Home / Pet Illnesses / Obesity in Pets

OBESITY IN PETS

Obesity is the most common nutritional disease of dogs and cats. It is an excess of body fats and is associated with many health problems.

Obesity occurs in 20-30% of pet dogs and cats.

It is most common in older female animals.

Is your pet overweight?

You may have thought to yourself that your pet is overweight or been told by a veterinary surgeon or nurse in the surgery.

If your pet weighs over 15% more than it did as a young healthy adult, it is overweight.

As a guide, if you have difficulty in feeling the ribs, then your pet has a problem. You should be just able to feel the ribs with a small amount of pressure

Why obesity is dangerous

Overweight pets suffer more physical ailments and do not live as long as animals of average weight. Obesity often reduces a pet's enjoyment of life, its performance and the owner's enjoyment of the pet.

Health risks associated with weight gain

Heart/respiratory disease
Joint disease e.g. arthritis, back or spinal disc problems and ruptured ligaments
Cancer
Diabetes · Liver disease
Risk with surgery and anaesthesia
Heat intolerance

The reason for obesity

You must admit to yourself that the animal is overweight and realise that although there are some slight aggravating causes, the only way an animal becomes and stays overweight is because it is having TOO MUCH TO EAT ! In other words, the total daily intake of calories is more than it needs.

Many owners will not face this fact and try to persuade themselves and us that the animal is not being overfed. We often hear the same answers to our suggestions that a pet is overweight:

"Its not what he eats"
"She only has one meal a day"
"We don't overfeed him"
"Its because she hasn't had much exercise lately"
"Its my husband/wife/mother/children - they give him extras"
"He/she only got fat after being desexed"

All of these show that the owners are trying to persuade themselves that they are not over feeding the animal concerned. If your pet is fat, it is having too much to eat!

Just the odd tidbit can add up to a huge number of calories for your pet

Exercise is the key to a healthy lifestyle: Exercise tips

Let your pet warm up and increase exercise gradually as fitness improves. Most overweight pets are unfit so its best to begin slowly.
Try to exercise your pet with other pets
If you can't exercise your pet, ask a family member, a friend or a dog walker to do it for you
Join an agility club

The solution

Together with the veterinarian, set a specific goal for weight reduction and estimate the time required to reach that goal. Allow 8-12 weeks to reach this "target weight". We will want to see your pet at regular intervals during and after the weight-reduction program.

Management of an overweight per should include:

Reducing your pets calorie intake by feeding it a low calorie high fibre food specifically formulated for reducing weight. e g. Hill's r/d dry food for cats and dogs
Keep your pet out of the room when food is being prepared or eaten.
Do not feed overweight pets with other pets.
Do not feed anything other than the amount of food prescribed by the veterinarian. This includes ALL edible material taken by mouth including sweets, treats, milk etc.
Exercise your pet regularly as directed (see exercise tips above)
At least once a week weigh your pet and record its weight on the weight control graph available from BVH.

Fun and games for dogs

Fetch- throwing a ball or toy is great exercise for your dog and not too strenuous for you (never use a stick as these can splinter and cause injury to your dog)
Hide and seek- hide a toy or some kibble and let your dog find it.
Jogging and cycling- good for you and your dog
Swimming or hydrotherapy- ideal for dogs with arthritis or back problems.

Recommended exercises for your cat

Cats, particularly those with an indoor lifestyle, may not be getting sufficient exercise. Here are some ideas to boost the activity level of your cat.

Toys- use commercial or home made cat toys to encourage active play.
"Catch the Light" - shine a white light on the walls and let your cat play (do not use red light laser as it may damage your cat's eyes)
"Boxing" - let your cat play in a box or paper bag.

Rewarding your pet

We all like to reward our pets. There are alternative ways to giving a reward without giving food.

Praise and attention- give lots of cuddles and praise
Fun and games- play games with your pet, they love interaction with their owners.
Walks- you know how much they enjoy these!
Massage- a relaxing and healthy way to reward your pet

Dietary management

Successful weight-reduction is rare if your pet is fed its regular diet. Decreasing the amount of regular food enough to produce weight loss may cause nutritional deficiencies and begging. Feed your pet a diet specifically formulated for weight reduction. There are two types of diet to choose from:

1) A Home Made Low Calorie Diet

This is a special high volume, low calorie diet you can cook up yourself and store in the freezer.

Home made low calorie diet recipe

1 cup of white rice
500 gm lean meat
1 or 2 beef Oxo cubes
2 pints water
4 tablespoons gelatine Mix, then boil to cook
Stand to set
Freeze to keep

Feed approx. 200gm per 10 kg target weight

2) A Commercial Low Calorie Food

Hills r/d diet (dry or tin) is a very tasty food that can be fed in quite large amounts to cats and dogs. The dogs we have had on Hills r/d feel satisfied by it and have certainly lost weight very quickly. It contains everything your dog or cat needs in the way of vitamins and minerals etc. Hills r/d is a prescription diets and is only available from Veterinary Surgeons. It can be brought either by the can or by the bag.

3) Snacks

If possible, avoid giving snacks. But if your pet is used to receiving them, use limited amounts of healthy snacks like carrots or rice cakes.

Table scraps are inappropriate for pets -especially those on a weight loss programme.

Low calorie snacks	kcal
Canine r/d dry (10 kibbles)	4
Feline r/d dry (10 kibbles)	6
1/4 cup of carrot	17
1/4 cup of green beans	9
1/4 apple	12
1/4 rice cake	9
1/2 fat free wheat cracker	6