Introducing Claire Hemmings here. She's going to be talking about the added health benefits of controlling calories in patients on a therapeutic diet. Claire qualified as a vet nurse in '95 and worked at a multidiscipline referral centre.
She's no longer the register, but she keeps up to date with veterinary advances and passed a certificate in canine and feline veterinary health nutrition with distinction in 2016. In 2003, Claire won Pett Health counsellor of the Year for her work with arthritic patients and joined Royal Canon in 2004, where she works as scientific communications manager. She has many articles published in both vet and pet owner publications and is on the Ar expert panel of Your Cat magazine.
She's got 2 teenage boys and a curly-coated dog as well. I can see a lot of you are tuning into Kahoot there already, so. I think that's what Clare was gonna prompt.
I'll, I'll hand over to you. Thanks, Claire. Thanks, Hannah.
And hi everybody, and thanks, Alex. That's really interesting as always, and I'm, I'm gonna be a very lighthearted here and take you through to lunch with a Kahoot. So good game with the prizes at the end.
So, with anyone who hasn't played cahoot before, you just, it's speed and accuracy. And this topic's a bit of a strange one for me because it's one that really, you know, I'm trying to talk about the the where, where we can choose a lower calorie diet with certain conditions. And Alex talked about comorbidities in in great detail, really fascinating, and we see it all the time.
So, this is quite eclectic, a few nutritional truths thrown in there and hopefully A little bit of interest for you. I'm going to stop the video now. We've got a limited time, and so, so bear with me.
And this will help, hopefully with the Wi Fi here. So, if you haven't joined yet, I can see we've got 60 people in it's a lot more to join. If we haven't joined yet, you can join as we go through the pin remains on the screen.
OK, so let's get cracking. I'm gonna start this now and I'm gonna whoop. Put some sound on.
I should have done that, shouldn't I? My sound's gone. OK, let's get the sound on so that you have the same earworm that I have.
Hopefully you can hear that. Right, so we're just gonna look at calorie controlled diets in animals that are already on a specific diet or may need to go onto a specific diet. And obviously, Alex has said in a lot of cases that, that, that weight loss is a priority.
So for those with a much heavier weight, actually, that's the more Important factor for, for helping the condition. But there's certain animals that perhaps, you know, body condition 6, which really needs something, that's going to step in and help them straight away. So, let's go and I'm going to start off with a multi-select here.
Which of the following statements do you think are true? Tick all of those that you think are. Owners of obese cats and dogs spend more on diagnostics and medicines.
Obesity can significantly reduce life expectancy. Weight loss improves quality of life. Obesity has a direct impact on skin and coat and pets.
Not all pets with digestive issues are thin, or overweight cats are more likely to develop bladder stones. But all of those that you think are true just to easy into this. I've given you quite a lot of time because I needed to read those answers out and there was quite a lot of words there.
So you've just got 20 seconds, you can see there's a countdown on the left hand side. And there'll be less time to answer remaining questions. But hopefully our answers all coming in.
10 seconds left. Everything 54321. OK, what do we got?
Excellent. Looks like most people take to all of them, so there's evidence, that all of these statements are true, and there's been lots of studies, many of them, run by, Doctor German himself, that, that really show this terrible impact that, that obesity has on animals health overall. So Danny, you've just whizzed into the lead.
Well done. Keep going. And this, this information about owners spending more on, on, on, on procedures and on medications, you know, it's really quite a big significant impact, and we're in a situation at the moment, certainly in the UK, but probably around the world where there's a cost of living crisis.
And so actually keeping animals at the right weight is a good thing for the purse to, never mind the health of the animal. Feeding according to feeding guidelines makes the bag last at the time it's supposed to be lasting, you know, reducing the addition of treats and snacks and supplements and things all make a big difference to the purse as well as to the animal's health, if you just feed a good diet to start with. And we know that it also does impact life expectancy, for both cats and dogs.
