Oh, look at those chubby fat animals, they were so cute, isn’t? Are you type of these people who would make a statement like this every time you seen fat animal? I do, and I just couldn’t help my self at it every time I’ve seen those pets which literally look like fluffy giant ball of hair walking or sleeping – cats or dogs. Now, perhaps I should re-consider to hurl those kinds of statements, because of the health issues that shadow the out looked appearance of those animal, and lead them to 2 harmful effects of obesity in your pets.
Not that I say all the ‘fat’ was evil and dangerous, but these days, we should really define the ‘safe’ restriction of overweight. Actually – to be honest, obesity is not something ‘overwhelmed’ anymore. This issue was the most common struggle of human kind, and apparently – sadly, this problem was slowly crawling and attack our beloved pets. As an owner – yes, it is our job to provide our pets needs, food, shelter, etc – but we should fulfill our duty in the right portion and responsibility.
Feed our pets as much as they want without thinking the long-term side effect of what we are doing was irresponsible. Today, we’re going to discuss the 2 harmful effects of obesity in your pets, that would bring much sorrow than joy in their lives.
The Facts about Overweight Animals
If you think: oh, don’t worry, I am sure that the numbers of obesity animals is not that many – you should take that thought back, my friends, because that is totally false. Unfortunately, the number was quite fantastic, and all the survey reviled that both side – cat and dog – the percentage was more than fifty percent. The approximate number of overweight cat was about fifty-eight percent, and the dog approximate percentage was fifty-three percent; and yet, a lot of owner think that their pet was in perfect and normal weight.
Well, guess what folks, apparently we’re wrong. In fact, approximate about seventy-two percent of American adult pets are obese or overweight. The most reckless and fatal thing that we would make is dismiss the potential life-threatening health possibility of our ‘perfect’ pets, such: tumors, high blood pressure, diabetes (hormonal disease), and the most common heart disease which frequently caught by overweight animals. The right and wise move is to keep our pets in normal weight, and monitor it regularly to the expert, in this case was veterinarian.
1. Some of the Sickness that would Catch Obesity Dog
Intervertebral Disk Disease
Which also known as IVDD is the worst, the last thing we could imagine – hopeful that it would never strike your dog. However, what is IVDD (Intervertebral Disk Disease)? IVDD is the condition where the cushioning discs which is placed between vertebrae of the spinal column is burst or bulge into the spinal cord of your dog.
These conditions would make the disc press the nerves and could cause some serious consequences for your dog, such; nerve damage, pain, and even the worst – paralysis. Yes, these conditions would be very painful for our beloved pet.
Before it’s too late, let’s just take some note about the symptoms of IVDD: your dog constantly crying out in pain, loss of bowel and bladder control, weakness and pain in legs, reduced on the activity and appetite, unwillingness to jump, anxious and look fearful behavior, etc. If you found out that your dog appeared with those symptoms, then it’s time for you to make a move and consult with the professional helpers.
Osteoarthritis
Another risk being overweight was threaten of bones disease, particularly the osteoarthritis. The osteoarthritis was a log-term effect of cartilage deterioration which surrounding the joints. These diseases was classified as the chronic joint inflammation. The over-worked joint caused by the weight for a long time, could damage your dog in their adulthood.
The symptoms of osteoarthritis included: decreased the level of activity, stiffness during the exercise (stiffed-legs gait), and lameness. Make sure that your dog in a perfect shape could be lower the risk of this disease, which is according to some research; losing the body fat about six to eight percent of the body improved body’s mobility.
Heart and Breathing Issues
It’s welled known, that overweight people often diagnosed with heart and breathing problems. Unfortunately, this is also happened to out pet dog. Obesity pushed the heart to work harder – work twice harder than a normal one. This condition, of course would effect to other organs such lungs, which if we let it happened in a long term would cause serious problem, such laryngeal paralysis and collapsing trachea.
The best description on how your dog might feel when they have breathing issue perhaps would be like this: an elephant sitting in their chest. What worse than that, folks?
2. Some of the Sickness that would Catch Obesity Cat
Diabetes
It’s was a horrifying fact that our cat could get diabetes just like human. The main causes of diabetic disease is some deficiency of some important substances, such: amino acids, fatty acids, zincs, niacin, etc. Also, the pancreas apparently produced way too much glucagon, high blood sugar, and etc. Like we know, diabetes could attack all the organs, make them fail one by one, and the end – take your cat live.
The symptoms of diabetes, ordinarily are: weight loss, sudden onset, yellowish skin, skin abnormalities, vomit, decreased of appetite, etc. Prevention would be the best option, right my friends?
Poor Quality of Life
A healthy body or unhealthy one, would effect the life-span of your cat (well, actually the majority of pet). The overweight would cause your pets become less and less active, that’s for sure. In that case, how could your cat keep healthy if they were too lazy and too ‘heavy’ even for a low level of exercise such walk and playing?
The obese would paralysis your cat day by day, make them lazier each day, which is at one point, your cat would prefer to sleep all day than to move (that’s a little bit creepy). The quality of life would depend on how much activity they spend a day. So, people, what are you going to do? Well, perhaps, planning an exercise once a day would be a good start.