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Local dog at risk of being put down due to obesity finds new home and loses five stone

Cheshire Pet vet Edward Davies feared Philip may "have reached the end" when he examined the dog mid last year.

Emily Sergeant - 14th January 2022

A local Cheshire dog who was at risk of being put down due to obesity has found a new lease of life after shedding five stone.

Nine-year-old Philip the Springer Spaniel’s desperate owner didn’t know what to do after the pup had ballooned to 10st 5lbs – which was more than three times his recommended weight – from munching on too many cakes, biscuits, and other human food, before stopping eating and finding it extremely difficult to walk, CheshireLive reports.

Cheshire Pet vet Edward Davies feared Philip may “have reached the end” when he examined the dog mid last year.

“I’ve been a vet for 30 years and I’ve never seen a dog as overweight as Philip. It was amazing that his legs could hold him up at all, and he was so big it was hard to even examine him to find out what was wrong,” Mr Davies told CheshireLive.

“He could have had a football-sized mass in his abdomen, and we wouldn’t have felt it underneath all the fat – but his blood tests actually came back surprisingly clear.”

Although Mr Davies said he thought Philip’s quality of life was “virtually non-existent”, the Holmes Chapel-based vet practice – which is a part of the My Family Vets family – said they’d “never want to put a dog to sleep when we feel we can treat and rehome it”.

Philip was adopted by Mr Davies and was put on special diet for six months.

And now, Philip’s “tale is always wagging” and he loves to swim.

After a combination of replacing his usual sugary foods with a specially-tailored canine diet, and playing with Mr Davies’ other two dogs, going for long walks, and chasing balls and swimming in local reservoirs to build up stamina, Philip now weighs in at around 4st 10lbs.

Mr Davies added that Philip sould be down to the ideal weight before the end of the year, and that “his personality has really come out,” and it’s “lovely to see him happy.”

“He’s such a friendly dog, and you just didn’t see that before.”

Featured Image – Cheshire Pet / My Family Vets