are you wondering if your pet is a healthy weight or actually fat well find
out for yourself with the simple act of body condition scoring and be certain
that your pet is the healthiest version of themselves they can be
hi I'm Dr. Alex Avery from OurPetsHealth.com helping you and your pet to live a
healthier happier life today I want to show you that body condition scoring is
an incredibly useful tool used to determine if a dog or a cat is thin
perfect or fat best of all it is easy and quick to do and it's also free it's
something that we should all be doing in our pets reviewing regularly and being
honest with ourselves when we work out our own pets individual conditions score
now the body condition score is a hands-on test when you take no more than
a minute it involves no special equipment it is a test that our pets
will not know is taking place we simply need to answer three questions one can I
feel my pets ribs to so they have a waist from above and three does my pet
have a tummy tuck these answers allow us to score an animal on a scale of 1
through 9 which is their body condition score one means an animal is emaciated
and nine means they are morbidly obese ideal score is a four or five so let us
consider each of these questions in turn firstly are my pets ribs easy to feel
without having to press on the area now this is one of the first parameters to
disappear in any overweight pet so if you're having to apply pressure to feel the
ribs then your pet is certainly overweight whether they are a dog or a
cat gentle pressure would indicate a
condition score of 6 moderate pressure 7 and by condition score 8 the ribs are
only able to be felt with very firm pressure now the second question to
answer is does my pet have a clear waist when viewed from above this is the
next attribute to suffer with a clearly visible waist disappearing at around
conditions for 7 ideally we want to feel an hourglass shape as we run our hand
down from the backs of their ribs down to their hips using our hands rather
than just looking is very important especially in very hairy breeds where
coat length and type can obscure true body shape if rather than an hourglass
your pets abdomen is more of a rectangle than they are overweight as a condition
score 7 if the waist is actually becoming rounded like a balloon then
they are obese and at least a condition score 8 now the third and final
parameter is tummy tuck which we look at by viewing our pet from the
and in long haired breeds again it is essential to feel for tummy tuck
abdominal tuck is the last attribute to vanish in dogs so if it has gone then
your pooch is certainly obese with a condition score of 8 or 9 now the
situation is slightly different for cats and that they only have a tuck when they
are a condition score 4 or less what we can use however is the presence of an
abdominal fat pad now this is the area of blubber that develops at the back of
the tummy between the back legs in overweight and obese cats it generally
becomes noticeable at a condition score 6 or 7 it is prominent at a score of 8
and grows larger and larger as more weight is gained in most obese cats
this will be an area that is clearly visible when the cat is walking with the
fat pad swaying from side to side now there are clearly some breed differences
in that a greyhound is unlikely to ever lose this abdominal tuck and a
Bulldog may lose its waist a little earlier but in general this tool
correlates very well with more advanced tests to determine body fat levels and
best of all it's free and can be done by anyone so has your pet come in at a
perfect 4 or 5 well with up to 40% of our pets being overweight you're not
alone if your pet is a little on the heavy side now to rectify this and to
help improve your pets quality of life and extend their life expectancy head
over to our obesity and weight loss video series get started on the road to
a healthier happier pet today now you'll notice that I haven't talked about
underweight body conditions now the reason for this is that only a very tiny
percentage of the pet population will fall into this category generally
speaking though if you can see the ribs and if the bones of the pelvis and spine
or hips are clearly visible then your pet will be underweight if they're eating
well if they're not losing weight if they're generally happy then increasing
their food by 25 to 50 percent should result in a healthy weight gain
if increasing the diet doesn't help within a couple of weeks and even
otherwise healthy seeming pets should be examined thoroughly by their vet now if
your dog or cat is underweight if it has a poor appetite and if they are losing
weight if their stools are a strange color or consistency or if they're
drinking or toileting more or if they seem unwell for any other reason and
they must be checked out by your vet to make sure there is not an underlying
cause of this poor body condition ok so if your pet is a healthy weight
brilliant let's make sure we keep it that way by regularly condition scoring
them and acting if things change if your pet
is overweight then you've just completed the first step of any weight loss
program recognizing the problem they are already on their way to a healthier
happier life so if you have any questions if you have any weight loss
tips you'd like to share or anything else you'd like covered in future videos
then I'd love to hear from you and please leave a comment down below also
consider subscribing to make sure that you don't miss out on future content and
allow me to continue to help you and your pet to live healthier happier lives
so until next time i'm Dr. Alex from OurPetsHealth.com, because they're family