“It’s definitely not uncommon,” she says with a laugh. Sarah Nold, a staff veterinarian at Trupanion, a Seattle-based pet insurer. Throw small children into the household mix with “sneak feeding” and the situation becomes worse, says Dr. Giving pets easy access to food around the house, or “free feeding,” can quickly add unwanted pounds, they say, as can an overindulgence in high-calorie treats. An animal at six is considered clinically overweight, with a score of seven or more, obese.īut veterinarians single out overfeeding as the greatest contributor to pet obesity. Deborah Linder, head of Tufts University’s obesity clinic for animals in Boston. Emaciated dogs or cats get the lowest score on a nine-point scale, obese ones the highest, with a desirable weight usually in the four to five range, says Dr. Veterinarians assess a pet’s overall body health using a system similar to the body mass index, or B.M.I., used in people. And at least one widely cited study in Labrador retrievers found that even moderately overweight dogs have shorter life spans than their lean counterparts. Overweight dogs rarely develop this form of diabetes, veterinarians say, though large breeds often face joint injuries from excess weight, while smaller ones can have breathing difficulties if airways collapse.Īlong with diabetes and arthritis, extra heft puts pets at increased risk for liver and kidney diseases, high blood pressure, heart failure and even some cancers. Max’s six-month journey to a healthier weight reduced his risk for insulin-dependent diabetes, the most common health problem veterinarians see in overweight or obese cats. Obesity and the inflammatory effects of excess fat can bring a host of health problems. There’s not as much stigma with animals being overweight as with people.” “Generally, the public is more tolerant of obese animals than they are of thin ones. “In part, it’s an issue of perception,” Dr. And show animals, often held up as exemplary models, he says, sometimes tend toward the pudgy side. Justin Shmalberg, service chief of integrative medicine at the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville. Worse yet, many pet owners fail to recognize the potential severity of the problem, finding their pets’ weight gain of little concern or even “cute,” says Dr. Sixty percent of cats tip the scales at unhealthy weights, slightly more than the 56 percent of dogs. The Association for Pet Obesity Prevention estimates that in the United States, veterinarians now classify more than 100 million dogs and cats as overweight or obese, up from 80 million five years ago. “Not having the extra pounds has been great for his joints.” Wilson, who works at the University of Florida’s Small Animal Hospital in Gainesville, Fla. But after six months, “he’s very sleek and thin,” says Mrs. “He was ravenous all the time,” his owner concedes. So his owner, Jaime Wilson, decided her pet needed to go on a diet - barely two tablespoons of dry food in the morning and again at night, along with a larger portion of canned wet food once a day and a supervised exercise program that included treadmill work and running through stationary poles. But because he was slightly overweight, the 15-year-old Maine coon began having trouble “jumping up on things,” his owner says, the extra pounds worsening his arthritis. Like most cats, Max had a swagger in his walk.
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