[Dailydrool] How to tell if your Basset is overweight- funny story

[Brenda Waldrop]

My first basset, Aeryn, was a purebred, papered, princess that I got "free
to a good home" off Craigslist.  He people had bought her for their daughter
and she was going off to college, so they didn't want to keep her.  Aeryn
was 10 and had epilepsy that required her to take phenobarbital.  She
arrived at my house weighing in at 98lbs.

Walking her around the neighborhood the first week I was surprised by the
number of people who stopped to pet her and said, "My that's the biggest
basset I've ever seen!" (one woman said my that's the biggest beagle I've
ever seen).  After this happened a couple times I went home and consulted my
newly purchased PetSmart, owner's guide to the Basset.  There was a section
in the health chapter titled "how to tell if your basset is the correct
weight".

Armed with the instructions, I had my daughter hold Aeryn in place, and as
instructed I stood with one foot on either side of her and looked down.
According to my manual a correctly sized basset should have a defined chest
and then taper nicely back to the tail. It included a picture for
comparison.

"Well mom," Morgan asked, "How does she look, like the picture in the
book?"

"Well I said, she looks like a football."

I'd already made her a vet appointment for the next week to get her all
checked out, so I asked the vet about it then.  He said that her ideal
weight was about 75 lbs, but at her age and with the levels of phenobarbital
she had to take, there was no way she was ever going to get back down to
that.  She never had any joint problems, jumped on and off the couch with
ease, and never gained any more weight.

We lost our little football to a brain tumor two years later, but if you
don't believe bassets can come in all sizes, including HUGE, hop on over to
http://www.desireeacres.com/ and check out a few of the Desiree Acres
bassets!

Brenda- momslave to Copper (52lbs) and Elphaba (47lbs)
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