So just a quick brainstorm, just give you a minute, I think, to to just list what conditions are caused by or exacerbated by obesity, and anyone who's been listening to Alex will, will have a very good notion of that. So just jot down as many as you can. I may not let this run full 1.5 minutes if we have plenty of answers in.
Just to make sure you're all listening. It just seems to be an epidemic that's following, animals are following the human population. And that seems to be happening all over the world now, rather, rather than just America and the, and the, the UK.
And there's a few answers coming in, just write your lip. But worry about spelling. Anything like that.
I can work it out. So great, we've got some answers coming in now. I'm just gonna give 10 more seconds, apologies if anyone's still struggling to write, but 5.
4321, gosh, there's a lot coming in. I'm gonna skip that now. Let's see what the what the sorting hat says.
See how many people have said the same sorts of things. There's so many answers to give. Diabetes, particularly in cats, but also it doesn't impact the treatment if you have an overweight dog.
It causes insulin resistance. Arthritis, absolutely. Hypothyroidism, certainly animals are overweight, so, you know, they tend to get overweight if they've got it, but as Alex said, it's a quite a low, proportion, of them, diabetes, heart disease, tracheal collapse, yeah, obstructive airway syndrome.
You will know, of course, you know, so many things. I mean, I think maintaining an ideal body weight seems to be the key to maintaining that health span that Alex talked about, you know, skin and coat, respiratory issues, what else we've got, kidney disease. Yeah, and actually, you know, perhaps a kidney disease, as we, as we saw, we need to keep them on the, on the heavier side of normal rather than like once they've got that bladder stones, unhealthy food.
Yeah, there's lots of things here. So, really, really good. You have all been listening so far, so let's hope I don't switch you off now.
So maintaining an I weight is absolutely vital. Overall health is key for every, every creature on the planet to to be ideal and and it's something we really need to tackle. And because of the statistics, we've got, you know, around half of all pets overweight or obese.
In fact, more than that, really with dogs and cats, and it's it's very likely that they'll have a concurrent health condition. And, you know, the simplistic way of putting it is that there's an imbalance between calories in and calories out. But of course, it's a multifactorial condition.
It's, it's something that's, you know, the psychological reasons. There's, there's, there's there's nutritional reasons, there's there's habit, there's opportunity, there's all sorts of things. So we can't make it as simple as that.
And what I would say is the is the key part of this is that prevention is always better than cure. So, you know, rather than having them to go to a weight loss diet to start with, it would be far better to make sure that we think about this from the very first minute they come into their, into your surgeries, you know, for their, for their first vaccination. That the owners are aware of how easy it is to, to lead them into obesity.
So they should always follow feeding guidelines and aim for the lower end of a feed feeding guideline, you know, and then they can always increase it if the animals, you know, not growing at the rate that they want or not, not, not maintaining their weight. The the diet should be tailored to their life stage and lifestyle. You know, you shouldn't be feeding puppy diets to adults because they're higher in calories.
You shouldn't be feeding one diet that fits all, because it doesn't fit all. It's not possible to make an ideal diet for all. You should never overfeed during growth.
We should ban the term puppy fat. We should make sure we haven't got roly-poly puppies and kittens because the more fat cells they have during growth, the more, chance they have of being obese as an adult. We need to make dietary changes when neuting, then they should be key, and there's still places that just don't really talk about it, I suppose, don't like to feel like they're pushing a diet onto to a patient onto to a client.
But actually, you know, if we've seen that the added cost of, of healthcare when you're looking after an obese animal, it's the best thing you can do. For them, you know, we need to reduce calories by around 30% in patients that are neutered, but you also need to make sure that they're not going to be starving, hungry and begging. So it switching to a specifically formulated neutri diets is something that in the long run will really benefit the animal and that patient and their person.
And monitor the body condition score, the the the muscle condition score, the weight in all patients as a routine, and that's Stated by WSAVA that this should be done in every, every consultation, and you should always use digital scales to weigh food, not just when they're on a weight loss diet, but on every single day, every single meal they ever have and limit treats to less than fewer than 10% of the day's overall calories. Now, we're going to have a little look at all these things as we go through. So, a true or false fat provides, I've hidden my balls, you can read the, read the question.
