My dog is expensive... haha

[alibuch]

So I just took Louise for her next round of frontline/heartguard and the vet told me she's too fat and she needs her teeth scaled. Ok... I'll do the teeth scaling though I don't want to pay for it. But is it really necessary to buy the expensive "diet" dog food or can I just feed her less/walk her more? It's 22,000w for a 1kg bag... blech.
Also, for the breed it says they should be 7-14kg. Louise is 10kg so is she really that overweight? ha.

[Karen]

OMG, no! I would do as you say, feed a bit less and go for longer walks, maybe add a weekend mountain trip or something!!

If her teeth are really bad, though, she might actually need that done because treating a tooth/gum infection will be more painful and expensive in the long run.

[alibuch]

Well, I'm definitely going to get the scaling done. She's starting to get some swelling in her gums around her teeth (starting of gingivitis I guess) so I want to stop that before it gets bad.

But I wasn't sure about the food. It just seems a bit ridiculous to me. haha

Maybe I'll take her hiking this weekend. :)

[dorothy and toto]

Just go to a big store like E-Mart or something, and you'll find they stock "low cal/diet" varieties of brands such as Alpo or Purina etc for overweight or older, less active dogs. There's really no price difference to regular varieties of the same brand. If you normally buy dog food like that, why buy the boutique diet food?

Or you could just add "diet filler" to Louise's regular food, and up the exercise - cook some low cal veges like celery and cabbage or something, blend it, and mix with whatever you usually feed. I heard sea kelp is good for a dog's coat, and it's low cal and easy to get here. You could blend a lot and store it in the fridge and freezer. Walking more will make her more hungry so I think filler or adding/subbing diet dog food is better than reducing her food. Or you could reduce food gradually. Same as for people, exercising is better than just relying on dieting, since you want to replace fat with good muscle and build strength, not just lose fat.