Obesity is defined as an accumulation of excessive amounts of adipose tissue in the body; the disease predisposes to a variety of diseases including diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, and cardiorespiratory diseases.  In most animals, obesity is the result of a simple imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure.

Obesity can be a challenging disease to manage, requiring complex, bespoke individual plans.  In primary care practice, such plans are best managed by establishing bespoke obesity care service within the practice, with key staff members taking primary responsibility, in partnership with other staff as needed.  This lecture will cover the reasons for setting up such a clinical service, along with requirements for staff and equipment and suggestions for addressing common pitfalls.

This session will summarise provide a framwork for developing a practice-based obesity prevention programme for dogs and cats.  It will start by covering challenges with current weight loss strategies; although these can be very successful, they are very challenging for owners and rebound can often occur. Therefore, aiming to prevent the development of obesity, rather than treating it after it has developed makes more sense.  This can be more challenging than it sounds, not least because the problem develops insidiously, such that it is often missed until it is too late.  Prevention of obesity is a lifelong problem, requiring interventions right from the early growth phase through to the senior adult years.  It requires the veterinary professional to pay constant attention to maintaining a neutral energy balance (in terms of dietary energy intake relative to energy expenditure) whilst, at the same time, confirming this through regular monitoring of body weight and condition.

Obesity is defined as an accumulation of excessive amounts of adipose tissue in the body; the disease predisposes to a variety of diseases including diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, and cardiorespiratory diseases.  In most animals, obesity is the result of an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure.  However, in reality, the underlying pathogenesis is far more complicated, involving a complex interaction of many genetic, behavioural, environmental and biological factors.  As such obesity is now considered to be a complex, multifactorial disease.  This lecture will discuss current thoughts on management of obesity in dogs and cats.