Importance of weight maintinance & brushing
Our rescue Rottie weighed 118# when we adopted her about 7 mo. ago. She showed hip problems. One of my concerns was rapid breathing which I questioned here. After $1400. worth of tests and a consulting vet nearly killing her with an OD of Tramadol they could find nothing wrong other than a slight heart murmur, possibly caused by overweight. She even spent a day at the Vet hospital for observation. I could feel heat on our other two dogs but not on Nandi. My thought, fat & dense fur isn't letting her cool. Breathing was a lot of time, panting. I put her on a very low calorie diet, bought a shop vac, (previous post) and now she's starting to sleep in her bed rather than on the cooler tile floor. I keep her squirted down and a fan on her when she shows stress. It helps. I get bushels of dead hair off her every day. I doubt she was ever brushed before her now forever home. At last weigh in she topped the scale at 105, hopefully less now.. If our Pit wouldn't of woke me at 4:00am when I found her unresponsive and only moved after pumping her chest for ???, she would of been gone. So, bottom line, after paying $1400 and learning nothing, I finally smartened up and looked at the basic facts. She pants a lot, panting means she's hot. Rapid breathing may be just "under panting" ????? Fat is an insulator, fur is an insulator. She's fat and hasn't been brushed. A $1400. no brainer. I feel a little guilty when I feed her but seeing her being able to dance like a spring rabbit eases my conscience. She tries to play but it's obvious she has to slim down some more. Her hip problem seems to be better though I still give her 1/2 Novox twice a day. So, bottom line, if I would of used common sense, the dog lives with us 24 hrs. a day, paid attention to her, not relied on professionals, think of the Michelob $1400 would of bought . Yeah, I consider this a happy ending story :) ........... Now if I could stop her from eating the pieces of toys the Pit rips off. So far, "everything came out OK"... ;)
