Providing your pet an appropriate and balanced diet for their age and weight is one of the most important things you can do as a pet owner. Our veterinarians and staff offer nutritional counseling and weight management services.
The food you feed your pet provides the nutritional building blocks for all of their cells and body function. It may be cliche, but our pets are literally made up of what they eat. Our veterinarians can recommend a high quality commercially prepared diet for your pet or a recipe for a homemade diet based on your pet’s nutritional needs. At Northwest Animal Hospital, we carry and prescribe several different types of specialty diets that are scientifically formulated to treat and prevent certain diseases or conditions in animals.
Obesity is one of the most common health problems we see in our patients.Nearly every day, we see overweight patients with arthritis and other joint problems, torn ligaments, diabetes, urinary tract infections and skin infections. Being overweight also stresses the heart and lungs since they need to work harder to breathe and circulate blood.
At every Well Pet exam, we weigh your pet and our veterinarians give each patient a Body Condition Score (BCS). The BCS helps us assess the risks of obesity for your pet. We also use the BCS to calculate an individual calorie count recommendation for your pet. This guideline will help you determine how much your pet should be eating every day to keep them healthy and happy.