Almost 50% of all the dogs and cats in this country between the ages of 5-10 years are overweight or obese!
IS MY PET OBESE?
An animal is considered obese if it weighs more than 30% of its ideal body weight. For example, an 89 lbs. Laborador Retreiver who should weigh 65 lbs., passed the obese mark at 84.5 lbs. A cat that weighs 14.3 lbs. and should weigh 11 lbs. is just not overweight, but obese! So it may seem like a small amount, just 3.3 lbs. in the last example, but it can make a huge difference.
To put it another way, in human terms, a 12 pound Yorkshire Terrier is like a 218 pound human female of average height. You can see the small the animal the more detrimental is a gain of one pound.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH OBESITY?
Your little friend is likely on the way to some serious problems, including:
– Altered movements leading to stress on muscles, tendons, and joints of the legs, spine and neck.
– Arthritis, degenerative joint disease, and vertebral disc disease.
– Chronic Pain
– Diabetes
– Fatty Liver (Hepatic Lipidosis) in cats
– Heart and/or Respiratory Disease
– High Blood Pressure
– Cancer
– Decreased Life Span (For example, a Labrador Retriever with a body condition score of 5 out of 9 will live an average of 2 years longer than a Labrador Retriever with a body condition score of 6.5 out of 9 and that is not even an obese score.)
HOW DOES MY PET’S BODY WEIGHT TRANSLATE TO HUMAN WEIGHT?
Please visit PetObesityPrevention by clicking the Translate My Pet’s Weight button belowe and select your pet’s predominant breed.