October 11 is National Pet Obesity Awareness Day, sponsored by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention.
On the association’s website, you’ll find an especially useful “Tools and Resources” section featuring guidelines to help you determine if your pet is overweight or obese, ideal weight ranges for popular dog and cat breeds, daily caloric needs for dogs and cats, and instructions to promote weight loss in dogs and cats.
Particularly useful are two downloadable visual reference charts—a body condition scoring chart for dogs and a scoring chart for cats.
For a 5-minute video overview of the impact of obesity on your pet, we encourage you to see “Obesity and Your Pet” from the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Here are “8 Easy Ways to Help Your Dog Lose Weight” from The Preventive Vet.
Let Us Help!
We previously published a detailed post about overweight and obesity in pets—”Overweight, Obesity and Your Pet’s Health.” We encourage you read it to find out more about the potential health impact of overweight and obesity on your pet.
If, based on the guidelines in our post, you believe your pet is overweight or obese, the Brownsburg Animal Clinic team is eager to help you help your pet achieve a healthy weight.
Schedule an exam to assess your pet’s current body condition and ask your veterinarian to recommend the best approach to addressing this critically important aspect of your pet’s health and wellbeing.