Don’t make a dog’s dinner out of your beloved pet’s health
Our pets are getting portly – dangerously so. It’s time to banish the puppy fat and see off the kitty kilos, says Debora Robertson
In the past, television shows like You’ve Been Framed! may have made us laugh at dogs jumping up on to tables to steal the Sunday roast, or cats so huge they struggled to get through their cat flaps. Fat pets were family entertainment. Today, social media is awash with massive fluff balls garnering likes and clicks as easily as they snaffle treats. Follow hashtags such as #chonkyboi to see cats as big as dogs and dogs as big as Shetland ponies basking in all of their resplendent online glory. But charming as they all may be, this masks a bigger problem.
Pet obesity is on the rise, and there is nothing cute about that. It can lead to problems such as osteoarthritis, heart disease and diabetes, and make other conditions more difficult to treat. A report from insurance company More
Than reveals that 50 per cent of pet insurance claims are a result of obesity. According to the report, 1.7 million dog owners and a million cat owners were told that their pets were overweight by vets in the past year. This suggests that 12 per cent of pets are too fat, up from eight per cent two years ago. Some vets are even introducing heavy lifting equipment into their surgeries to help them to cope with huge hounds. Direct Line pet insurance found 42 per cent of vets were so worried about their own backs and joints that they’re installing hoists and electrically raised tables.
Though we’re becoming more aware of porky pets, there’s nothing new about this phenomenon. I remember 20 years ago, taking my cat to the vet for her annual check-up and being told, mortifyingly, that she was 200g overweight. As I got the lecture, I couldn’t resist drawing my vet’s attention to his own cat, Stephanie. She lived in the practice and, in the evening, after everyone had gone, she clawed her way into the packages of food that lined the shelves. She was glossy, proud, the size of a robust terrier, and could have taken my relatively tiny Burmese cat out just by sitting on her. “I have never seen that cat before in my life,” he said, drily. It seems we hold on to as much shame about our pets’ weight gain as we do our own.
Daniel Chan, the professor of clinical nutrition at the Royal Veterinary College, draws a comparison to weight gain in people. “It parallels western society – lower activity levels combined with overeating. Lifestyle is probably the main driving force. As people are busier, they are not exercising their animals as much and are overfeeding them. It’s always hard to say this is
what you should do for your dog and cat without having a root-cause discussion about lifestyle in general.”
Prof Chan says: “In people, at least you can link obesity more directly to their own longevity. Heart disease is a major killer in people. It isn’t in animals, so telling people to lose weight or they might have a stroke is one thing but we have limited ability to say: ‘If you don’t make your dog lose weight, it’ll die of a heart attack,’ because that doesn’t happen. The thing that’s much more common in dogs is joint disease. If the animal is overweight, that’s going to make that worse. Although obesity itself is a disease, the main part of the problem is that it makes any other problem worse. If they have respiratory disease or back issues, obesity would make that more difficult to manage.”
The More Than report showed that across the top 12 conditions treated by vets, the cost of treatment for overweight pets averaged at £900, compared with £722 for pets that were a normal weight. This is most likely because obesity can make it harder to treat these types of illnesses, resulting in increased vet fees.
Jason Stivano, my own pet’s vet, (not, I hasten to add, the owner of Stephanie) has witnessed a gradual rise in pet obesity at his London practice, The Hackney Vet. “With our clientele, probably 45 to 50 per cent of cats are obese, with dogs it’s probably 30 to 40 per cent. Perhaps it is because people’s lives are busier? Fitting in exercising dogs when people are working longer hours is a challenge. And nowadays, there are more indoor cats with decreased activity. You can play with cats, get them running around, use those laser toys, bits of string and things to get them moving, going up and downstairs, and so on, but it is a vicious circle. Once pets get overweight they become more lethargic and, obviously, don’t exercise as much, and they put on more weight. Then it is just a downhill slippery slide after that.”
The Hackney Vet – and many other practices now – offers an informal, free advice service for owners worried about their pets’ weight. Heather De La-Nougerede, a veterinary nurse, runs this service at Hackney. She is kind and calm and you can easily imagine people pouring their hearts out to her, even about this slightly tricky subject. She says: “It is often harder for people to acknowledge that their dogs are overweight. People sometimes take it more personally. Cats, you can put it down to them being fed outside the home – perhaps they’re going into neighbours’ houses, or scavenging elsewhere – but what your dog eats is pretty much down to you. People sometimes feel more comfortable, less embarrassed, talking to a nurse than to a vet, especially if they’re giving too many treats or feeding from the table. We try to be positive, though, and small changes over time can make a big difference.”
