Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Beagle Update

Bela, our beagle, is doing really well. Too well, in fact. The vet put her on a diet. It's a battle of wills now. The first week Bela sort of went along with less dog food and no table scraps, but now she's fighting back, scavenging high and (mostly) low for any crumb that could even remotely be construed as edible.
Things she's eaten: Sidewalk chalk, the paper wrapping off a cheeseburger, the corner of a towel, dead baby birds, cat poop. There's more, but those are the highlights.
I'll be honest, it's my fault that she's fat. She sits with me in the kitchen when I'm cooking and I throw her all kinds of stuff. Chicken skin, pasta, pieces of cheese. Sometimes I fry her up an egg. But no more! Of the 10 pounds that she has to lose she's lost 2. Not bad for one week, but it's been hell. She bit me last night when MK and I took away a snack that she'd ferretted out of MK's niece's school backpack.
The vet said to give her 'filler' snacks, like carrots, green beans and canned pumpkin. She only chainsaws carrots, leaving an orange mess on the floor, she'll eat low sodium canned green beans but not fresh or frozen, and the pumpkin has to be room temp or she won't touch it. Only the green beans seem to her to actually be a treat, the rest...well, she's not a happy camper. She won't break me though. Sigh.

7 comments:

gypsywee said...

my dogs have always loved broc. They seem to really like the stems--good chew! You might give that a try.

drollgirl said...

oh god!!! how brutal!

i have 2 fat cats, but thankfully my vet doesn't ride me too much about them. probably because i rarely go to the vet.

peanut is 15 lbs, and not really huge. but leo? he is 20 lbs and a fucking moose. but just try to take away his food and he will slash your throat.

jennifer from pittsburgh said...

Thanks for the tip, gypsy! Butter Bean has been hell the last two days. If she had a gun she'd shoot me, take the car and go to Burger King ;)
Droll...a 20 lb cat! My God! Whitey, my cat, weighs like 9lbs. He might have worms ;)

~seelenschmerz~ said...

that's hilarious! but so true with dogs....i call our dog 'hoover' because he practically hoovers everything he can find up into his constantly-begging-hungering yap! you should have seen him devour about 2 lbs of goose poop one year before i even realized what kind of field we were in...holy shit..i mean, holy goose shit! lol
nice to be connected again, JFP...thanks...btw, the correction worked!

jennifer from pittsburgh said...

Don't mention it, seelens ;)

TheWeyrd1 said...

Your beagle has a cast iron stomach! My Tucker gets the poops from just about anything that he eats if it isn't his usual diet. He does love mini carrots...but only a once in awhile treat or he gets the poops. He also has himself on a diet. No matter what amount I put in the bowl, if it's more than a quarter cup...he leaves the rest and nibbles much later... Did I mention he's also self-entertaining...heh.

jennifer from pittsburgh said...

Self entertaining? I don't want to know. Really.
Beagles can eat almost anything. I had one once, Gunnar, who ate a six inch action figure. He couldn't quite pass it with out me pulling it out, but he survived. Lived to be 17, in fact. Ate whole shoes too.
I honestly don't think that there's anything that a beagle can't eat and manage to mostly pass. Once Bela ate a set of permanent markers and pooped a purplish load for three days. Those things are toxic! She breezed through it. Her guts must be like a WWI german u-boat.