Pet Talk is a new column that welcomes questions concerning your pet, with the answer delivered by specialists at the Day Hollow Animal Hospital. Email your questions to wpost@owegopennysaver.com for consideration.
Question: How does being overweight (the poor puppy weighs in at 32 pounds instead of 20 or less, effect the dog? How do you convince the loving owner (82 years old) that multiple doggie treats besides “little bites” from the table are not healthy?
Answer: It is admittedly QUITE difficult to not give in when your little pooch looks at you with sad eyes, begging for food. Weight control, however, is an extremely important part of your pet’s wellbeing.
The first question is- how much SHOULD my dog weigh? It is hard to give a straight answer to this question. Many people come in and ask, “Well, based on the breed, he should be between 10-15 lbs., but he is only 8! Should we increase his food?”
I like to counter this by saying that each dog is an individual. Sure breed specs may give us some ballpark idea of what your pet should weigh, but consider this- if we took 10 teenage boys, and fed them all the same food for a month, some would be heavy, some would be skinny, and some would probably be at a really good weight. Individual metabolism, amounts of exercise, and genetics all come into play, making it impossible for us to say exactly what a certain dog “should” weigh.
The quick and dirty answer, however, is this- in general, you want to be able to feel the rib cage with gentle pressure, and have a little bit of a tucked-in waist around the belly. There is a method of measurement that may provide a bit more objectivity as well called “Body Condition Scoring” which can assess an animal’s weight based on a scale of either 1-5 or 1-9 with the ideal weight being somewhere between the two ranges (2.5/5 or 4/9). Talk to your veterinarian to learn more about this.
The second question- how does one convince another that overfeeding is not healthy? It is incredible (and quite humorous) how often we hear the following types of complaints- “Doctor, I KNOW the dog is fat, but my husband won’t stop feeding him table scraps!” or “Every time my mother comes to visit me she feeds the dog anything he wants and it makes him sick- but I can’t stop her!”
At this point we try to give the defendants a bit of ammo to use against the primary offender, and have them remind the guilty party of the following points. First, over-eating leads to obesity and, unfortunately, obesity leads to a whole host of other problems including joint disease (with more weight on an animal, more pressure is put on the joints, which leads to joint damage and eventually arthritis, which is actually a big cause of euthanasia down the road), certain types of diabetes (which is an expensive and time-consuming disease to manage), back issues (especially in long backed dogs, like dachshunds, having extra weight makes them much more prone to disc diseases and painful backs which often need to be repaired surgically), and even respiratory problems.
Second, depending on the types of foods being fed to a pet, you can also end up with a lot of gastrointestinal or other problems as well. I am all for a person feeding a pet a small amount of healthy table foods- for dogs, raw green beans or cooked chicken are generally okay for example. However, often times when people are feeding table-scraps, they are feeding their pet things that can truly hurt them. Rich foods like salami or some pork products can cause severe issues like pancreatitis, in addition to vomiting or diarrhea. Other foods, like grapes or onions, can actually cause death in dogs and cats.
So if little Fido or Fluffy simply MUST have a snack, consider giving him HALF of a dog treat instead of a whole one, but keep your pet’s best interest in mind and always be careful to not overfeed. And never forget that regular exercise and proper diet is just as important for your pet as it is for us humans.
— Rose Alaimo, DVM
