Over the limit

OK, the story.
A few years ago I adopted out a retired female, Gracie.
Gracie was always a hefty gal at 13 pounds but healthy.
I had a few phone calls (no internet for them) with updates
and they loved her, she was a princess.
Then a couple of weeks ago I got another call that shocked me.
They wanted to return Gracie, I said no problem and didn't even ask why.
Just made arangements for when they could drop her off.
They gave the reason that they couldn't afford to properly care for her with
the economy. She provided her current shot records and tags they had recently gotten.

Here is the kicker that floored me. Gracie now weighs 20 pounds!!
Well if you didn't feed her so danged much, you could afford to keep her.
I had to shave her down (except for her belly) and am working on her feet
one at a time. She hates her feet to be touched. You can see in the pic that
I have trimmed one of her front paws and the nails. Will take me some time
to get all four of them done without hog tying her and risking a stroke because
of her weight. She labors just to breath. Oh and she is 9 yrs old now.

I free feed but if she doesn't slim down from the extra activity with the pack,
I will have to change our feeding and put her on a diet this fall (that's real soon).
Now to see if I can post a picture.





Well I got pictures up but they were resized in photobucket and not here,
it cut her back feet off. guess I will just have to post more pics for the practice.
Problem with that, there is nobody to help me get decent pics of my crew

Bless her heart! How sad her family didn't take proper care of her. Glad she's back where she belongs... bless you, too!

Aww, poor little dearie. Some people just can't stop themselves from giving treats, and it takes no time at all for them to gain weight. I struggle with my smoothie, Murphy. He's a sneaky pete, and if there's any food out for the other dogs and you're not paying attention, he'll scarf it down before you know it. So he gets pretty fat, and then we have to put him on a strict diet. Free feeding simply isn't an option in my house because of Murph. He's 15 pounds already, and he'd eat himself to 20 in a matter of weeks.

Now thats a little fatty !!! I just want to some people : how they can give up a dog they obviously loved for a start :: like geeee it doesnt cost that much to feed a dachshund ::she could have done with some slimming down anyways!

Poor girl! I am so glad she came back to you for proper care.

That is awful,the strain they are putting on her body inside and out.

I hope with the right regime she soon slims down, give her green beens to fill her up without adding calories.

Glad you took her back! That to me is the sign of someone who is a good and dedicated breeder will to help and better the breed ! Kudos to you! I have a wolfhound puppy that will eat until she looks like a "pear" when she sits down. At 6 months she is 120 pounds which is too much weight for a young , quickly growing body to bear. She will inhale her food in 3 minutes flat! To slow her down and hopefully fill her belly i have added plain popcorn (no salt butter) and mix it in with the food. Seems to help somewhat and she doesn't whine so much as she watches the others eat. Ruth

Cindy, how is she doing now? Any updates?

She's just as fat but happily waddles around and
tells all the other dogs that she is THE boss!!
Even the big 55 pound catahoula.
It will be a tough haul trying to get the weight off
of her but we will keep working on it.