St Bernard's Road Weight Solutions

Why consider an animal's weight?

A well fed and healthy pet brims with contentment and can bring much joy to the owner. But as with people, it is easy to cross that line, and have an overweight pet. Just like the human epidemic, almost 50% of the pet population is overweight. Even a little extra weight can impact the pet's quality of life and relationship with family because the extra weight can reduce play time, impact mobility and affect the lifelong general health of your pet.

A dog or cat is considered obese if it is 15% or more above optimal body weight.

Maintaining a healthy weight for your pet can significantly increase his/her lifespan.

If you overfeed your pet you are literally "killing it with kindness".

What can I do if my pet is overweight?

It all starts with you… your motivation is the key factor in the success of your pet’s weight management. And of course, diet and exercise. In order to lose weight, your pet needs to have its normal diet replaced with a special low-calorie diet. Encouraging your pet to exercise will help to shift that extra weight as well.    

 The Hills range of Metabolic Diets helps to encourage healthy and successful weight loss, with 88% of dogs and cats losing weight in the home environment. Optimal weight loss of obese pets is between 1% and 3% of body weight per week.

Hills Metabolic Diets have been formulated with powerful antioxidants to support vitality and holistic health. The diet works to ensure safe and healthy weight loss and easy weight maintenance without making big changes or depriving your pet. Because the formula works with each pet’s unique metabolism, it also reduces the need to precisely measure the food to safely achieve weight loss success.           

Some tips and tricks

• Regular weight checks at St Bernard’s Road Veterinary Clinic will help maintain your motivation and allow us to record your progress.
• Weigh out your pets daily food allowance using digital kitchen scales and put it in a container at the start of the day. Your pet can be given food out of this container as frequently as it wants/needs/desires, but once the container is empty that is it for the rest of the day.
• If you need to treat your dog use the Hills Metabolic Treats—they are specially designed as a low calorie treat to use in conjunction with a weight loss program.
• Make sure there is no other food source available—fresh fruit and grapes are a great source of extra calories during summer.
• Have plenty of fresh water available