DOI : 10.56496 / IUBT9985
Kai Dillenburger-Keenan , RVN
Swift Referrals , Wetherby , West Yorkshire
ENVELOPE kaidk @ me . com
Kai qualified from Dundalk Institute of Technology with a BSc in veterinary nursing in 2020 . She is from Northern Ireland and moved to Yorkshire to work at Swift Referrals . Kai has had an interest in weight management in dogs since starting her degree and wants to see weightmanagement clinics more readily available in everyday practice . She was awarded runner-up in the Veterinary Nurse of the Year Award – Northern Ireland 2021 and was a nominee for the Veterinary Nurse of the Year Award 2022 . Her goal is to encourage others to voice their opinions in order to make a positive change in the veterinary field .
Introduction
ABSTRACT Animal obesity is seen far too often in daily life as well as in practice . Worryingly , the effects of animals being overweight are now becoming ‘ the norm ’. This can mean that dogs are not able to live their lives to the fullest because their owners are unwittingly overfeeding them .
This article explores what we , as veterinary nurses , can do to educate owners about weight gain in dogs , and how we can support owners in helping their pet to lose weight .
Keywords weight management , obesity , canine
The past few years have been exceptionally difficult for everyone , and this has had an impact on pets too . Unfortunately , there has been an increase in the number of animals seen in practice that have gained an unhealthy amount of weight .
The Covid-19 pandemic has been a contributing factor . Owners have been staying at home and exercising their pets less . They have also allowed bad dietary habits to develop , which have compounded the problem .
Annually , more than 1 in 14 dogs are recorded as being overweight by veterinary professionals in the UK alone [ 1 ] . That is almost 90,000 dogs in the UK in 2020 / 2021 [ 2 ] . Obesity is an entirely preventable condition , yet the number of dogs affected continues to increase .
18 Veterinary Nursing Journal