Fortnightly weighing for a breed built to gain
An elderly Labrador Retriever should be weighed every two weeks and given a hands-on check once a week. Labradors are genetically enthusiastic eaters, and the senior years combine that appetite with joints that do less work, so weight gain in an old Labrador is common, gradual, and easy to rationalise as a dog simply filling out. A fortnightly figure ends the argument: either the trend is flat or it is climbing, and climbing weight on arthritic joints makes every step cost more.
Weigh on the same scale before breakfast, with a dry coat. A Labrador fresh from a swim or a rainy walk carries water in that dense, oily double coat, and the reading can be misleadingly high. If the number surprises you, check the context in your note before changing food; the three-reading trend is the figure to trust and to discuss.
The Labrador check: ribs, ears, tail, and teeth
A weekly Labrador check should start with honest hands. Run them over the ribcage: you should feel ribs with light pressure under a modest covering, and there should be a waist behind them when viewed from above and a tuck from the side. Labradors wear their extra weight evenly, so the hands are a better judge than the mirror. Feel down the legs and around the joints for heat, swelling, or a flinch.
Lift each ear flap and look and smell inside. Labradors swim, shake, and trap moisture under those flaps, and ear discomfort is a frequent, easily missed reason an older dog goes quiet. Check the thick base of the tail and the skin along the back for flaking or sore patches, and review the teeth and gums, noting dropped food, slower chewing, or breath that has worsened. Watch a full meal now and then and record what is left, because a Labrador who leaves food is saying something unusual for the breed.
Joints and movement: the other half of the weight story
An elderly Labrador's weekly check should include movement, because weight and joint comfort drive each other. Watch your dog rise after a long rest and take the first ten steps: stiffness that eases is a different note from stiffness that persists. Watch a straight walk for a shortened stride, a swaying rear, or a head bob, and note how stairs and the step into the garden are handled compared with last month.
Plan activity to protect the comparison. Short, frequent walks on forgiving ground suit most senior Labradors better than one long weekend march, and swimming or gentle water exercise, where your vet agrees, can keep muscle working with less joint load. Record next-morning stiffness after bigger days; that note, beside the fortnightly weight, shows whether the current exercise level is helping or costing.
Vet thresholds for the senior Labrador
Book a veterinary appointment if your elderly Labrador's weight rises or falls across two consecutive weigh-ins without an intended diet change, if appetite drops, or if you find persistent ear redness and smell, a new lump, or lameness lasting more than a day or two. Collapse, repeated vomiting, a swollen abdomen, or inability to rise need same-day care rather than an appointment in due course.
At the visit, your record should answer the vet's first questions before they are asked: how much weight, over how long, on what food, with what exercise and stiffness pattern. Assembling those Labrador weights, ear findings, and movement notes in KinsLe via Pet Passport keeps the whole senior picture in a single, shareable history.