Canine Obesity - How to Identify It and Treat It

Today we'll be talking about obesity or being overweight and our canine patients. Obesity is defined as being more than 30 percent overweight. Your ideal body weight overweight is 10 to 20 percent over the ideal body weight in people which measure this with height and weight and get a calculation of your BMI and dogs. We kind of looked more at what is spraying look like. We do an exam. Look at what your ideal body score is. Some people wonder about behavior change. They're overweight. Similar to in humans. What we may notice is they're slowing down a little bit more. They might not be as active or agile. You may notice that. They're winded sooner or walks or they seem to be a little sore after a long walk. Some people will ask if they get their dog neutered or spayed. Will that cause obesity. The answer is not directly. Just like people sometimes his hormones change we can see metabolism go down a little bit. Often times if we see a dog after a spay and neuter increasing in their body weight we may suggest decreasing the amount of food offered by a small portion each day to help counter. Balance the change in metabolism. What causes obesity or pets to be overweight. You might not be surprised. It's increased. Calorie intake versus what we're expanding throughout the day. Similar to people. So what we may find is that over time slowly we add a few more treats and we love our furry friends and they give us those awesome puppy dog eyes and we might extend a little table scraps or an extra treat or top off the food bowl a little bit more over time really add up and you may find that come in for your next visit with us. Fluffy is put on 10 to 15 pounds. And that can cause some major damage.

Another thing we can see is increased risk for certain types of cancers diabetes heart disease high blood pressure over time. You can see degeneration of joints is increased so arthritis gets worse. Other things like you might not think about increasing self bladder stones. They're less heat tolerant in our texas summers that can be significant increased risk for heat stroke or unable to go outside and enjoy time with you in the yard. So the next question is always what can I do. Now your pet has been diagnosed as being overweight or obese. The next step is typically to look at your lifestyle. So let's encourage activity whether that's more toy play with especially cats you can't typically take them for walks and you may want to get dust off the laser or get a new cat toys to encourage activity hide their food throughout the house lift your arms. Usually it's can we take him on a brisk walk 30 minutes a day. Start small. Go around the block. But the main thing it's going to be diet adjustment. Look at your life. Honestly how many treats are they getting throughout the day. How big are the treats. What about table scraps. Those can really add up throughout the day. And then finally diet adjustment. We can definitely help you choose an appropriate light diet. We have prescription diets now that help encourage metabolism. Cut the calories without our dogs feeling like we're starving them. You can often find if you just cut the amount. They'll be begging or digging through the trash or suddenly eating every acorn icon in the backyard. So you have to go about it in a appropriate manner. So that they're happy and you're happy too.