I'm no help with you question but I am just amazed at feeding dogs vegies..I was just talking to a friend who has 3 Shelties and she gives them green beans every day.But she did tell me a funny, she had mistakingly gotten french cut style beans and 1 of the dogs let her know she didn't like them by throwing them all over the kitchen....I sure wish my cats would eat something like that....I think it's wonderful.....

My dog would be a total vegetarian if I let him! If he had a choice of cauliflower over meat, he'd choose the cauliflower. His other favorites......carrots, broccoli, banana, oranges, apples, bell peppers, sugar snap peas........IOW, just about any raw vege I offer him.

I see nothing wrong with giving your dog any veges he likes, but some are higher in carbs than others. I'm not sure how that weighs in compared to total calories.

Here is a link that might be useful: calories

You can give them any veggies you want,(not onions of course), but they won't get nutrition from them unless you break down the cell walls by pulverizing in a food processor. Cooking may also work.

Your dog may benefit by a higher protein diet, they produce less waste on a higher protein diet. Tho veggies are great for regularity they are will be excreted as a waste product. Since your dog has probelms with walking and sqautting this will help minimize the time spend doing its duty. Since I put my dog on a higher protein diet he poops less frequently and less in mass because his body is using most all of the calories he is taking in.
Ask your vet about pain pills and you might look into a wheel chari for your pup... good luck

when serving veggies and fruit just keep in mind variety, pulped,and in small amounts. too much of some veggies can cause a problem with other nutrient absorption processes, such as for one example> too much spinach can iterfere with calicium absorption. Even green beans should be rotated with other veggies. Same kind of variety with fruits is also best. Also as dogs get older I try and de seed fruits and veggies as it is my belief (like senior people) dogs are more sucseptible to diverticula.

do not give your pets grapes or raisins they can't process them and if they eat too many it can kill them much the way chocolate does! a friend of mine found that out the hard way!! seriously you can probably google it much the way i did, and i found out:
The grapes and raisins came from varied sources, including being eaten off the vine directly. The dogs exhibited gastrointestinal signs including vomiting and diarrhea and then signs of kidney failure with an onset of severe kidney signs starting about 24 hours after ingestion of the grapes or raisins. The amount of grapes eaten varied between 9oz. and 2 lbs., which worked out to be between 0.41 and 1.1 oz/kg of body weight. Two dogs died directly from the toxicity, three were euthanized due to poor response to treatment and five dogs lived. Due to the severity of the signs and the potential for death, the veterinarians at the poison control center advocate aggressive treatment for any dogs suggested of ingesting excessive amounts of grapes or raisins, including inducing vomiting, stomach lavage (stomach pumping) and administration of activated charcoal, followed by intravenous fluid therapy for at least 48 hours or as indicated based on the results of blood tests for kidney damage.
there is a need to panic if a dog eats three or four grapes but if the whole bunch is missing from the table one day, it would be good to think about watching for any signs of a toxic reaction.

i copied paste that from www.vetinfo4dogs.com/dtoxin.html

To the list Annz has, I'd add eggplant and tomatoes. My terriers like it raw or cooked. Also, tomatoes. Mine like to eat tomatoes fresh by pulling them off the vines in the summer.

I'd google seeds and nuts before feeding them any. I seem to recall some nuts aren't good for dogs, plus they tend to be high in calories.
-Hal

Mine like to eat tomatoes fresh by pulling them off the vines in the summer.

Hal,(addressing the above statment) you may want to rethink the dogs free eating the tomatoes as the foliage and stems
contain toxic alkaloids. Same with eggplant, green peppers, potatoes, etc.

Actually, tomatoes can aggravate arthritis, so although this a good veggie that I share with my younger dogs, they wouldn't be a good choice for your arthritic pup.

Our Toby love tomatoes, and he taught Bina about them, too. I grow mine in bins on tables outdoors so the dogs can't whiz on my food while it is growing. Toby wil reach up and eat the tomatoes off the vines. They love to tomatoes and have shown no interest in chewing or eating the vines.

All three of mine love frozen green beans. Toby loves carrots, Casey tolerates them. Toby and Bina re even eating grapefruit now. I recently bought a case and they sit at my feet and beg bites. Casey just does not understand this at all. He spits out grapefruit.

I never give veggies in high quantity.

Tucker loves carrots, green beans, spinach & lettuce. Mazer raised a good point, about using high quality foods that will reduce the amount of waste your pup produces. If it's within your budget you may want to consider a raw diet/raw freeze dried diet also. Many of the people I meet in my local pet store swear by it. (the local Pet Boutique has become the Starbucks for dog lovers in my town!)

Don't give your dog pumpkin. It isn't bad for dogs (actually good) but my dogs love it so much, it has greatly increased their appetites since I started feeding them. I used to feed them just Inova EVO and i was worried that they seemed to be disinterested in food, especially one of them who was underweight. (Inova is touted to be low-carb).

When I added the pumpkin, whoaaa! stand back, these kids beg like they never have and gobble their food.