Keeping your pet the perfect weight

Every pet owner wants to keep their pet in the best shape possible, and this includes managing their weight in a way that means your pet is neither under nor overweight. However, it can be hard to know what the ideal weight for your pet is and how to tell if they are over or under that mark.

Ask the professionals

The first thing to do is to contact a veterinarian at a pet clinic in Singapore, who can weigh your dog. Whilst at-home scales can give you a rough estimation, using a pet-specific scale can help guide feeding plans and weight loss goals much more accurately.
Your pet clinic will weigh your pet, and then perform a body condition score. This is a score on a scale of 1-9 with one being far too thin and nine being far too overweight. The body condition score is more accurate than a set target for weight as it takes into account your individual pet and their body composition. We are aiming to have a balance of muscle and fat without being overconditioned and sometimes a set weight defined by the breed standard isn’t always a reliable measure.

Being overweight can have lots of long-term implications, such as:

– Reduced exercise tolerance or ability
– Increased wear on joints leads to conditions such as osteoarthritis sooner in life.
– Increased risk of cardiovascular disease
– Increased risk of cancer
– Increased anaesthetic risks

Being underweight is also a concern, and can be a sign of illness or infection, such as a heavy parasite burden. If you are concerned your pet is underweight, the best thing to do is to book with your local pet clinic in Singapore for help. The veterinarian will perform a full health check and may also run some diagnostic tests like bloodwork or x-rays to find out why your pet is underweight. From there they can create a treatment plan if your pet is unwell, or advise on how to help your pet gain weight safely if there is no sign of disease present.

Maintaining the perfect weight involves feeding the right amount of food, and exercising your pet regularly. Weight is not just about fat levels under the skin, it is also an assessment of how much muscle mass is present. Muscle mass preservation is especially important in our older animals, and helps keep them mobile for longer.

Feeding a high-quality pet food specifically designed for the life stage your pet is in is the best place to start when trying to keep your pet in perfect shape. A brand of food should have a puppy or kitten range, an adult range, and a senior range. This is because the energy requirements of these different life stages are vastly different, and the needs should be reflected in the diet composition. There will also be different amounts of minerals and supplements, for example, more phosphorus and calcium in the puppy and kitten range as they are actively growing their bones as they develop. A senior range will have a lower protein concentration, as a senior pet usually has less energy requirements, but also may have some kidney and liver changes that cannot cope with a high protein diet any more.

Ways to help your pet lose weight:

Avoid feeding human food as treats. Human food has a different caloric composition than pet food. For example, whilst a cube of cheese may seem small to us, the extra calories ingested by a much smaller dog or cat can add up quickly and lead to extra weight gain. If you would like to feed treats to your pets, use low-calorie options such as a small piece of cooked broccoli or carrots. Another option, if you feed a biscuit diet, is to use the biscuits from your pet’s usual food as treats. Exercise your pet more. For cats, this involves engaging them in play or using activities such as puzzle feeders to keep them more active for longer. Whilst some cats will go for a walk on a lead, most find this stressful, so if your cat is unwilling to walk on a lead, look for other ways to burn the extra calories off. If you have a dog an easy way to increase exercise is to take them on walks. Gradually increase their walk duration time, but if you do too much too soon, their fitness levels will be unable to match the activity and they are more likely to get injuries. By slowly increasing their walks each day, you allow the body time to adapt and more muscle to develop to cope with the increased activity levels. Other ways to help your dog be more active include joining in social events such as obedience classes or agility work. If you are time-poor, doing these sorts of activities in the home or engaging in play such as playing tug with a rope for a few minutes each day can help burn some extra calories. Do keep in mind the heat stress our dogs may undergo in Singapore’s weather, and be careful how long and when you exercise them.

Medical reasons for weight gain

Sometimes there can be medical reasons for weight gain such as a condition called hypothyroidism. If you are trying to get your pet to lose weight and are struggling to do so, it may be worth a chat with your local veterinarian to see if a blood test for hypothyroidism may be required. This condition is easily treated with daily medication. If your pet is normal, they can advise on prescription diets to help your pet lose weight and create a targeted weight loss plan specific to your pet’s needs. Most veterinary clinics have a weight loss clinic, and your local veterinarian will be only too happy to enrol your pet on this programme if they think it will be helpful for them.

Keeping your pet the perfect weight

Ask the professionals

Ways to help your pet lose weight:

Medical reasons for weight gain

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