canine/feline healthy weight vs. human bmi

it just struck me as strange: as humans we have this rather-generous range of what's considered a "healthy" height-weight ratio, but for our pets, it's pretty simple: ribs should be palpable, but not visible, and waist should be clearly defined.

is this just indicative of the fact that we have to protect our human egos?

not to mention the fact that the vets have to protect our human egos from the fact that our pets are overweight.  when i had a dog who was a little heavy, i had to ask before the vet would confirm it.

but--really--maybe it's as simple as that: ribs should be palpable, but not visible, and waist should be clearly defined.

no?

I'm sure if I ever took Raven to a vet, they wouldn't hesitate to tell us she's a horse. :\

I guess it depends on the vet.  Ours is kind of blunt.

Mine told me that my pooch needed to lose a few pounds there is a big push on it over to get your pet back to weight. Thankfully mine wasn't too bad and is now back at a more acceptable weight.....and it is that simple for them.

Er, stupid question but "palpapable, not visible"?

I absolutely HATE seeing overweight animals. If you want to harm yourself with food, fine, it's your choice but don't make a poor animal suffer through no fault of their own.

Vets should immediately tell people if their animals are overweight, especially if their not that overweight for it to be totally definate, as it sounds like yours was pgeorgian. Then at least it could be caught early and corrected without too much discomfort to the dog. Nevermind about sparing human egos, sparing animal suffering is much more important.

Original Post by misscherryjane:

Er, stupid question but "palpapable, not visible"?

means you can feel them, but not see them.

my dog got fat when we moved from a ranch, where she was outside all day (herding the kittens, watching for coyotes, visiting the horses, doing all sorts of very important things) to a house where she was inside all day while i was at work.  she was on free-choice food, and of course kept eating like a farm dog.  it got bad enough that she was having shoulder problems; once i cut her back to a cup of food twice a day, she dropped 15 pounds (from 90 to 75) just like that, and the shoulder probems disappeared.

but i didn't really mean this thread to be about dogs....

My vet has a numbered chart with different silhouettes of cats (looking down).  There is a range that is a healthy weight and then there are the drawings that look closer to bowling balls.

Original Post by chaotickitty:

My vet has a numbered chart with different silhouettes of cats (looking down).  There is a range that is a healthy weight and then there are the drawings that look closer to bowling balls.

mine has charts, too (for dogs and cats), but there isn't so much a range as a healthy weight picture surrounded by underweight and emaciated on one side and overweight and obese on the other.  none of this bmi 18.5 - 25 business.

Well, for a human's ribs to be "palpable but not visible" with a "clearly defined waist" could be quite a range.  I mean, I met those criteria when I was overweight and down 50 pounds from that.  I can think of a lot of women whose ribs are not visible that have a clearly defined waist who are also pretty fat.

huggit, i was thinking the same thing :)

i think there's another piece to the pet assessment, though: the ribs should not only be palpable, you should be able to count them by touch.  so all the ribs should be palpable, not just the lower ones.

i think i could have counted mine at my heaviest, but it wouldn't have been easy.  and my bmi was just barely over 25.  so maybe it amounts to the same thing...? 

I love my vet's office because if your pet is fat, they tell you and tell you what to do about it.  The last time I brought one of my cats in he was 3/4 of a lb overweight, and she told me so. The other cats I brought in was the perfect weight, and she told me so and encouraged me to keep it up. This is what vets should do.  I have a friend with an obese cat, and I asked her how her vet reacted to his weight; she said that the vet had never said anything! We're talking OBESE cat! I had to tell her that she was killing it and how much she needed to feed him. It's sad that vets are either afraid to tell you or just don't care maybe?

And why did your friend need to be told the cat was overweight? Couldn't she see it?

My vet used to say look for that tuck, uh, Penny doesn't have much of a tuck anymore.  She's overweight!  Not dramatically -- geez we saw a fat-as dachshund at the park this past weekend and she's not anywhere near that overweight.

I do think it's sometimes difficult to see in our own pets, the extra weight goes on so gradually and we do see and cuddle them everyday.  Penny's not of a size where I can conveniently hop on the scale with her.  On a BMI scale I would guess she was around 26, or slightly overweight.  It would be like me weighing 150 instead of 120.

My dog is fat right now. She got fat because her food scoop got thrown away by accident and we were using a bigger cup and eyeballing her food. When the kids and my SO would feed her they'd give her too much food.

It wasn't hard to see she was fat. We were even calling her "fat dog" as a knickname. I finally purchased a new scoop that measures the right amount and the weight is coming off.

i think i know what you are getting at here PG, but i don't know if i agree that the wider range of BMI is to protect our egos. i think it's just that humans can differ so much in body shape and composition, you know like all the apple, pear, hourglass, short waisted, long waisted descriptions. or how some men carry all their weight in their stomachs.

dogs and cats aren't really like that. i mean yes, there are tons of different builds when you look at some breeds, like labs for example can be a range of sizes. but dogs are all generally shaped the same way withint their breed, as are cats. and when they get fat, it generally goes to the same places. i've seen some fat dogs, but never a hippy dog or dog with a big gut.  

last time i brought Murph to the vet, i know he had gained a few pounds. i asked the vet if he was ok weight wise, and the response was "he's fine now, but i wouldn't want to see him gain anymore" that said to be that he was at the higher end of healthy, so i scaled back his food a bit. he never acts hungry and i think he's just right now.

BTW pg that hag picture is so ugly.  I really can't wait to see it go.  Bring back Kenya!!