Keep your pet fit
Keep Your Pet Fit
Manage your pet’s health and wellbeing from home.
Vet Carol Doyle shares her tips on how to manage your pet’s weight gain during lockdown.
Carol Doyle is a Vet practicing in Co. Meath who specialised in small animals. She is also a human companion to cats Nala and Donal, puppy Phoebe and two horses called Indie and Bella.
Carol is encouraging pet-owners to pay particular attention to their pets’ Body Condition Score (BCS) to ensure optimal health for their best friends. The BCS is a simple visual check and physical examination of the pet's body, ranked on a scale from one to nine. A score of one is too thin and nine is dangerously obese. The ideal score is four or five for a healthy pet which can be maintained with exercise and the correct nutrition.
“Recent evidence suggests that it’s not just us humans that have added a few extra pandemic pounds. Now that we are all spending a little extra time at home, and giving out a few extra treats, our pets’ weight is also affected.”
Carol Doyle
“In the clinic, more often than not pet-owners are shocked to learn that their pet is overweight. It is really important to manage pets’ weight correctly as obesity can lead to devastating health complications like orthopaedic issues, arthritis, cardiorespiratory problems, diabetes and can shorten a pet’s life expectancy and their quality of life. Even a few extra pounds can leave your pet listless and less energetic than usual. The good news is with some simple habit and diet adjustments this can easily be fixed.”
To assess your pets’ BCS at home, simply ask yourself these three questions:
1. Do you need to apply much pressure to find the ribs under the skin?
2. Does the abdomen tuck up towards the back legs or is it sagging?
3. Looking from above, is their waistline narrower than their chest; does it curve in or curve out?
“Ideally the answers are yes, you should be able to feel the ribs easily enough under the skin. Yes, the abdomen tucks up nicely under the back legs and yes, the waistline is narrower than their chest. If your answer is no to any of these, you may need to adjust your pets’ nutrition and exercise.”
A few tips that Carol recommends:
“I always recommend using weighing scales to ensure that your pet is getting the correct amount of food on each feed. This will vary from pet to pet, and from food to food, so following the recommended feeding guide on your pet’s food is essential.
Swap screen-time for playtime with your pet or schedule regular WFH breaks to make sure you and your pet are getting a daily heart-rate boost. Some larger breeds need over an hour of exercise so breaking it up across the day can be very beneficial for both pet and pet-owner.
Say no to pleading puppy eyes that are begging for treats – instead choose an interactive puzzle toy to entertain and reduce the amount of treats your pet is getting – puzzle toys are great because while they get their treat, they really have to work for it so the reward is in the achievement, and it will help keep your pet entertained during your video calls and homeschooling.
Use a food diary to track your pet’s daily calorie in-take - it’s a great way to identify where those extra calories might be sneaking in from.
For more pet tips from Carol and for overall pet health care visit - petmaina.ie
Top Toys to Manage Pets’ Fitness
Regular exercise is essential to help keep pets fit and healthy. Introducing more activity into their day is an essential part of getting pets back to a healthy weight. Petmania recommends 10-15 interactive play sessions lasting just 2-3 minutes for indoor cats.
Top Tip:
Petmania recommends that you put away your pets’ toys between play sessions to keep them interested.
M-PETS Yumi Weight Sensor Anti-Scoff Bowl allows pet-owners to accurately weigh pets’ food to help calculate daily feeding amounts. The shapes inside the bowl slows the speed your dog eats to reduce the risk of bloat or indigestion - €29.99
M-PETS Tiger Cat Toy is an interactive toy with a light sensor that makes attractive sounds as the circulating feather tempts the cat for hours of fun - €21.99
SPORTSPET Tennis Ball 12pk are a quality, standard size tennis ball in yellow, the perfect ball for a classic game of fetch - €10.99
BLUE PAW Teepee Scratcher Brown/Cream encourages indoor activity, help cats ‘scratching’ urge and improve their overall fitness - €24.99
KONG Gyro Treat Dispenser Large is sure to entertain with irresistible roll and flip action keeping dogs intrigued. With the center spinning orb and static outer ring, this dynamic toy encourages dogs to push, paw and roll the GYRO - €16.99