Care Corner: Maintaining a Healthy Weight in Pets

Feeding your pet their favorite foods and treats may seem like a nice thing to do, but if it’s not done in moderation it could actually be harmful to your pet. Helping your pet maintain a healthy weight is a chance for you, as their pet parent, to help them lead a long and healthy life!

Why It's Important
Overweight pets can experience adverse health effects, which could shorten their lives. Health issues associated with obesity include diabetes and arthritis, which can both cause unnecessary pain and discomfort for your pet. In addition, obesity-related conditions can lead to higher medical costs because disease management-related medications and prescription food can be quite expensive. 

​You want what is best for your pet and feeding them extra calories is ultimately not what is best unless a pet is underweight and you’ve been instructed by a vet to put them on a special diet to gain weight. As a best practice, have a conversation with your vet to determine the right amount of food and exercise your pet needs to thrive. And, be mindful, too, of foods that may be completely off-limits to pets due to potential toxicity or because your pet is allergic to them. Factoring in all of these things can help ensure that your pet lives a longer, healthier life--and can help better control your costs, too. 

Check Out These Resources
Visit our Care Corner web page for tips on how to best maintain your pet’s weight for optimal health and longevity.

What You Can Do To Help
Keeping your pet safe and healthy is important and can reduce emergency vet visits, which can be costly. Phinney’s believes in keeping people and their beloved pets together. We do this by extending a helping hand to pet parents in need when these emergency vet visits become too costly for some to afford. Ways you can help include donating to Phinney’s or volunteering.  And, anyone in need of help in caring for their pets can visit our Get Help page for more information.