More recently veterinarians have found that fatty acids play important roles in other areas of skin and coat health such as allergies, the control of inflammation and the function of other body organs in cats and dogs. With the advent of lamb and rice diets many people feel that they are preventing or treating food allergies. The fact is that nothing could be farther from the truth. It is not uncommon for dogs to have skin irritations and the causes for this are numerous. Today we will discuss a topic that I have touched on in previous columns, canine obesity.
Obesity is a extremely common condition among pet dogs large and small.
I see weight problems in dogs that range from mild to life threatening. The most extreme example in my experience was a male Rottweiler who weighed 152 pounds during an office visit a few years ago. We receive many reports from people telling us how they feed their dog on cat products and vice versa. However, research into the feeding of pet animals clearly shows that the nutritional needs of cats and dogs do differ. For this reason, pet food companies take considerable trouble to establish product recipes to take account of these differing requirements.