Getting Your Pet’s Weight Back on Track

Authored by Sophie Langley (RVN)

Weight within your pets can severely affect their well being.  Overweight pets can be more prone to diabetes, heart conditions and joint problems. Being underweight your pet will not be getting the correct nutrients to support vital organs to provide the best life.

The way in which we measure weight is by using a Body Condition Score (BCS) with a scale of 1-9.

At James Horner Vets as part of your Silver and Gold Wellness Subscriptions we include all Nurse Clinics. These clinics include weight clinics for your pets. These will be designed for your pet with a tailored specific calorie intake.

The start of the clinic involves working through an informational questionnaire. This will capture the basic history of your pet focusing on the normal routine of diet and exercise that the pet is being given at home.

Within the first consultation our nurse will discuss the questionnaire with yourself and get the pets starting weight along with your pet’s body measurements if needed. The nurse will have a chat discussing food, treats and exercise. The nurse will then make your pets own individual plan to lose weight, working out the exact amount of food (Kcal) that your pet needs for the day.

We will work with you and try to keep any existing diet the same but with some adjustments. Should little progress be made there is a weight loss food that we do recommend manufactured by Hills UK. We will only swap to a different weight diet if we see that your pet is still not losing weight.  

We will then plan to see you routinely at a time that suits you. The nurse will support you through every step of the way throughout this journey to improve your pets quality of life together.

Some of our Success Stories…..

Lovely 7 year old black Labrador Billy Smith who we first saw in practice to remove three lumps, we then got Billy into our weight clinics to help with his weight loss.

Then there is beautiful 8 1/2 year old Seren Andrews who has also been visiting the nurses for weight clinics with success. Seren also was coming in to help with socialisation as she was very nervous and is now happily taking low fat treats from the hands of staff members.