Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The weight status of our cats and dogs has gained increasing interest in recent years, however, pet owners often greatly misperceive their pet’s body score condition. This is especially apparent if the pet is overweight. To maintain good animal welfare, it is important for dog and cat owners to swiftly and correctly recognize their pet’s body condition score. To understand the underlying issues as to why this phenomenon exists would be beneficial for everyone working with pets or pet owners as it might help prevent misperception.

In the reviewed literature, there were several ideas which could explain why pet owners have trouble using a body condition score chart. Body condition score charts lack information or specific drawings of different dog or cat breeds, and they seem difficult to use if the pet has long hair. The most commonly used body score charts in the reviewed literature had connections to leading pet food producing companies. Owners have a reluctance to use the term overweight, perhaps because the word is associated with negative characteristics, or that the term overweight has a different meaning for pet owners than it does for veterinarians. Acknowledging a pet’s overweight would also mean a need for change in the husbandry.

A development of breed-specific body condition score charts and providing the owner with a better definition and description of the term overweight might possibly help prevent misperception. For future studies in the field I would suggest studying if there would be any difference in how correct an estimation can be depending on whether the owner has been educated in the usage of a body condition score chart or not.