Zero had to go to the Vet today. Not for just a regular check up - but because she has gotten really congested at night time... congested enough she almost moans and whines while she is laying down at night. I've resorted to putting the vaporizer with Vicks Vapo Steam on at night. She will literally sit next to it and put her nose into the steam stream or she will lay on the bed with her head hanging off so her nose is close to the steam stream. It has seemed to help the both of us at night. The vet thinks she might have some type of respiratory infection, previously she has had kennel cough (almost a year to the date ago) and over the summer had allergies flair up from all the golden rod here where we live now. She looks like she was retaining water and swallowed a balloon, was a little lathargic, but never lost her appetite, but she sure was not herself the past few days. You could talk to her and she'd only open her eyes and look at you... no head up, no jumping up to see you, no happy expressions. So off to the vet we went. I was concerned, but not super concerned because she never lost her appetite. Of course now that I started feeding her the Ideal Balance by Hill's Science Diet (see previous post for review) it has been like crack to her! I tease her saying come on girl I'll fill your crack pipe for you (as I walk with her bowl to the dog food bag)
While at the Vet - there was a point made that every time Zero comes in for a visit she is 3-4lbs heavier. Today she weighed in at a woooping 81lbs. That is a little over weight for a dog of her build, especially a Boxer. Even though Zero is of a broader build than the average Boxer she should still be in the low to middle 70's to be considered ideal weight. Needless to say Zero got put onto a doggie diet today. Her dog food cut into half, treats cut down to once or twice a day, and no more table scrapes. Also, to use green beans as a "filler" with her food, on top of being on two medications. I thought the green beans would do the trick, but they haven't. I fed her earlier - 1 cup of food and a half can of green beans. That didn't last too long after the 11pm trip outside to go potty. So seeing she had not been fed other than that I gave her another scoop of food thinking this would satisfy her appetite for the night. Once again... NOT the case! This is what I looked over my shoulder and seen...
The purple and yellow bag at the top of the picture is the dog food bag. It is kept in my closet so I don't have to keep going up and down the stairs when it's time to feed her. She is laying half in the closet with her nose buried along the edge of the closet wall as to say pleaseeeee feed me food! She has previously tried to drag this bag out of the closet, but this is the newest thing... begging to be fed like this. So what do I do, I cave in and give her another half scoop. She was getting up to 4 scoops a day.. Vet said cut it in half, I couldn't see an immediate cut in half. But rather a wean down to 2 scoops. She eats that half scoop, then proceeds to lick the bowl spotless... so here I am sitting here doing my sweeps and look over my shoulder again... this should say it all...
Look at that pathetic face! I really doubt she is starving but she sure plays the sad face roll well! As I type this she has decided that maybe laying next to the empty bowl while starring at the closet door would work better. She is probably hoping the food will jump out of the closet and into her bowl. As much as I want to feed her, I have to keep telling myself NO .. she needs to be on a diet just like I do. We both need to get more exercise - my god I wish I had a treadmill, she knows how to walk and jog on a treadmill from when she went to therapy. It really would do us both a lot of good! If anyone knows of a sponor that would be willing to let me do a review on a nice treadmill for me and Zero please let me know! Just to clarify - by saying a scoop a scoop is a one of the VCA Pet Scoops that equal one cup of food! I love their scoops I have two!
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