What To Do If Your Pet is Obese or Overweight

Like people, it's easy for our pets to gain an extra few pounds when they do not receive enough exercise or when they eat a poor diet on a regular basis. In fact, one study suggests that as many as 25% of pets are overweight.

If your dog or cat is overweight, it's important to help them get back down to a healthy weight for their size, age, and breed. Like in people, obesity in animals can led to heart problems, respiratory problems, diabetes, skin disease, joint pain and artritis, muscle stiffness, and other illnesses, diseases, and health complications.

Ways to Help Your Pet Lose Weight

The two easiest ways to help your dog or cat lose weight is by monitoring its diet and making sure it gets plenty of exercise.

In terms of diet, it's often as easy as watching your pet's caloric intake (portion control) and making sure he doesn't eat fatty foods. Our pets often gain weight because we feed them fattening people food and give them too many treats. Sticking to a particular diet (your vet can recommend one), as well as sticking to a particular brand and type of food, will help your pet lose weight. Furthermore, your vet can assess whether or not your dog or cat has any allergies or nutritional needs that require a special diet.  

Making sure your pet gets enough exercise is the second element of helping your pet lose weight. There are several ways you can make sure your pet, particularly your dog, gets enough exercise to reach a healthy weight. Starting your dog on two 10-15 minute walks per day is a great way to introduce exercise into his life if he's not used to it. For more on exercising your pet, please click here to read a recent blog we posted on this topic. You can even make sure your cat gets exercise by playing with a string or another favorite toy.

If you are interested in learning more ways you can help your dog or cat combat obesity or weight gain, contact your veterinarian. If you do not have a veterinarian that you like or you need to find a new veterinarian in your neighborhood, click here to search our nationwide database of veterinary professionals.