Any pet owner will tell you just how important their animal friends are to them and owners will often go to great lengths to ensure their cats or dogs are in tip-top condition.
One way of doing this is to ensure that pets are a nice, healthy weight and being over or under their ideal weight can be detrimental to an animal’s health.
Vet demonstrates how to check your pet’s weight at home
Animals, particularly cats, are famously uncooperative and getting them to stand on a set of scales while attempting to take their weight can be almost impossible.
To help new or inexperienced pet owners check the weight of their animal friends at home, a vet from the UK-based pet charity PDSA has appeared in a video on TikTok to demonstrate a helpful technique.
“Weigh yourself on digital scales and take a note of your weight,” says the video’s voiceover. “Now step on with your [pet] and take a note of the new weight.”
“Subtract your original weight from the combined weight, and voila,” you will now have the weight of your furry friend.
“If your [pet] doesn’t like being held, use a carrier instead,” the video recommends. “Weigh the carrier on its own, then with your [pet] in and subtract the weight of the carrier from the combined weight.”
It should be noted that the video is aimed more at cats than it is at dogs – especially large ones – but the technique should still be applicable to smaller dogs.
An animal’s weight isn’t the be-all and end-all
While taking note of your pet’s weight is important, it’s not the be-all and end-all of your animal companion’s health. This is because all animals are different and the ideal weight of one cat or dog might not be the same for another.
As a result, you should also take note of your pet’s ‘body condition score.’
We recently covered a video from UK-based veterinary practice chain, Pet Health Club, in which a vet explained this in more detail.
But for a quick rundown, a body condition score assesses three areas of your pet: their ribs, waist and tummy.
For a cat, you ideally want to be able to feel their ribs with the flat of your hand. If you have to feel firmly to feel the ribs or if they’re very prominent, the pet could be over or underweight.
The waist is best viewed from above and you should see a distinct hourglass-esque curve. If the waist is barely visible and the animal’s waist is flat or if its curves are too severe then again, it could be over or underweight.
And finally, for the animal’s stomach, a healthy cat or dog should have an obvious ‘tummy tuck’ with gradual but not severe curves and will also not be protruding.
“Weighing your pet regularly and checking their body condition score can help to identify any unusual weight gain or weight loss,” says the video from the PDSA. “This is essential to monitor to keep your [pet] happy and healthy.”
