Flabby pets work off the kilos in gym
Owners help animals lose weight they gained by snacking on human treats
SOUTH Africa’s overweight pets are hitting the treadmills, following stringent eating plans, entering weight loss challenges and turning their noses up at tasty treats in their battle against the bulge, it emerged this week.
New research, released by the Association of Pet Obesity Prevention in the US, warns that most of that nation’s pets are obese and that the majority of their owners are oblivious to it. South Africa is no exception.
Vets warned this week that obesity is the number one preventable medical condition in veterinary hospitals. About half the pets they treat are “weighing more than is healthy”.
Hill’s Pet Nutrition South Africa said pet obesity was a “disease of human behaviour. Pet owners show their love for their pets with food and provide excess calories on a daily basis, which ends up causing a serious disease for the pet.”
A 2010 South African Healthy Pet survey showed that only 33% of people exercised their pets daily.
More than 350 veterinary clinics in South Africa and Namibia are running the Hill’s Pet Slimmer programme — a veterinary-supervised weight management initiative.
In the past year, nearly 3 000 pets joined the programme — and they had more than 13 000kg to lose. Last year’s “slimmer of the year” was Hector, a Rottweiler from Pretoria, who shed 25kg on the programme. Its owner, Elize van Schalkwyk, said she was sceptical of putting her grumpy, aggressive 83kg dog on a diet.
“As he lost weight, there was a change in Hector’s behaviour. His happiness, new-found energy, as well as the prospect of a long life, have been an unexpected reward. We learnt that an overweight dog is not necessarily a happy dog,” she said.
Labradors, retrievers, Jack Russells, dachshunds, pugs and miniature pinschers are the top five breeds facing weight problems.
“We certainly have an issue as well when it comes to overweight pets,” said veterinarian Dr Guy Fyvie. “The biggest issue is that pets are not exercising as much as they used to and, also, we feed them and treat them too much. People equate feeding with love and that is biggest issue we have.
“The biggest problem are the human treats — biltong, ice cream and too much fatty food from the table.”
He said the programme had devised a diet that “influences the pet’s metabolism to optimise fat-burning”.
“It has also been clinically proven to reduce the likelihood of rebound weight gain,” he added.
Pet owners are also resorting to exercise regimens for their animals.
The Onderstepoort Animal Rehabilitation Service at the University of Pretoria’s veterinary hospital has a water treadmill for overweight dogs.
The treadmill gives them the benefits of hydrotherapy and combines treadmill walking with aquaerobics.
Theresa Frias, who is in charge of the facility, found that canine hydrotherapy made a difference to dogs’ weight loss.
“A lot of the overweight dogs also have joint problems. The water is a better way of exercising. The water is good because it takes the impact off
As he lost weight, there was a change in his behaviour. His happiness and new-found energy have been an unexpected reward
their joints,” she said.
Frias determines the length of the exercise session according to the animal’s age and fitness.
“We usually start off with short sessions — about six minutes for the first session and, after that, we can increase it,” she said. “If the animal needs to lose weight but is relatively healthy, we can easily start with 10-minute sessions and then increase it.
“If the dog is very overweight and we need to get the weight loss going quite quickly, I would recommend three times a week. We start slow, but work up to 15 to 20 minutes.”
Dog expert Dr Louise Botha has compiled a guide for pet owners that sets out diet and exercise routines for the animals. As our society obesity rate has increased, so has obesity among the dog population,” she said.
Owners had to “train their minds in order for the animals to reach their ideal body shape”.