Low-Impact Exercise

[Amie]

We have a portly bulldog who has some pretty severe joint issues. She's also about 20lb overweight. We're looking into swimming for her, and I'm prescribing that all her meals come from work-to-eat toys, but what other very-low impact exercises are out there to help her get her weight down and ease some of the pressure on her joints?

[dogs4jen]

It's hard to think of anything better than swimming. Leash walks, what about tug, would that stress the joints too much? Twenty pounds is sure a lot of extra weight on a dog.

[jamielvsaustin]

Puppy sit/push ups? Or is that too much joint work?

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

Do you have a rehab facility near you who would donate time on an underwater treadmill?

[Misskiwi67]

Slow walks are best if they can't swim. The more weight he loses the better his joints will feel and he will be able to do more. Hopefully he can drop some pounds fast!

I would also recommend restricting his food even more than you would expect to need. Overweight dogs metabolisms are often much slower, and they can require 50% calories less than a normal dog.

Has his thyroid been checked?

[dogs4jen]

How's he doing, any improvement yet?

[Amie]

She was adopted! So I don't know if she's lost any weight (I hope! I believe our tech staff was supposed to speak to her family before she left, but I wasn't in that day so I don't know.

We also found a local dog pool willing to work with us on some things for our dogs, so if we get another similar issue, we'll have an out!