One of the key issues is anthropomorphising our pets. Will Bissett, an animal biologist and head of nutrition at Yora pet foods, says: “The way we treat ourselves is often mirrored in the way we treat animals and, unfortunately, as humans get larger so do our pets. There’s a difference between caring for your pet because it’s an animal, and caring for them as if they’re a member of your family. The anthropomorphism of dogs, in particular, has led to a huge problem with overfeeding and overtreating. One of the ways to combat this is to start using toys over treats and increasing playtime with your pet.”
Prof Chan agrees: “Some of this is about what people are willing to do. If an animal is begging, owners want to feed it something. What a lot of animals actually want is attention, not food, but they learn that they get food if they seek attention. So if instead of feeding a treat when they’re begging, you switched to an activity, you would see a big difference.”
Prof Chan emphasises – just as with human dieting – it’s important to banish negativity. “You have to get people to buy in. You have to be positive, saying: ‘OK, this is how we are going to improve your pet’s life. You’re going to get more joy out of owning a pet if they can do outdoor things with you.’ A lot of people think they can’t do outdoor things with their dogs as their pets’ joints aren’t very good, but that makes it worse. I’m not saying run with your dog, just be outside
‘It is often harder for people to acknowledge their dogs are overweight’
‘We don’t tend to give cats treats to train them, so they don’t really know what a treat is’
with them more because, with the more gentle activity you have, eventually they won’t put so much weight on those joints.”
And, of course, the biggest hurdle that pets and people face to losing weight is overfeeding. This is when you should seek advice from your vet and, possibly, an animal nutritionist. Even with high-quality commercial food (you should be looking for something with over 65 per cent meat content), labels can be misleading as the guidelines are based around fit, active animals. So if yours isn’t so perky, you can be overfeeding without even realising it. Bissett says: “People underestimate the importance of sticking to feeding guidelines, and many pet owners do not measure portions at all. Another simple yet effective way to prevent or tackle obesity in your pet is to accurately measure portion sizes and slightly reduce them if your pet becomes overweight.”
One of the keys to good health is to build more activity into your pet’s everyday life, indoors or out. Anna Webb, the dog nutrition and behaviour expert, says: “I believe you can make a meal out of meal times. Food is a great resource for the owner to build up the relationship with their dog, to get them to work for their food and maximise playtime. For example, the dog must sit and wait as you place the bowl on the floor, then you ask your dog to look at you, before you give the cue for your dog to take the food. It makes food special and respectful – they’re earning the food they eat.”
Webb advocates dogs eating a fresh, unprocessed diet, including healthy stuffed Kongs – the hard rubber activity toys with cavities in the middle that, if you fill them properly, encourage dogs to work hard for their treats. “I use some chopped up apple, freshly cooked chicken, and really squish it in, with perhaps some mashed banana to keep it all together, then stick an air-dried meaty chew or tripe stick into the top. But it’s also important to be aware of your dog’s daily food allowance. Do punctuate the day with a stuffed Kong, but factor this in later with the evening meal. Portion control is very important.”
And treating is a whole different matter when it comes to cats. Prof Chan says: “It’s so much easier to keep a cat lean earlier on, but then the bad behaviours, such as giving too many treats, become a problem. We don’t tend to give cats treats to train them. We train dogs with treats, so most cats are just getting treats because we think it’s the right thing to do, but they don’t really know what a treat is. We want to use them because we want to reward them for affection. We set bad habits early on, and if a cat is very obese, their risk of diabetes may be nine times higher. Then, when they are diabetic they may only have one or two years of life before you have to start thinking about [the viability of ] their quality of life.”
The truth is that, just as with humans, there’s no great, mysterious secret to maintaining your pet’s healthy weight. A little daily attention, establishing good habits and sticking to them, and feeding just the right amount of the best-quality food you can afford is the key to a long, healthy and happy life. Given the abundant, unconditional, life-affirming affection they offer us, it seems a small commitment to make in return.