Pet of the Week

Kaiser's story begins with him rapidly gaining weight around a year old. He seemed to be continually gaining weight and drinking a lot of water. I took him to my vet at the time and the vet was convinced that he had a thyroid problem, although his thyroid lab results were primarily in the normal ranges. Kaiser was on thyroid medication for about a year and I tried various dog food in order to help him lose the weight, as well as reducing his food and calorie intake. Nothing seemed to be working. Last summer, he was about 157 lbs at his heaviest (at two years old). I was getting very concerned, as I did not want his weight to cause any muscular or joint problems early on.

It was toward the end of last summer when I discovered your brand of dog food: Castor & Pollux Weight Management formula at my local PetCo (I believe its primarily in PetCo and a few "locally" owned stores, such as Concord Pet in Delaware). I was determined to find a food that Kaiser would actually eat (without moist food mixed in) as well as would be healthy for him (I believed all these fillers, whey, etc. were not helping him lose weight-if its not good for humans, its not good for dogs). He started eating your weight management formula without hesitation-he seemed to love all the dried fruit and he would eat the food without anything added to it. I started him on a small bag at first to ensure Kaiser liked the food, and he was eating this food everyday as of September 2006. At the same time, my new vet couldn't understand why kaiser was on thyroid medicine and thought his previous lab results were perfectly normal. Kaiser was simply overweight (at this time he was 147lbs). The vet recommended that I conduct one more thyroid screening and have it sent to Michigan State Veterinary Hospital, who is the authority on thyroid issues. During this time we took Kaiser off the thyroid medicine. Kaiser's results came back in prefect range, and the vet suggested adding carrots and tomatoes to his snacking habits. With a healthy diet of Castor and Pollux and exercise and healthy snacks, by Thanksgiving 2006 Kaiser's weight had dropped to 117lbs! Kaiser has been able to maintain his weight and is about 115lbs now. I still cannot believe how well he responded to the dog food formula, in addition to loving how it tasted. The food also smelled great and I especially love the real fruit and veggies pieces mixed in. Now I can switch back to the regular formula now that I have been able to maintain his weight.