Does it provide more or fewer? I can't, double the calories of, of protein and carbs. Sorry, there's a, there's a bar at the top which prevents me reading my question.
It's true, so it's roughly, roughly 9 calories for a gramme of fat and there's around 4 or so calories for a gramme of protein or carbs. So within 48 hours of nutrient, cats tend to do less and eat more. Is this true or false?
It's true, and there's a couple of studies that have shown this. And what this, you know, let's put it in real terms, this means before they come back for their 48 hour postop check, they have changed. And so that weight gain will creep on, they'll do less, their drive to, to, to be as busy as before is not quite there.
Now, you might not see it with your eyes, but, but, you know, straight away, and your clients might not notice, but it is there and it, the, the evidence is there for it. So those changes should be made really quite, quite quickly. And you're at the top, well done.
So this is a multi-select as well. Thinking of neutering dogs and bitches, take all that you think are true. So this is a multi-select.
Changes in appetite happen within 2 weeks of neutering. Nutrient doubles the risk of obesity. If ad lib-fed, neutered dogs will eat up to 50% more than they need, or if ad-lib-fed neuter dogs are good at regulating their own.
Calorie intake Multiple select which ones. Perfect. The 1st 3 are true.
Now, now, you know, the studies show that these changes happen within 2 weeks and they start to gain weight. I have to say, anecdotally, changes in my dog's appetite happened within one meal of being muted. I just, they just seem to be more, more driven to eat, more driven to beg.
And actually, there's a, one of the reasons that puppy owners often feel that their animals are quite, fussy and picky, when they're eating and they chop and change brands all the time is because before they're neutered when they're, when they're young, they're more interested in everything else. They, you know, they, they don't really think about food, and we do the same with animals as we do with children. We knock that ability.
To judge whether they're hungry or not out of them. We say, come on, you know, clear your plates, or we say, oh, the dog's not eating. I'm just gonna offer it something else and offer it something else and offer it something else.
And we end up, you know, trick tricking them into thinking that they, they're not listening to the right signals. It's really important that we just not worry if they miss a meal. It's not the end of the world.
Particularly when they're, you know, before they're neutered. So the other stats are true, giving them, giving them free reign, they lead to a lot more than they need, and this is where the obesity issue comes in post neutering. You're hanging in their hand.
Well done. And Rachel T, you're up 12 places. I feel like the pop charts.
So we've got some, some diets here. So feeding based on their age, their lifestyle and weight status. We have, obviously there's other companies which make scientifically formulated diets and depending on where you work, as to what you choose as your number one, number one diet, we've got a broad range looking for healthy animals that Body condition score 45 or 6, and then we would say animals, whether they're neutered or not, and healthy could go on to the neutered diet diets, and they can go on to the neutered diets when they're neutered.
And then if they're overweight, 7 to 9, they really need to go onto a proper weight loss diet rather than just a light diet. OK, so, we want to have just to look at a few of these cases. I mean there's an awful lot of comorbidities that can happen with obesity.
In fact, possibly every single potential problem that is out there could, could link to obesity as well. So we're just going to look at these ones, urinary cases, dermatological cases, GI issues and joint support as well. So when do we decide to use a special diet for them and when do we try to pick the moderate calorie version of that?
So we look at lower urinary tract disease first of all, we know, and you know, it's really common. You see it fairly often, more common in cats than it is in dogs, and it actually makes up one of the top three of insurance claims for cats. So we know it's an issue.
It's, it's expensive for owners as well. It can be challenging to manage, purely because it, you know, it's expensive and it's recurs and often there's animals are euthanized if they, if it's not, if it's not managed properly, if they don't want to change diets, you know, it's, it's a, it's likely to recur. So those dietary changes are really required immediately, and they have to be changed to something specific.
