More than half of America's pets are overweight. How vets score a pet's shape, what extra weight costs, how to help kindly, and where the money word "fat cat" came from.
A healthy pet has a waist you can see and ribs you can feel. Pets get heavy when they eat more than they move. Playing is the best medicine.
In the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention's 2022 survey, veterinary professionals classed 59% of U.S. dogs and 61% of U.S. cats as overweight or obese. Many owners judged their own pets as normal weight: a chubby pet has become what people expect to see.
Pets eat what people give them, so pet weight is really a story about human habits.
Veterinarians use a body condition score from 1 (very thin) to 9 (very heavy); 4 or 5 is ideal. Three quick checks: you should feel the ribs under a light layer with flat fingers; from above there should be a waist behind the ribs; from the side the belly should tuck up. The diagram on this page shows the scale.
A score is kinder and more useful than a number on a scale, because a big-boned dog and a small one can both be healthy.
Extra weight raises the risk of diabetes (especially in cats), arthritis, breathing trouble and some cancers. In a 14-year study of Labrador Retrievers, littermates fed about a quarter less food lived a median of about two years longer and developed arthritis later.
Fewer health problems also mean lower veterinary bills: weight is an economics story too.
Free bowls of food, treats as a way of showing love, indoor life with little exercise, and spaying or neutering, which lowers the energy a pet needs, all add weight. Genes matter too: in 2016 Cambridge researchers found that many Labradors carry a gene change (in POMC) that makes them hungrier.
Some Labradors really are always hungry. That is a fact about their genes, not a failing of the dog.
The veterinarian sets the goal and the pace. Families can help by measuring meals instead of filling the bowl, swapping some treats for play, using puzzle feeders that make a pet work for food, and taking more walks. Never put a pet, especially a cat, on a sudden crash diet: cats that stop eating can become seriously ill.
Weight is not a moral grade for a pet or a family. It is one more thing to care for.
In American slang a "fat cat" is a rich, powerful person, especially a big donor to a political campaign. The earliest use found so far is in the Baltimore Sun in 1925. Frank Kent, a Sun writer, made it famous with his 1928 essay "Fat Cats and Free Rides" in H. L. Mencken's American Mercury. Today people talk about "fat cat" bankers and executives.
Words travel from the barnyard into economics and politics. Visit the money page to see how money and power connect.
Based on the 9-point body condition score used by veterinarians (WSAVA Global Nutrition Guidelines). Ideal (4–5): ribs easy to feel under a thin layer, a clear waist from above, a belly tuck from the side.
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