Cooper's New Diet

My Sweet Brown Man

Yesterday I took Cooper and Junie to the vet.  Both of the pups needed ear treatments and I wanted to get Coop's thyroid checked.  His friend, Jet, was recently diagnosed with hypothyroidism, so I thought it might be a good idea to get a blood test for Coop.

Well....long story short......Coop just needs to cut back on his calories....even more than he already has.  His test came back fine, but his weight was even worse than our last visit.  He is up to 97 lbs!  He needs to lose 20 lbs.  My poor boy:(

The vet, Dr. Cooper, (fitting huh?) suggested a new food for Cooper.  He was on Wellness Healthy Weight, which is a holistic, all natural food.  It is some great stuff!  But Dr. Cooper recommended to put Coop on Iams Veterinary Formula Weight Loss.  I am super not a fan of Iams.  By-product gives me the jeebies.....

I went to our local pet supply store and talked to the owner about Coop.  He actually had a lab that was 98 lbs.  He put her on this diet and used green beans for treats.  She dropped 20 lbs in three months!

So I am putting my boy and his health in front of everything else, including my dislike for Iams.  I did learn some good things about Iams today, though.  They are an American company and the food (at least the veterinary formula) is made in a lab.  It was strongly recommended by the vet, so I am giving it a shot. 

Also, as Ben and I were measuring Cooper's new food with the handy measuring cup I got from the store owner today, we compared it to his old "1 cup" scoop.  His old scoop was totally more than one cup!  It had a line inside it just below the rim that was labeled one cup.  Really??  It looked like it was a one cup scoop.  We over fed him a smidgen at each meal and that seemed to add up:(

At least now that winter is here, we can get back to exercising.  Labrador coats are not meant for North Carolina summers.  My poor Coop is all about the air conditioning in the summer.

Yesterday was Day 1 of Coop's new diet.  We will weigh him again in about six weeks to see how he is coming along!

We will for sure keep you posted!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Laura