S23A - The Pet Obesity Crisis: Why We Need to Feed MORE Not LESS!

Currently, a staggering number of our pets are overweight and obese, and as veterinarians, our success rate with weight management is unfortunately poor. Obesity is a disease state that is associated with inflammation and multiple disease conditions that can decrease quality of life, inflict emotional and financial burdens on pet owners, and ultimately shorten life span. Veterinarians may simply reduce food intakes in attempt to restrict calories, however, this will result in feeding less nutrition potentially creating deficiencies, less food volume resulting in less satisfied or hungry pets that will beg, and ultimately result in failure to successfully manage the pet’s weight and body condition. Proactive nutrition means identifying at risk pets for overweight/obesity early in life, choosing to feed appropriate diets and amounts, monitoring our patients carefully throughout each life stage and providing client support. Implementing proactive nutrition can help turn around this epidemic of obesity and improve our patient’s health, quality of life and longevity.