Dr adolphe pet weight loss5/28/2023 “We look at a dog with obesity and if a dog loses as little as 6% body weight-that’s six pounds on a 100-pound Retriever-it makes a difference,” says Ward. The estimated reduction in lifespan for the overweight group was up to two-and-a-half years. According to a clinical trial published in 2010, obese dogs with osteoarthritis showed a significant decrease in lameness from weight loss starting at 6.10%.Īnother study, published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine in 2018 found that being overweight was associated with a shorter lifespan in the 12 dog breeds studied. Jean Dodds, of Hemopet veterinary center in California, says the health effects of having even a marginally overweight dog include “reduced energy with resultant less exercise, ‘easy keeper’ (gains weight on small amounts of food), skin and hair coat conditions, and irregular female reproductive cycles, if intact.”Ĭonversely, obese dogs may benefit from even just slight weight loss. “Three extra pounds for canines in the ‘toy’ category is the equivalent of gaining approximately 30 pounds for you or me,” she says. “Cancer is the number one killer of dogs today,” says Osborne.Īnd, for some smaller breeds, extra pounds make a huge difference. This all creates an environment attractive to cancer cells and increases a dog’s risk of developing the disease, she says. ![]() Osborne says that adipose tissue (aka fat) is filled with blood vessels, and the added rich blood creates inflammation. “Being just 10% overweight decreases a dog’s lifespan by one-third and predisposes him to heart, kidney and liver disease as well as diabetes, arthritis, and cancer,” she says. Carol Osborne, an integrative veterinarian at Chagrin Falls Pet Clinic in Ohio, echoes the fact that a dog doesn’t have to be clinically obese to experience health consequences. We think a few pounds off my Lab what could the consequence of that be.? But the consequences are that Lab’s hips are deteriorating, it’s causing damage to the kidneys, it’s probably causing high blood pressure which is causing a constellation of problems, and it’s increasing cancer risk.ĭr. “Well, the amount of physiological impact of a few pounds is much, much greater and more concentrated in pets than in people. “In human terms, we think we just need to drop five pounds,” says Ward. “So you say, ‘it’s normal,’ and by extension its morphology, or its size, is normal.” But the problem is that we often don’t know what what “normal” is when it comes to dogs, so we project our own human-centric perspective. ![]() “You look at your dog and it seems healthy and it’s active and doesn’t have any apparent health issues,” says Ward. And that’s one of the challenges in addressing this issue-many pet owners may simply not realize there is an issue. While obesity is loosely defined as 30% above ideal body weight (there is no universally accepted definition forpets), veterinary experts say just being overweight impacts pet health. “There is a physiological consequence to this.” A slimmer margin of error “We think it’s very important that people understand this isn’t just a cosmetic issue,” says Dr. And it’s not an isolated issue obesity is linked to a whole raft of health problems including arthritis, chronic kidney disease, bladder/urinary tract disease, liver disease, low thyroid hormone production, diabetes, heart failure, high blood pressure, and cancer. In fact, Ward and other vets call it our pets’ biggest health threat. Obesity in dogs comes with significant consequences. But we’ve normalized it.” This kind of dog embodies what APOP has called the “fat pet gap”-the misalignment between what we think a dog should look like and what a healthy body composition should really be. ![]() “Well, actually, that dog is 15 pounds overweight. Ernie Ward, DVM, CVFT, and founder of the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP). “I see people coming in constantly with 90-pound Labs and they say, ‘she looks great,’” says Dr. While that makes obesity a major health crisis for dogs, it’s a problem that’s often overlooked, as many pet owners may not even realize their pets are overweight. ![]() The most recent statistics classify the majority of dogs in the U.S.-56%- as overweight or obese. There’s a weight problem in America and it isn’t just affecting humans. This Is a Paid Advertisement for The Farmer’s Dog
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