14 January,2009 10:17 AM IST | | Agencies
A dog has been placed on an intensive diet after becoming so obese that he is unable to walk.
Vets decided drastic measures were required after the beagle cross, named Patch, ballooned to nearly 62lbs - the average weight of an eight-year-old child.
The six-year-old dog is so heavy that his legs cannot support him and he has to be placed in a special harness and carried around.
The portly pet now faces a course of dieting with an animal charity to almost halve his body weight to a more manageable 33lbs.
Patch's obesity leaves him at risk of developing heart failure, diabetes, liver disease, pancreatitis or arthritis.
However, he risks organ failure if he loses weight too quickly.
The overfed dog was handed in to the Dogs Trust's Glasgow centre last month after his owner died.
A carer at the centre, Victoria Kelly, said: "We get a lot of overfed dogs in the centre, but nothing to the extent of Patch.
"As soon as he came in we knew something needed to be done."
But staff had to resort to novel methods to shave the pounds off Patch because he is too fat to slim through exercise alone.
Instead, he has embarked on a gradual exercise programme, consisting of short daily walks in his harness and hydrotherapy sessions.
