Meet Ollie, KZN pet slimmer finalist
Say hello to Ollie, an English bulldog from La Lucia in KZN - and take a look at his Pet Slimmer 'before and after' photos. He's a different dog!
So it doesn't take a genius to know that I am a huge fan of dogs. I think they are angels on earth, and the kind of unconditional love that comes from them is just so special.
I always urge everyone to include their dog in their family, as PART of the family, not just a little creature who spends all day outside, alone.
I recently discovered that there is a competition for Pet Slimmer Of The Year in South Africa! Something like this is close to home because I'm trying to get my oldest sausage dog - Coco - to lose a bit of weight. I was told that she is far from obese, but if she lost some weight she'd be less likely to injure her back further.
We even have a Pet Slimmer contender from KZN! The before and after photos are incredible - he looks like a different dog!
- Abi
(Above: Ollie before)
(Above: Ollie, after)
Here's the testimonial from Ollie’s owner – Colleen Tully:
My beloved English bulldog Ollie gained a lot of weight when I had him neutered. He is a very spoilt child who is exercised twice a day. Our domestic worker, Zou, takes him to the park in the mornings and I take him after work in the evenings. One of the highlights of his visit to the park was being fed treats by one of the locals…..he is a bit like the pied piper and has all the dogs flock around him. In addition he was suffering from skin allergies, flatulence and snored a lot. Zou loves him as much as we do. So much so that she was sharing her breakfast with him which was not helping his weight. I made a decision that we needed to do something about his figure. We enrolled him on the Hill's Prescription Diet r/d diet in 2012 when he was 5 years old. His pied piper at the park was instructed not to feed my boy, which he duly respected. Although there were many days when I nearly gave in and let him feed Ollie. It was heart breaking to watch Ollie sit by, drooling heavily, while all the other dogs got treats. I tried to distract him and even took slices of apple to the park as a substitute.
Zou was also educated about feeding him human food and she started to cut back when I made her responsible for walking Ollie down to the vet to weigh him once a week. She got so excited when he lost a few 100g and this encouraged her to stop sharing with him. Slowly but surely the weight fell off and his quality of life has improved. He has so much more energy. His skin irritation has improved. He snores much less and flatulence is better. He exercises every day with his favourite squeaky toy and his rugby ball which he pushes around and scrums under his chest, living up to his name sake Ollie le Roux. I am very impressed with the change Hill's has made in his life. I am convinced that this has extended his life which is so important as he is such a beloved member of my family.
- On www.petslimmer.co.za you can also vote for a maximum of five finalists, before midday 22 October. Two voters will be randomly chosen each week to win a R150 Hill’s prize hamper.