Short communicationDog obesity: Veterinary practices’ and owners’ opinions on cause and management
Introduction
Over the past 30 years, obesity in dogs has been identified as an emerging issue that may affect canine health and well-being (Bland et al., 2009). However, it is difficult to obtain good estimates of obesity in the canine population reflecting differences in survey method, target population and the methods applied to calculate national prevalence (Edney and Smith, 1986, Diez et al., 2002, Robertson, 2003). A further complexity in interpretation is the identification of significant associations between body weight of the animal (observed by McGreevy et al., 2005) and the reasons for visiting the veterinary practice. This situation prevents the information being used (admission rate bias) to estimate the prevalence of obesity in the national population. The reported prevalence is 20–40%, or up to 1.6 million animals in the Australian canine population of 3.7 million dogs (McGreevy et al., 2005).
It is recognised that obesity in dogs results primarily from excessive intake of food energy and reduced physical activity (Burkholder and Bauer, 1998, Bland et al., 2009). Other factors for increased prevalence have been identified as decreased metabolic rate, ‘insufficient feed nutrients’, gender, advancing age, breed and de-sexing (Fettman et al., 1997, Edney and Smith, 1986, Robertson, 2003). However, given the control owners have over the management of dogs, it is not surprising that human socioeconomic and lifestyle factors play a major role (Burkholder and Bauer, 1998) in the emerging obesity problem. Often animals that present to the veterinarian have weight problems but these are not recognised by the owner as an underlying reason for a range of causative conditions (Freeman et al., 2006). This situation is compounded by the fact that owners are often inaccurate in their assessment of their dog's weight (Singh et al., 2002). Surprisingly the attitudes of Australian dog owners and veterinarians towards strategies for management of the obese dog have not been surveyed to any extent, even though there is a consensus amongst animal health professionals that there is an apparent rise in obesity. This study aims to provide veterinarian's information about owner expectations of the veterinary profession in canine weight management and the responses of the veterinary industry to causes of obesity.
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Materials and method
The study reported in this paper builds on the earlier study of Bland et al. (2009). In his study on the responses from dog owners and veterinary practices on the routine care and management of overweight and obese dogs, Bland et al., evaluated 550 responses of dog owners in Victoria, Australia during July–August 2007. In a concurrent study, 419 questionnaires were distributed to veterinary practices (located in both rural and urban areas) in Victoria. The questionnaire was designed to provide
Results
The veterinary questionnaire was sent by mail to 419 metropolitan and rural veterinary practices in Victoria during July and August 2007 with 153 (37%) completed questionnaires received within 4 weeks of mailing. The respondent veterinary practices were identified as 63% in metropolitan Melbourne and 30% in rural Victoria. A further 7% of questionnaires received listed no location; however these were identified as either metropolitan or rural by the post office franking. Of the veterinary
Discussion
Studies into human obesity have clearly identified the need for multifaceted management strategies that aim towards altering the home environment to one favouring better weight control through sustainable behavioural changes to diet and physical activity (Hofbauer et al., 2006, Levy et al., 2007). Clearly, there is a requirement for multifaceted management of the nutritional disorder, however it was demonstrated that the majority of animal health professionals would recommend simple nutritional
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