Is your pet at a healthy weight? This is a HUGE issue in Veterinary medicine. How do we keep your pet at their recommended weight? What happens down the road if they are too heavy?
Keeping your pet at a healthy weight begins the day you bring him/her home. While some pets can be trusted to eat just the right amount if food is available 24 hours a day, the vast majority of pets will overeat and become overweight. Think about it. We humans eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. We have a set schedule every day. Sure, maybe we snack a tiny bit in between each meal. However, if there was a smorgasbord of food available to us on the table during the day and we grabbed just a few bites every time we passed by or were tempted every time we saw it, what would happen to our weight? More than likely our weight would increase. But, if we stick to our schedule of a few larger meals per day at set times, with ample time in between for exercise or digestion, our weight tends to be much better maintained.
The same is true for pets. Portion control, portion control, portion control. Everything comes down to portion control and exercise. It benefits all of us! Many cat owners will come to me with vastly overweight cats and will say to me “she doesn’t overeat….I see her take a bite or two and then walk away.” Sure, that may be true; cats are grazers by nature. However, she may be going to the bowl 40 times a day, versus some cats that go 20 times per day, or she may be taking 4 bites of food each time versus others that take 2 bites of food. What do most cats do everyday…..eat and sleep. It’s easy to put the weight on, and very hard to take the weight off.
There are many factors that lead to pets being overweight. One major thing that not many people know is that the recommendations on the pet food bag are for “intact” meaning not spayed or neutered pets. After your pet is spayed or neutered, their metabolism, or calorie burning ability, drops by 30%. If we continue to feed our pets the same amount and the majority of their growth is complete by 10 months (for most breeds, not giant breeds), and they have been spayed or neutered recently what do you think happens to their weight? Yep, it skyrockets. I can’t tell you the number of times that I will see a pet at the animal hospital 3 or 4 months after a spay/neuter, and am just shocked by the amount of weight that they’ve gained. I am constantly telling owners to start feeding their pets less after this procedure. The dog/cat food companies won’t tell you this…...they just want to sell more food!
So, let’s think about all the things that can happen if your pet is overweight…..
Elevated surgical risk - If they are young and overweight at the time of their spay/neuter, surgery is more risky for spays as the important vessels to tie off in your pet’s abdomen are surrounded in fat. This means that they are harder to find, and the area is more slippery when putting the sutures on. Yes, your pet could bleed to death because you have fed them too much. That's hard to hear, but very true! Also, heavy pets take longer to wake up from the anesthesia than thin pets, as many anesthetic drugs will accumulate in fat tissue and take longer to wear off. Cost involved: Anywhere from $50 to $200 extra due to extra surgical and anesthesia time, and supplies (extra suture) used.
Joint problems - A heavy large breed dog is more likely to tear their ACL ligament due to the extra weight on the ligaments than a thin large breed dog. Also, genetic problems like luxating patellas (loose knee caps) are much more painful while carrying around excessive weight. Arthritis in general feels a whole lot worse when you weigh more than you should. I often tell owners that weight loss works better than any drug ever created for arthritis pain. Cost involved: Hundreds to thousands of dollars in joint supplements, pain medication, possible surgery, and bloodwork to monitor organ values while on pain medication.
Diabetes - This is almost always caused by excessive weight in pets, and therefore is around 99% preventable. While some owners are willing to give their pets an insulin injection twice daily, and do the required bloodwork monitoring needed with diabetes, this is a top reason for euthanasia in pets. And, the hard part, it was completely preventable! Yes, they look at you with sad eyes when you are eating, but please, do not feed your pet to death! Cost involved: Many hundreds of dollars in insulin, needles, bloodwork to monitor glucose levels.
Heart disease - While heart disease in pets can differ somewhat from heart disease in people, there are many similarities. Imagine how much harder the heart has to work in an overweight pet than in a thin pet. The heart is just one large muscle…...think about your biceps…..the harder you work it, the larger it gets. With heart disease, the size of a dog or cat's heart can almost double in size. Cost involved: Many hundreds of dollars in x-rays, heart medication, and bloodwork to monitor organ values while on medication.
The list goes on and on. Many preventable diseases are just that - preventable - if we could all just feed our pets two portioned meals per day and give them the correct amount of exercise. Start the day you bring your new kitten or puppy home. Set ground rules that include them not being in the kitchen when you eat. This automatically takes the human urge of sharing out of the equation. If we never share human food with our pets, they have no idea what they are missing! Yes, this is tough love, but wouldn’t you love an extra couple years to love your pet?
The cost savings of feeding your pet the correct amount at each feeding rather than "extra" are huge. By simply not overfeeding, you already have more money in your pocket because your bag of dog food lasts longer. And, as you’ve seen above, chronic disease is not cheap! Save money, save lives, do right by your pet from day one!
There are many factors that lead to pets being overweight. One major thing that not many people know is that the recommendations on the pet food bag are for “intact” meaning not spayed or neutered pets. After your pet is spayed or neutered, their metabolism, or calorie burning ability, drops by 30%. If we continue to feed our pets the same amount and the majority of their growth is complete by 10 months (for most breeds, not giant breeds), and they have been spayed or neutered recently what do you think happens to their weight? Yep, it skyrockets. I can’t tell you the number of times that I will see a pet at the animal hospital 3 or 4 months after a spay/neuter, and am just shocked by the amount of weight that they’ve gained. I am constantly telling owners to start feeding their pets less after this procedure. The dog/cat food companies won’t tell you this…...they just want to sell more food!
What should your adult pet look like? Take a look at the table above this paragraph for dogs, and below this paragraph for cats. As you can see from the table, 4-5 is considered a good healthy weight. We live in a very overweight society, and there are many owners who are either surprised or offended when I tell them that their pet is overweight. This desired body condition is easy to obtain, but it requires portion control and exercise…….remember….it benefits all of us!
 |
| Source: East Coast Veterinary Cardiology |
The list goes on and on. Many preventable diseases are just that - preventable - if we could all just feed our pets two portioned meals per day and give them the correct amount of exercise. Start the day you bring your new kitten or puppy home. Set ground rules that include them not being in the kitchen when you eat. This automatically takes the human urge of sharing out of the equation. If we never share human food with our pets, they have no idea what they are missing! Yes, this is tough love, but wouldn’t you love an extra couple years to love your pet?
The cost savings of feeding your pet the correct amount at each feeding rather than "extra" are huge. By simply not overfeeding, you already have more money in your pocket because your bag of dog food lasts longer. And, as you’ve seen above, chronic disease is not cheap! Save money, save lives, do right by your pet from day one!
Comments
Post a Comment