West, 33, has not played since round six after incurring a bone stress injury to his right knee.
Before the latest setback, he had been expected to return to action in mid-July following the split round.
General manager of football operations James Fantasia told SEN that West's frustration with the injury was an "understatement".
"He's really struggling with it," he said. "He's had a terrific career and his durability's unquestioned.
"[The injury's] as foreign to him as it probably is to us.
"He was progressing pretty well but he began to feel some discomfort with it again, so that's where we got him re-assessed and the inflammation (around the knee joint) hasn't come down as we would have like it to," Fantasia said.
"Our decision was we would lighten his load a bit to take the pressure off it.
"We kept saying two weeks but it just hasn't got there so we said, 'no lets take the pressure off and say it's four weeks'.
"It now gives him a chance to get back which we think he will.
"We're going to take him off the track for now the next two weeks which will give him two weeks back (training) before he's ready to play.
Fantasia admitted West was struggling to cope with the uncertainty of his return but denied it would end the 33-year-old's career.
"Scott's very resilient - he's got a very healthy and natural fitness base," Fantasia said.
"There will be the initial match conditioning that he needs but that might be a game or two before you're back into (playing well) at an AFL level, we're confident he can work his way back in the side."
West's absence has seemed to have had little impact to the Bulldogs on-ball division, with Adam Cooney, Ryan Griffen, Daniel Cross and Matthew Boyd stepping up to fill the void left by the seven-time best and fairest winner.
But Fantasia believed West could be the "X factor" the team might need in the high-intensity stakes of finals football and believed his prolonged layoff and frustration meant he had a greater appetite to succeed in his 16th AFL season.
"One of the points of differences he brings into the mix is his ability to find the ball and his experience," Fantasia said.
"He adds fairly significant leadership to our group, which will be a bonus come finals time."
West, a record seven-time best and fairest winner with the Dogs, had only missed eight matches in his first 15 seasons through injury.He is third on the Bulldogs' all-time games list with 324.
