Sometimes people ask me if there is research to support animal physical therapy, and although in my head I’m thinking “isn’t that common sense!?!?” I politely explain that unfortunately research in animal rehabilitation is really lagging behind due to a variety of factors (funding is one of them as you can imagine). So with that in mind I have decided to start sharing more often some of the available research and the first one is “The Effect of Weight Loss on Lameness in Obese Dogs With Osteoarthritis”.

The obesity epidemic is an issue not only with humans but with household pets as well. I have discussed some of it in a previous post already, but the Association of Pet Obesity Prevention has estimated that as many as 52.5% of dogs and 58.3% of cats were found to be obese or overweight by their veterinarians, putting roughly 80 million pets at increased risk for weight related disorders! The study looked into dogs with hip and/or elbow OA and how losing weight would affect their lameness. They found that a reduction in weight of at least 6.1% of their body weight yielded significant decrease in lameness, confirming that weight loss should be an essential component of a treatment program for overweight/obese dogs with OA.

Are you not sure if your pet is overweight or obese? Take a look at my previous post on how to use the “Body Condition System”; however, be aware that a study found that owners of overweight dogs more commonly misperceived their dog’s body condition, both with and without the use of this chart. About 90% of the time the owners would underestimate their dog BCS, thus creating a long term issue if the owners themselves don’t understand that their dog is overweight/obese and don’t take the initiative to modify their diet and/or start them in an exercise regimen.

~TheK9PT

Francisco Maia, PT, DPT, CCRT