Most references report that 20-30% of dogs and cats are overweight with one report as high as 40%. If your animal falls into this category and would therefore benefit from a weight reduction program, the information that follows should help you achieve your objectives.
Obesity cannot occur unless the amount for food (calories) exceeds the animal’s nutritional requirements. Simple put, if a pet is overweight, it is eating too much. Any overweight animal should be evaluated to make sure there are no metabolic diseases that are contributing to the problem. Thyroid abnormalities can cause obesity and until it is corrected, dietary management will probably not resolve the problem.
Hazards of Obesity
- Overweight animals have shorter life spans than normal weight animals
- Hastens development of joint disease and lameness
- Causes heart disease (Pickwickian Syndrome*)
- Predisposes to Diabetes
- Increases risk of Heat Stroke
- Increases anesthesia risk
A longer, more active life should be motivation enough for a caring pet owner to treat an overweight pet.
Myths and Misconceptions
- Pets do not need to eat every meal with gusto. If your pet is not interested in eating, do not entice them. If you provide a good quality food and liberal amounts of water, your pet will eat when it wants.
- Spaying or neutering does not cause obesity. It may slow the pet’s body metabolism, lowering the calorie requirement. The pet will subsequently burn off calories more slowly, hence needing less food. The surgery does not cause the weight gain, eating too much does and you have control over that.
- Healthy dogs and cats do not need to eat every meal.
Cat and Dog Differences
Cats have a very significant metabolic idiosyncrasy that differs greatly from dogs. Cats are prone to developing a dangerous condition called Hepatic Lipidosis if their caloric intake is suddenly restricted. Putting a cat on a reducing diet should never be done without the supervision of a veterinarian.
Classifying the overweight Dog (The following descriptions are related, with permission, from ThePetCenter.com, written by T.J. Dunn, Jr.)
- Type I: THE NIBBLER—“But doctor, she hardly eats a thing.” No, this dog rarely eats a lot but nibbles all the time plus eats leftovers and over a 24-hour period, eats too much.
- Type II: THE BEGGAR—“But doctor, this dog will not keep quiet unless she gets her treats. She also won’t go to sleep at night until she gets her dish of ice cream.” This behavior evolves when the pet learns it to be rewarded by making noise or fussing and the owner finally gives in to keep the pet quiet.
- Type III: THE GOOD DOG—“But doctor, she’s such a good dog we don’t want her to go hungry.” This pet becomes fat because the owner’s signal of affection for their pet has focused on food. Think “FETCH,” not “FOOD.”
- Type IV: THE GOURMET DOG—“But doctor, she just refuses to eat dog food.” In this case, the pet has trained its owners to feed it such things as chicken, liver, ice cream, cookies, etc. The pet is given a choice of what it wants to eat and probably overeats because it isn’t getting a proper balance of nutrition.
Treating the Overweight Dog
- First, rule out hypothyroidism by having a thyroid test performed by your veterinarian.
- Provide ample amounts of fresh water.
- Feed a very high quality, complete and balanced dog food and check the ingredients list. Meat should be the first item listed, not corn or other grain.
- Record an accurate pre-diet weight.
- Reduce by one-third your pet’s total daily ration previously given. Include in this total all treats, snacks, or left-overs if you are going to continue to provide these.
- Reweigh the pet in two weeks. If the pet has lost even a little weight, keep the feeding schedule the same. If there is no weight loss, reduce the food volume again by one-third and reweigh in two weeks.
- Provide more exercise; consider conditioning program in our underwater treadmill.
- Be persistent.
- Enjoy your healthier pet longer.
“Reduced Calorie” or “Lite diets” or “Senior diets”
“These diets have very restricted fat levels to reduce the calories but by necessity have increased the carbohydrate percentages. This increased carbohydrate stimulates additional insulin secretion, which tells the body to store unused calories as fat! There are a multitude of overweight dogs that have actually gained weight on those “Reduced Calorie” weight loss diets. Your dog needs a meat-based diet, high in protein (which isn’t stored as fat) and fat and low in carbohydrate.”
Summary
- Feed high quality food
- Use meat-based food
- Control the amount fed
- Provide more exercise
- Be Persistent
* Pickwickian Syndrome—excessive fat in the chest wall, intrathoracic fat, and cranial displacement of the diaphragm due to abdominal obesity