Your pet’s health is very important to everyone at Animal Medical Center and we want to help add years to their life while increasing their quality of life.
Here are a few key questions to ask yourself when trying to determine if your pet is overweight:
- Can you feel ribs while running your hand down their side without pushing?
- Is it difficult to see their waist?
- Do they often appear tired?
- Do they need help jumping onto furniture or into the vehicle?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, we are here to help!
There are three major factors involved in healthy weight for pets; exercise, food and most importantly YOU!
Exercise:
Exercise is extremely important in helping our pets lose weight. While weight loss for us is mostly based on what we eat, our pets are quite the opposite. Increasing exercise will make a major difference in your pet’s ability to get to and maintain a normal weight. Ask us for exercise IDEAS! Our staff at Animal Medical Center has tons of ideas to help your canine or feline friend find a fun activity that will engage their minds and help them achieve their goal weight.
Food:
What to feed your pet can be extremely confusing as more and more companies are producing pet foods, each with their own marketing strategies and misleading wording on food bags. There are many brands out there that claim to be “low calorie” and “low fat” although this claim can mean many things. There’s a dog food labeled “fat dog” on the bag, but unless is says the word “light” or “lite”, the pet food company does not have to prove that the pet will lose weight while eating it. Take care when looking at pet food labels. If you have any questions or would like to us to go over pet food labels with you, we will be happy to help! We are here for you and your pet!
YOU:
Our pets trust us with making decisions about their health. We have the power to make sure our pet’s lifestyle is healthy and happy. We provide the nutrition, exercise, and love that our family pets’ need to live healthy, long lives. For our pets’ to reach their weight loss goals is entirely dependent on our compliance!
The staff at Animal Medical Center truly believes in the science behind the foods we recommend. Our Metabolic Mondays are based on Hill’s Science Diet brand. It has ingredients added to the diet that rev up the pets’ metabolism which helps their body work more efficiently at burning calories. Also, it’s not a calorie-restricted food so your pet will feel full! Science Diet’s Metabolic Diet has an 88% success rate, during in-home trials, so we are confident it will help your pet achieve their goal weight.
To learn more, stop by on Metabolic Mondays in May to talk with our Nutrition Specialist Tara. She can expand on any of the suggestions above and would love to answer any questions that you may have. If your schedule doesn’t allow you to stop by on Metabolic Monday, we encourage you to stop by or call ANYTIME to talk with our staff and Tara about your pet’s weight and nutritional needs.
