Think about it… 1.) Do you give your pets treats on a regular basis? 2.) Do you give them scraps from the table? 3.) Do you feel like an Italian grandmother, serving love when you serve larger than normal meals to your pet? 4.) Do Felix or Fido seem to have grown around the midsection from all this pampering? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be overfeeding your pet and causing them to become overweight or obese. This isn’t just a human problem across America; it’s a pet problem too. Studies have shown that 34-41% of companion animals are obese or overweight, so as Americans, we are reflecting our obesity epidemic onto our pets. Of course, just as in humans, obesity in companion animals can lead to a whole host of other issues: 1.) Diabetes 2.) Hypothyroidism 3.) Cushing’s disease 4.) Oral cavity disease 5.) Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) 6.) Urinary tract disease 7.) Hypotension (decreased blood pressure) 8.) Heart disease 9.) Lung dysfunction 10.) Increased incidence of certain cancers Basically, if your pet is obese, many of these issues could plague your pet’s health and significantly alter its lifespan. Check out this body condition scoring system to determine if your pet is overweight: Veterinarians use this body condition score system to determine if your pet is too thin, overweight, or in an ideal weight category. If you notice from the charts above for both feline and canine body conditions, the ideal condition has palpable ribs. Many owners think this might mean their pet is underfed, giving them an excuse to cover their dog food with bacon grease or fill their kitty food with milk, but these are mobile animals and muscle mass won’t cover their ribs. Feeling ribs is okay, but seeing them visibly might mean they are underweight. If you notice an absence of a waist or an abdominal distention, then your pet it definitely obese. If you are unsure or know your pet is not in the ideal category, please bring them in for a nutritional consult. Treatment for Obesity So what do you do if your pet is overweight or obese? The best place to start is to have your pet examined by a veterinarian. Weight problems can sometimes be caused by certain medical conditions, like hypothyroidism in dogs. It’s good to rule out certain medical conditions. In rare cases, pet owners get off the hook at least a little bit for causing their pet’s weight issues. However, most of the time your pet’s expanding girth is caused by a combination of inactivity and overfeeding. Your veterinarian can assign a body condition score and determine how much weight your pet needs to lose. From there, your veterinarian can help formulate a plan that works best for your pet. Sometimes the solution is something simple like eliminating table scraps and reducing the amount of dry food your pet currently gets. Other times, pets have to be placed on special weight loss diets in order to lose the amount of weight needed to be healthy. Currently, my favorite go-to weight loss diet for dogs and cats is Hill’s Metabolic. What I like about this food is it works differently than the high fiber, low fat, low calorie diets (coined “starvation” diets) we were limited to in the past. This diet is quite similar to the Mediterranean diet commonly used in people. So if you’ve been pouring a lot of bacon grease on your dog’s food, you might look that diet up as well. Ingredients are high in antioxidants, which help boost metabolism. Along with diet, exercise is an important tool for weight loss. Taking your dogs on walks, taunting your cat with a laser, playing fetch with your dog, or even buying toys that encourage exercise and foraging behavior can get your pet to burn calories and lose weight. If you have an overweight dog, walking, running, fetch, swimming, and play dates with other dogs can get them moving. It’s simple enough to get a dog to exercise, but if you have an overweight cat, you might be wondering how to encourage increased activity. Remember,cats are predators and a way to get them to play is to encourage them to use hunting behavior. Buying toys that imitate their prey, like mice, birds, lizards, or rabbits is a good way to get their attention. Skitter a laser across the floor. Buy a wand toy and imitate a bird flying and taking off, but don’t just flap the wand toy around quickly. Birds don’t fly like that and cats aren’t easily tricked. Foraging toys are also a great way to get your cat more active and make them work for their food a little. This can also provide enrichment and fight boredom for your cat. These are containers that your cat manipulates in order to get treats to dispense. I would recommend filling the forage toy with a low calorie kibble like the Hill’s Metabolic diet or the Hill’s t/d (a dental diet that is also low in calories). Please take the time to check out your pet’s body condition. Making a few changes to their diet and getting them back to an ideal weight can add two to three years to their lifespan. If you find it difficult to stop overfeeding your pet, I can set you up with the local support group that tackles the common mom issue of overfeeding to show love. They’ll understand you!
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Jessica Stroupe, DVM
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August 2017
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