New Year, “new leash” on life

Adelle Ellis
Times Reporter

 

The Animal Care Centre of Strathmore is implementing a 90-day New Year’s resolution program called Flab-to-Fit to help deal with obesity and tackle weight loss in pets.
“Obesity is a very serious health concern, it can lead to heart conditions, illness and joint conditions – ultimately it can decrease a pet’s lifespan,” said Dr. Rand Davis, a veterinarian at the Animal Care Centre of Strathmore.
The clinic, which has seen a steadily rising number of overweight pet patients, hopes to create awareness and enhance quality of life for pets by the implementation of this program.
The program will have a rolling start in the beginning of January: day one consists of an initial exam of the pet, with the continuation of the program for three months.
This program will assist and educate clients on proper nutrition, feed intake and exercise options, and will include tips on how to keep pets full without an intake of excess and unnecessary calories.
Maintaining a healthy weight for pets can be especially difficult for families with young children who are prone to dropping food on the floor – dogs and some cats will act as a vacuum and clean it up. It is also difficult for puppy owners who use treats as positive reinforcement while training: it is hard to wean a dog off being used to receiving treats every time they do something good.
“You have to understand that your dog will still love you even if you don’t give them as many treats,” said Animal Care Centre veterinarian, Dr. Kate Mueller. “You will actually be doing them a favour by keeping them healthy.”
Obesity in pets also rises in the winter because they usually are not outside and getting as much exercise as they do in the summer. It’s too easy to feed your pets treats when they are constantly indoors with you.
“All year round pets need to do exercise and reduce their caloric intake. This program helps teach you how you can accomplish that,” said Mueller. “This program will help educate people on how to judge the body condition and size of their pet, to know if it’s overweight or not. It will help you to judge how many calories a day your pet needs so you know how much they should actually be eating.”
Before entering the program, pets will receive a physical assessment and blood work performed by a veterinarian. This is to determine if there are any underlying health problems that could be causing the pet to gain weight, such as a metabolic disease like hyperthyroidism. In these instances, just putting a pet on a diet won’t necessarily work, and a different course of action may need to be taken.
The pet will have its picture taken, as part of a “before and after” photographic proof of the progress the pet makes. The pet will then be registered with the Royal Canin SlimFit program which will help pet owners calculate accurate feeding amounts of the dietary food, and will track the pet’s weight loss.
Pet owners will receive a starter kit with the program that includes a diet prescription catered to the pet’s specific needs and nutritional information, treats, measuring cups, feeding guidelines, a body condition score and a scale so food can be weighed before feeding.
Pets are weighed at the Animal Care Centre every two weeks throughout the 90-day program. The weights will be compared to the target weights pet owners set for each weigh-in. Pet owners receive a graph related to their pet’s weight loss.
Throughout the program, pet owners have access to a veterinarian or animal health technologist to discuss exercise and diet plans, and to seek help for any struggles encountered.
Enrolment in the Flab-to-Fit program is free; however, there is a cost to do the pet’s initial physical assessment and blood work; for this program, you will receive a 20 per cent discount off the cost of the assessment and bloodwork; plus, the additional cost for the dietary food.
“We are looking for a 100 per cent success rate,” said Mueller. “With all the tools and help we will be giving to clients, there is no reason why their pets won’t be able to lose weight.
“It is good to know that if your pet is extremely obese, this isn’t just a 90-day solution to their problem. This isn’t about just going from flabby to fit in 90 days; it is a program for a healthy progression of weight loss. It may take longer [but] we will be giving you all the knowledge and tools [you need] to help your animal past the course of this program as well.”
For more information about the program, contact the Animal Care Centre of Strathmore at 403-901-1800.