And this is where, us reclaiming our knowledge about what animals need in certain conditions is important to reclaim it from Facebook and reclaim it from, you know, the, your mom's, your mom's friends up the road who's had a cat once, you know, we, we need to be the experts and be brave and strong in telling our story. Overweight male neuter cats are more at risk of lower urinary tract disease. As well.
So what's the most common cause of feline lower urinary tract disease? Is it neoplasia, urinary stones, urethral plugs, or idiopathic cystitis? Got some very fast fingers on here today, which is great.
OK, a few seconds left. It's idiopathic cystitis by far and away the most common cause, the, urinary stones do do follow on, but idiopathic cystitis is a, is the biggest one. So a little change around there.
And it's the same with dogs as well. So, cystitis is the, is the biggest, the biggest cause. Of bladder problems in dogs.
And you know, when it's idiopathic, we don't know what's causing it, you know, sometimes it's a stress-related, sometimes it's a physiological issue they've got, sometimes it's, well, it's unknown idiopathic. So there's a management plan that you could use, that could be, you know, medical management, so that there's, there's medications that you can give them. It may be that you need surgery if they, if they've actually got a, a blockage of, of stones or a plug.
Maybe environmental modifications so that they are, having more access to water stations. So, so they're drinking more often so that you're allowing them the ability to go outside if they're an indoor animal, an ability to go out and toilet, more litter trays, you know, that sort of thing. And lifestyle changes, increasing water intake and diet adaptation as well, which is really key here.
And we know that if we can change the diet to a therapeutic diet, we can, create this environment in the bladder that's unfavourable to the formation of those crystals. So a few ways that you could increase water intake. So which, which ways?
Increase the number of water stations, feed a specific urinary diet, feed a wet food, use different types of bowls. This is a multi-select as well. I forgot to say it.
So which way could you do that? And I'd say particularly it's a problem in cats, you know, they, they are very, very picky with what they like to drink and they're. They're magical in lots of ways, but difficult in lots of ways.
Yeah, you could do all of these things. So feeding a wet food rather than a dry food will increase water, a turnover overall, but feeding a specific specific urinary diet, even a dry version will increase the water turnover, in a similar fashion to a regular non-urinary wet food, increasing water stations, using things like water foun. Mountains, saving rainwater if you live in a quite a, you know, sort of calcified area, lots of things like that.
And using different, different bowls in different stations. Now if you've got an older animal or you've got a lazier overweight animal, then you might find that they don't want to walk too far to get to their water and that might impact how often they drink. So bear that in mind and putting something nearer and more convenient for the animal.
So a little change, 6 players have reached that are officially on fire. So we use something called relative supersaturation. I'm sure that most people know of this.
It's been around a long time, but it's looking at these three parameters, the urinary pH, which needs to be slightly acidified for dissolution of strevi and prevention of its return, and manipulation of the mineral content of the diet, and also, we use some methods to increase water turnover. So we adapt some of the minerals to Increase thirst. We also put in some nutrients, which will increase the thirst as well.
So we're we're aiming to to to have a certain level of saturation in the bladder. So these three glasses here represent bladders and the the grey liquid inside them represents the urine, and these represent the crystals. So we have 3 levels of of of crystallisation.
Or bladder environments. We have oversaturated bladder, where you've got too many minerals in the diet. You've got not enough urination, you've got not enough water passing through and in really easy terms, those minerals bang together and stick in the diet in the bladder.
And that's where you've got spontaneous crystallisation and rapid growth of those crystals or stones. In this level, and this is where you see RSO index, we promote this healthy environment in the bladder where there's, there's less, less water passing through, than, than, than our clinical diets, but there's fewer minerals as well. So, we can keep the water passing through the animal drinks a bit more and wheeze a bit more.
And if they haven't got a crystal and they are on a diet which says SO, they won't be growing a crystal from there either. And then we have our urinary SO diet, which is for those animals that have got a urinary issue. So they, they have a diagnosis of strewvi or oxalate crystal, and there's no spontaneous crystallisation and you get the solution of strewvi if you feed that diet.
