“Humphrey” waddled into the exam room and sat in front of the
counter housing the jar of Pup-
Peronis. He gave me an expectant look, then stared at the
goodies. Using a Pup-Peroni as an enticement, the technician lured him onto the
scale. Fifty pounds! The poor guy was 40% overweight!
I wish that were a noteworthy event, but about half of the
dog and cat population is overweight.
There’s a long list of health risks linked to obesity in dogs and cats,
including heart disease, diabetes, respiratory disease, arthritis, ruptured
ligaments, skin disorders, immune dysfunction, bladder stones and fatty liver
disease in cats. Most pet owners are
aware of at least some of those risks.
What excuse could we pet owners possibly have to justify shortening our
furry friend’s lifespan?
Veterinarians hear a litany of rationalizations from pet
owners when the digits on the scale surpass the previous year’s weight: It’s been too cold/hot to take him for walks;
he pesters us for food so relentlessly that we give in; he’s always been fat;
and my favorite: He’s not fat, he just needs to be groomed! Further examination of the clients’ feeding
patterns usually reveals the culprits:
too much food, too many treats, not enough exercise, and feeding from
the table.
Obesity research in people has exploded in the past decade,
and many of the findings in the human field have also been found to be true for
pets. It used to be thought that fat
exists to provide energy storage, thermal insulation, and support and
protection for organs. We now know that adipose tissue is metabolically active
in both pets and people, and is actually the largest endocrine organ in the
body. It’s an oxymoron, but there is actually lean adipose tissue, and the
genes in that tissue are different from the genes in obese adipose tissue. The genes in properly functioning lean
adipose tissue are fat-burning genes. When dogs and cats get fat, those “good”
genes are down-regulated and become fat-storing genes.
Is there a way to turn portly
pets into fat-burning machines without having them act famished? The good news is that feeding obese pets a
weight-loss food can shift the metabolism to a lean genomic profile. However, weight loss alone doesn’t alter gene
expression. It appears that the best
results come from weight loss due to feeding diets with specific nutrient
profiles. If that sounds familiar, it’s
the reasoning behind the explosion of human diet books, each of which purports
to have the panacea for weight loss.
In my experience, most of
the “weight loss” dog foods work fairly well.
But they’re usually based on a model of added fiber and decreased
calories, so in addition to creating the need for extra poop patrol in the
yard, many of them do not satisfy dogs’ hunger.
That’s why I was interested
when the Hill’s representative recently gave us a lunch-and-learn about their
new weight loss diet, Metabolic Advanced Weight Solution. By combining key nutrients such as fiber,
carnitine, lysine and antioxidants — “a proprietary bundle of synergistically
effective nutrients” — the new diet (which is sold in both dry and canned
varieties) helps up-regulate the good fat burning genes and down-regulate those
nasty fat-storing genes. During trials, 96%
of dogs and 86% of cats lost weight in two months while maintaining gastrointestinal
health and feeling satisfied.
The food from Hill’s is relatively new, so the jury’s still
out. But so far, the dog and cats in our
practice who have been fed this food have lost weight, and their people seem to
be pleased that the diet is regulating their pet’s appetite pretty well. So we’re cautiously optimistic; maybe there
is hope, after all, for the “Humpreys” of the world!
