable weight.


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## Clodagh (23 April 2018)

meleeka said:



			Your Spaniel sounds perfectly normal, even down to the peeing! The vets must have mentioned your mums dogs weight to her before? Perhaps she has selective hearing?
		
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Most definately. Apparently the vet had said the dog is 'OK, but don't let her get any fatter'. And has also recommened a lo cal food. Trouble is it isn't the food in the bowl that puts the weight on, it is having human food whenever they do. She even has a bowl of warm milk at bed time!


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## Clodagh (23 April 2018)

EventingMum said:



			My dad was very strict about our dog's diets as I grew up and none of them were allowed to get fat. Roll on several decades to his last dog, a collie, which became hugely obese. Dad seemed to have lost the ability to recognise that the dog was carrying far too much weight. To be fair he (Dad) was starting to get confused and the vet's warnings seemed to have no effect. Eventually we persuaded him to put the dog onto a weight loss diet and carefully found a scoop which would measure the alloted amount for his meal. Needless to say I was absolutely horrified to walk into Dad's house one day and find him grating cheese over the kibble as "the dog liked it that way"!! It was only once Dad couldn't live at home any more that we actually got the dog to an acceptable weight.
		
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Mum used to have working labs, and although they were pretty spoiled they were good working dogs who didn't get fat. So I do agree age has a lot to do with it. The dog both gets less exercise and more snacks.
We had rather a tense hospital outing as when I mentioned I had googled pancreatitis it said overweight elderly female dogs were most at risk mum said I only think the collie is fat as mine are so thin. Cue stony silence!


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## Rowreach (23 April 2018)

Clodagh said:



			mum said I only think the collie is fat as mine are so thin. Cue stony silence!
		
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Ooh ouch!

My three lean and fit dogs do somewhere between 8-12 miles a day, plus running round the garden.  My neighbour commented the other day how "thin" they look.  His excessively fat dog is waddled up the road for about 100 yards, twice a day .....


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## YorksG (23 April 2018)

When we were young we had labs, all trained by Dad, all fit and never overweight. The last two pairs they had were fat, the first pair getting that way when Sis and I stopped taking our dogs to their house daily. When we were growing up no dog ever had food from a plate, the last pair always had the "left overs", usually specially saved for them! Neither parent seemed able to see that the dogs were obese


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## Clodagh (23 April 2018)

Rowreach said:



			Ooh ouch!

My three lean and fit dogs do somewhere between 8-12 miles a day, plus running round the garden.  My neighbour commented the other day how "thin" they look.  His excessively fat dog is waddled up the road for about 100 yards, twice a day .....
		
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The vet thinks my dogs look amazing. I will go with his vote! I do accept that a 12 year old collie owned by a disabled man and an elderly woman is not going to look like a whippet but there are degrees.


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## Clodagh (23 April 2018)

YorksG said:



			When we were young we had labs, all trained by Dad, all fit and never overweight. The last two pairs they had were fat, the first pair getting that way when Sis and I stopped taking our dogs to their house daily. When we were growing up no dog ever had food from a plate, the last pair always had the "left overs", usually specially saved for them! Neither parent seemed able to see that the dogs were obese 

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Oh that sounds like mine (mother)! The dog gets more human food than dog food.


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## Cinnamontoast (23 April 2018)

Oh gawd, I admire your restraint in not shouting at her! Big dog and his brother were skinny runts, disinterested in food when very young. It took a few years until they were a bit more solid. I&#8217;m forever balancing the youngsters&#8217; food, they put on weight ridiculously easily.


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## maisie06 (28 April 2018)

I have had owners of fat, obese actually dogs say how my Cocker needs to put weight on....ermmm no he doesn't! He;s hard and fit and you can just see the last rib when he's turning or running...he has a trim little waist and well defined muscle - if he was a bloke he's be described as "ripped" while posing on a surf board!!! i am jealous of the dog actually!!

We have  just come back from the west country and even hubby was shocked by how  obese many of the  dogs we saw were..it's a growing problem.


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