Now, if you decide, you know, the owner thinks, well, I'm going to try and feed this one instead when I've got a crystal in there, that's a danger for them and it's a false economy to do that. They need to go for the clinical diet. So a quick poll here, so there's no points for this one.
What diet would you recommend for a 2 year old male neutered cat with a recently identified strevi stone? What are your thoughts? Urinary SO, urinary moderate calorie SO, satiety weight management, or urinary and carb?
Multifunction There's not particularly a a right or wrong answer here. There's probably some that are more right than others. It that way.
Yeah, I would, personally, I would go for this, and I would say that because I haven't given you a weight, but he's neutered, and we know he's got that, he's got that risk of, of, gaining weight because he's neutered. And so my, my first choice would be this. And if you've got a small cupboard.
At work and you can't stop them all because weight is such an issue, and because weight is so often linked to urinary issues. My first diet that I would keep if I had no space to keep others would be the moderate calorie version of both dog and cat diets. And, and that's saying, you know, that's, that's would be my recommendation.
We've got, a lot here, a lot here, for animals with urinary issues. So ideal weight they sit here or neuter or prone to weight gain is the moderate calorie diet. And sometimes people just aren't aware that we've got those diets.
So I just wanted to make sure that you were aware and they're both in wet and dry so you can mix and match, you know, and suit the actual, you know, the animal's preference as well. And, there's the, the list there for all the different, different micro nutrient levels in there. Those of you that have a multifunction diet, if you haven't, then please ask your business manager about it because it's really important, but this is an ideal case for those stress related cats, you know, the, the FIC cases where they live in a multica household and, and you believe it's a stress related, .
Idiopathic cystitis. So this is the urinary diet as a urinary diet, so dissolution of strevi and maintenance against the return of strevi and the formation of oxalate, but also, incorporating all the benefits of the calm diet as well. So that's a that's a good one to know if you, if you're not aware of it.
So this is a whistle stop tour, as I said, get moving on to dermatology cases. We know that 20% or around 20% of dogs and cats seen in practise have got some sort of skin sensitivity. And often it's an allergic issue, most commonly environmental allergens, food, food allergens are pretty rare, in the great scheme of things, but environmental allergies are fairly, fairly high up on the list.
You know, in a study of 1000 cats and looking at all different case conditions, 6060 over overweight ones had skin disease. And we know that there's certain reasons that, that skin might be, might be impacted by it. So I just wanted to remind you, the skin's an astonishing organ.
It's massive. It's the biggest one. It's responsible for a whole host of, of functions from, you know, indicators of pain or, or temperature or when, you know, when to sweat, when to pant, secretion and excretion of, of, of good stuff like, oils and, and Sweats and also toxins such as urea.
It's a good storage organ and of course, lots of fat is stored under the skin and excessive fat in overweight animals. It's there for production of vitamin D and, you know, sweating, shivering, blood flow, an indicator of readiness to mate or state of mind. You think about hackles raised on the back of the dog's neck, and, you know, perhaps the flushing of, of skin whenever you're ready to mate.
And it's a primarily it's a barrier, so it stops external assault from from physical assault or pathogens, and it also is a barrier for, for for keeping things in. So it keeps water inside the body, primarily, and it's holds you hold your body together. So it's a really key organ, and it's, it's important to keep it in good condition.
So this is a key number to know. The skin cell, renewal cycle takes how long do you think? 7 to 14 days, 22 to 30 days, 2 to 3 months, or 3 to 4 weeks.
The 1 2nd left. Right. 22 to 30 days.
And the reason it's important then to remember that number is if you're ever feeding anything and you expect to see changes in the skin, you really need to give the very minimum one skin cycle, so one month of feeding, and the ideal is to feed two skin cycles. You're never going to see changes within a few days or a few minutes. It it has to be a long term event, the time it takes for the food to go in and then make its way to the outside and then to manifest changes.
