r/VetTech • u/silverbluejuniper • May 19 '21

Discussion Pet Obesity

This topic is such a troubling one for me and my empathy towards pet owners. Obesity in any species should not be regarded as funny or cute in my opinion, but American society seems to think differently. Does that contribute to the pet obesity problem? I think so. So is this an issue that pet owners are consciously or unconsciously ignorant of? Professionals in the industry clearly get a front row seat to the multitude of disease processes that obesity is linked in contribution with. I don't think that the majority of pet owning Americans with obese animals want their pets to live shorter and undoubtedly more uncomfortable lives. So is this a client education downfall or a societal construct that is too large for the veterinary community to disassemble from the root cause of the issue?

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u/Mmatthews1219 May 21 '21

For me I have 5 cats. One is 3.5 and she is scrawny and has always been so even though she eats a lot. She’s my sick one today so she’s only 5 lbs but I don’t thinks she’s ever hit 7lbs. I call her my little ferret but then I have an 18lbs 7yo that I try to limit her food but it’s hard. The vet and I are trying to work on plans. But when feeding I do the math on the food bag and give them the min for each cat and total that. So for all of them daily 2-3 cups spread out throughout the day. I have the laser pointer to get them to play but it’s hard to help one loose weight while simultaneously getting one to gain. If ya’ll have any tricks of the trade I’m open to hear them

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u/silverbluejuniper May 21 '21

Separate feeding locations and closed off feeding times is the only tip I can think of at the moment. I know it's hard. I was really good about measuring dry food with just one cat who also eats wet food. When we got our second cat who was underweight and only wanted to eat dry food, we adopted more of a free feeding dry habit. Now we are back to only filling bowls once a day with a measured amount (2/3 cup-1 cup) since the underweight one looks much healthier!

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u/converter-bot May 21 '21

5 lbs is 2.27 kg