He's easily obese. I don't know how much he actually ways, but I'm sure it's around 300-350 lbs, he's 6'3 btw. Three years ago he declared that he would go on a diet. He was about 50-100 lbs lighter then. I would give his actual weight but no one in my family has any idea to what it is, all we know is that he's too heavy for our scale and exceeds the treadmill's weight limit. His stomach is just getting bigger and bigger... it's digusting. He had a heart attack about half a year ago actually, but that dose of reality didn't stop him from eating like a gluttonous pig. Honestly I feel bad for calling him a pig, because pigs are actually great creatures when he's a sad, fat, poor excuse of a human.
Recently my family got a new puppy, he's currently 6 months old and adorable. He's at a perfectly healthy weight, the vet confirmed it and everything. My ham dad says that's he's a "string bean" and that he needs to gain more weight, which is bs. I've been trying to educate my dad on the healthy weight for a dog of his size but he won't listen. He actually fed him a chicken bone once, but I happened to be nearby at the time to take it away before anything bad happened. My dad constantly sneaks him sausages, chicken, steak, hot dogs... Everything that a puppy shouldn't be eating. I'm just worried that the poor little pup will get health problems because of my dad feeding him shit... my dad won't listen to me or my family no matter how much we ask him to stop. I don't know what to do :/
view the rest of the comments →
[–] theepilepticferret 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Puppy tax! You can't mention an adorable puppy without giving us pictures, OP. That's just cruel :P
In all seriousness though, you are right to be concerned about your dad feeding your puppy crap. I'm a veterinary technician (not in the field anymore, but still retain my license) so I hope I can pass on some information to you that you can show your dad. Here is a healthy weight chart for dogs. Your dog should be a 3. When you feel your dogs ribs, they should feel like if you run your fingers over the back of your hand - they're under a soft layer of tissue, but you can still feel them. Overweight and obese pets have pretty much all of the same health issues as overweight and obese (formerly) humans.
Another possible issue for your pup could be pancreatitis. It can happen after your dog eats something really fatty, or gorges on something that's high fat (dog gets into the garbage and eats the steak trimmings from everyone's meal, for example). So if your dad is feeding him things like sausages or bacon, your pup could be at risk of getting pancreatitis. Some breeds are more prone to it, like schnauzers for example, so it could take less to set them off. If your dad keeps slipping scraps to your dog from the table, perhaps you can put him in his crate (if you've crate trained him) or another room or even outside during meals? My grandfather also sneaks table scraps to my dog, so any time we're having dinner with him, she gets locked in another room with my parents' dogs.
Another health concern could be hip dysplasia but this is something that the dog is typically born with, and carrying extra weight could make it worse. I just thought to mention it because my parents' sheltie has hip dysplasia and he used to weigh like 50 pounds, but now he's down to 40 and is doing much better (he's a really tall sheltie, which is also not normal for the breed - probably why his hips are so messed up). Joint issues are also problemmatic in overweight dogs, the same as they are in people.
Another problem that I would see often when I worked in a clinic was CCL tears. It's similar to an ACL tear in humans, and being overweight or obese ups the chances of it happening.
If you need more resources to show your dad or the rest of your family, the internet has lots of information about the problems associated with obesity in pets. Unfortunately though, if your dad won't listen, you may have to remove your dog from the situation by putting him outside or in another room during meal times. Good luck!