Weight Management

The large and increasing number of overweight pets in the UK helps to confirm what lots of us as pet owners know: keeping our pets in ideal body condition when surrounded by heavily marketed pet treats, coping with busy working lives and being subject to the vagaries of the British weather during a long, cold, wet winter is not always easy. Even worse, if our pets have suffered illness or injury, our instinctive urge to make them feel happier often leads us to take the very short-term solution of offering them food just when they are unable to exercise as much, creating a new and possibly worse problem for the future.

Excess weight compounds the strain on your pets’ joints, heart and lungs and can lead to problems such as diabetes, liver disease and urinary tract disorders while seriously affecting their fitness and risking shortening their life expectancy. Often, losing weight can help pets to reduce the amount of medicines/drugs they need to take and dramatically improve their quality of life.

Losing weight safely presents different challenges to different pets, and professional, non-judgemental advice on a complete approach encompassing feeding, exercise and medical care gives the best results. As with humans, quick-fix crash diets are not the answer. ARC provides a solution with the time and expertise to tailor a weight loss plan for your pet.

UNDERWEIGHT pets should not be forgotten. The stress that owners of pets which have difficulty putting on weight is often overlooked; yet some are too intimidated to walk their pets in public places due to the misplaced comments and criticism they often receive from other people. Where medical conditions such as pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), bowel disorders, heart problems or tumours make it hard for pets to put weight on, appropriate nutrition and the type and timing of exercise can make a difference.