Is Your Cat Obese?
Do you know if your dog or cat is obese? It turns out that most dogs and cats in the United States are overweight, with over half of pets being overweight and over 30% of cats living with obesity. As with humans, being overweight isn't necessarily a health disadvantage; every pet's circumstances are different and what's healthy for one animal may be unhealthy for another.
The real worry you should have if your pet is overweight is the cause of your cat or dog's situation. If it's just overeating, for example, it might not be as bad as if it's due to the animal not getting enough exercise, having its hormones out of rhythm or another underlying condition. The only way to find out, of course, is to take your pet to the vet--and unfortunately that's not always a sure-fire way to discover what's wrong. I've lost a couple of cats over the years after vets simply couldn't identify what was going on with them.
Even so, you can talk to your vet about your pet's health to find out what you can do to ensure its best health. Is your pet overweight? How did you and your vet go about treating the animal?