Weight Watchers for Pets

The start of the new year always brings with it a multitude of resolutions, but mine is always to lose weight. The weight always seems to pile on over Christmas and I struggle to find clothes to fit comfortably and resolve to not buy any new ones until I have shed at least a stone.

For this reason, I know how hard it is to lose weight and I do feel for all the overweight pets that come into the surgery. They just love all the titbits and excess food that their owners so lovingly feed them! There is a nationwide epidemic amongst the UK pets however. We see more overweight dogs than normal weight dogs and certainly most cats are overweight.

Their weight is entirely in your hands. It is easier to stick to a weight reduction regime with dogs as they can be walked and very simply increasing their energy levels daily will help burn the fat. With cats however (especially indoor cats), it is far more difficult. It is vital that the weight comes off slowly as too fast weight loss in a very obese cat can be dangerous.

There are numerous diet foods on the market at the moment and you do not have to buy them only from your vet. Remember that some of the ‘light’ varieties are for pets that have already lost weight and need to stay at that new lower weight.

Cutting out titbits is the main way to help your pet lose weight in the majority of cases. Even the most harmless looking dry chew has fat in it to bind it together and one of those a day can add to quite a few extra calories over the week. I advise rice cakes as treats if you must give them to dogs - just the ones we would eat are fine. They even make Marmite flavoured ones!

We all hate feeling deprived when on a diet so prevent this by bulking out the food bowl of your pet. Add some extra carrot peelings or brown rice to their food so that they feel full after a meal. Weigh out the exact amount of food they are allowed daily and just give this ration along with extra vegetable peelings.

There are a few very new drugs on the market to help shift the weight of dogs ie. Yarvitan and Slentrol. They are liquids that are added daily to your pet’s food and they work by binding the fat in the food so less is absorbed. They do work well but be warned - they are very expensive and insurance companies do NOT pay out for these weight loss drugs.

Good luck!

This entry was posted on 29/01/2008 at 05:48 pm and is filed under Being a Mum and a vet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.