Monday, January 18, 2010
Shaping up pudgy pets
Nona Nelson, The Happy Wag
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Like millions of my fellow pudgy procrastinators, I made my annual pledge to get in shape this year right after I feasted for six weeks celebrating the holidays.
So far, I've not dropped a single pound.
As hard as it is for people to get motivated to lose weight, it's even more of a challenge to help obese pets shed unwanted pounds.
And just as obesity is becoming an epidemic among humans, it's also spreading to our companion animals.
According to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, an estimated 50 percent of all dogs and cats in America are overweight or obese. And those extra pounds can be deadly.
"Obesity reduces the life span of dogs by almost two years," said Iveta Becvarova, a clinical assistant professor specializing in veterinary nutrition at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech.
Not only does obesity result in a shorter life for pets, Becvarova said it leads to the same chronic illnesses that humans face: diabetes, heat disease and arthritis. An overweight pet will have more vet visits and a lower quality of life than one that is kept in lean condition.
Because dogs and cats vary so much in size and shape, most vets use a scale to determine a body composition score. The scale ranges from one to nine, with one being emaciated, five being ideal, and nine being obese.
A dog or cat at the ideal weight will have ribs that are easy to see or feel, and a tight abdomen and a distinct waist that can be viewed from above.
Becvarova said each point on the scale represents 10 percent of the ideal, so a pet that scores a 6 is 10 percent over his goal weight.
Prevention of obesity, Becvarova said, is key to a healthy life for pets.
"Obesity is easy to diagnose," she said. "Difficult to treat."
Pudgy pooches
Some dogs are naturally lean, like my greyhounds who were bred for speed, and some dogs are naturally more fatty, like Labrador retrievers, who were bred to swim in cold water.
But all dogs can maintain a healthy weight with diet control and exercise. Becvarova said that pets need a "positive energy balance," meaning that they do not take in more calories than they expend each day.
For dogs, Becvarova said their diet should be based on their stage of life. Puppies and young dogs need more food for their higher energy level. Middle-aged dogs need to curb the calories.
"Dogs around 7 years of age need to be fed a little less food," Becvarova recommended. "Their metabolic rate lowers as they age."
She also said that when a pet has been spayed or neutered, the hormonal change can cause weight gain, so food may need to be reduced after surgery.
She recommends looking for dog food that is low in fat and to accurately measure the amount fed each day according to label instructions.
Lose the leash
Exercise is important to keeping a dog in shape, but a stroll through the neighborhood may not be sufficient.
"Just going for a walk on a leash is not enough," Becvarova said. "If owners can do it, dogs expend more energy off-leash."
Sue Grimm of Roanoke was an employee of the now-defunct Six Wags Dog Park in Salem. The hours spent in the park did wonders for her 9-year-old beagle mix, Lucy.
Because she's a beagle, Grimm said walking Lucy on a leash is almost impossible because of her instinct to sniff. But off-leash in the park, Lucy sprinted and played with other dogs.
"She went from 51 pounds to 44 pounds," Grimm said. "Then she went back up to 47 pounds, but it was muscle, not fat. She has a waist now, narrow hips and a bigger chest."
Flabby felines
Overweight cats face a number of health problems, the most prevalent being diabetes. The good news, Becvarova said, is that taking weight off can cure feline diabetes.
Connie Canode of Veterinarians for Cats, said many of her feline patients have weight issues. "We see tons and tons of obesity," she said. "No pun intended."
The luxury we provide for our domestic felines means they are safer and usually live much longer than their feral cousins, Canode said, but it's also what causes them to be plumper than they should be.
"They get less exercise and they eat and sleep more. They don't have to hunt," she said. And cats, she said, are victims of their own cuteness -- when they turn on the feline charm, their enabling owners happily overfill their bowls.
Canode said the tendency for certain cats to pack on extra pounds can be attributed in part to genetics -- not all kitties are naturally long and lean. But just like people, lack of exercise and an excess of high-calorie food is what will make a tabby tubby.
Switch from dry to wet
Canode said feeding a canned, wet food diet is best for most cats. This seemed counter intuitive to me, because in terms of human cuisine, the moister the food, the richer and usually more fattening it is.
"There's more calorie per mouthful in the can," Canode said. "But it's more of what cats should be eating, which is protein. Cats are carnivores. Dry food is carbohydrate-based and carbohydrates break down to sugars. Cats' little pancreases are not set up for that."
When she switched her own seven cats from a prescription dry cat food to Friskies pate-style food, Canode's cats became healthier.
Bowel movements were reduced, frequent vomiting ceased and most importantly, weight management improved. "The skinny one gained weight and the two fat ones lost weight," she said.
Changing a cat's daily diet, however, may be easier in theory than in practice. Unlike dogs, cats can be very finicky about what they eat, and sometimes a cat will not be persuaded to give up the kibble.
"Cats will put themselves on a starvation diet," Canode said. "You cannot out-stubborn a cat. Don't just take the dry food away and put canned food out and think, 'Oh well, they will eventually eat it.' They may not and they can throw themselves into liver failure by not eating."
Becvarova said "cats have very fixed preferences" about food and suggests trying different types until you find the preferable one.
Stick to the limits
Canode said cats should be fed two to three times per day. Some cats are grazers, she said, but you should feed only a fixed amount of food based on their metabolism.
In multiple cat households, getting each kitty the proper nutrition can be tricky if the cats have different needs, Canode said.
She said pet parents have to find creative ways to get each cat its specific food bowl, including putting the kitties in separate rooms or stashing food bowls for more fit felines in places their rotund house mates cannot go.
It all comes back to balance, Canode said.
"You just need to make sure the number of calories consumed is equal to the number of calories used. Sounds so simple, doesn't it?"
Nona Nelson's column runs every other Monday in Extra.
