Our pooches are plump, our cats are fat

The number of dogs and cats considered overweight or obese has more than doubled in a decade, leading to increases in arthritis and breathing problems for our four-legged loved ones, a veterinary group claimed on Tuesday.

There’s been a 169-percent rise in overweight cats in the last 10 years and a 158percent jump in plump dogs, according to the findings of the nationwide Banfield Pet Hospital in its “2017 State of Pet Health” report.

The data were drawn from dog and cat patients at the practice’s 975 locations, from 2007 through 2016.

Cats and dogs don’t have a height and weight score like a human’s body-mass index.

Instead, they’re eyeballed on a 5-point scale. A 3 is considered “ideal weight” while a4 is “overweight” and a 5 is “obese.”

Thirty-three percent of cats were overweight or obese in 2016, while 30 percent of pooches were rated a 4 or 5, according to Banfield’s findings.