So please remember that number and always prepare your clients for a long term feeding plan whenever you're looking at changes for skin, if you're, if you're changing your diet, there's no magic bullet with skin, unfortunately. With anything actually. Oh, look at that little change around there.
You're holding your own CC. I'm not gonna talk about this. You know that there's 3 layers there and it's, it's, in this, you know, we've got storage of fat in this, in this bottom layer, and that's gonna impact nutrients getting to this, to the hair as well if it's too much they're blocking the way.
So, skin's a very hungry organ. How much of the daily protein intake is used by the skin and coat, do you think? 1020, 30%, or all of it?
Excellent. So most of you got that right. 30% of the overall day's protein intake is, is, used by the hair and and coat.
Now, if you've got animals that are overweight, they're often being fed lots of fatty treats. They're, they're often eating the wrong proportions of food, and maybe they're on home prepared diets and people are making these diets without understanding how diets should be made. And you may find that the skin and coat suffer just for that reason, that they're just not having that enough protein to feed the skin and coat, as well as all the other.
Jobs that protein needs to do within the body. So proteins really key and it's also important for us to know that when we're providing a, either a low calorie diet for, for weight loss, such as satiety that Alex has talked about, or a moderate calorie diet for these other clinical diets that we also make sure that we have plenty of protein, Which also aids the feeling of satiety in dogs, but also enough to feed the animal and allow it to have a great coat as well. So we want to reduce fat, adapt fibre to help them feel full, but also ensure that the protein levels are high.
So again, just cutting down on normal food isn't the right way of doing it because you end up with an imbalance of the, the appropriate nutrients. Another change again. So we're gonna have a little look at what takes, what causes skin problems because, you know, as I said, there's a 20% or so.
This is, one of the Liverpool University's patients from a long time ago now, I think Rocco, and you can see how pinky is around his skin folds and he's a, he's a pinkish dog and And there's no skin condition that I am aware of, but, you know, if you've got excessive skin folds, it's a perfect environment for bacteria to grow and for animals that can't groom cats that can't pull out knots so we can't take the dander out of their skin that can impact the, so their, their coat that can impact the skin as well. So there doesn't have to be a condition that's causing the animal to have bad skin. It just be, it just made me, it's body condition or it's, it's diet.
So I've got a quick puzzle here, put these reasons for skin or coat problems in order from the most to the least common. So I think you could, if you're on your phone, you can move it with your finger. So food allergy, parasites, or environmental allergy.
And remember that parasites includes not just fleas, but lice, mites, and ticks as well. OK, 1 2nd left. OK, so more than half, I guess, got it wrong.
This is the correct order. Parasites are the, the number one caused by far, then environmental allergy, and then the very small proportion have true food allergy. And I wanted to ask the question, really, because I think if anyone goes into any pet shop in, in the, in the world, they would forgiven for thinking that food allergy is a huge issue because they see all sorts of, things like hypoallergenic, grain-free, wheat free, no nasties, all this, and it's really just a huge misconception as to food causing a problem because at any one time, most animals don't have food allergy at all.
So itching is the most common and most visible skin issue that people come to the vets for, you know, whenever it impacts their sleep because they can hear the, the dog or the cat scratching all night. It's a good surefire way for them to give you a call, and that's really uncomfortable for the animal. So which of these is the most common cause of food allergy in cats and dogs?
It's the same thing for both beef, grains, chicken, or dairy. The number one quote is. It's the same.
Got some very fast fingers now. You're getting into the swing of this, I hope. 2 seconds left.
Chicken is not the number one cause. It's actually beef in both cats and dogs. In fact, chicken is #3 in both cats and dogs.
Grains barely features, and dairy is number 2 in dogs. And in cats, it's, it's very broad, but it's fish. So they've lumped all the fish together.
So, interesting, that chicken is, is seen as number one, but it really, it really isn't. Dairy is the one that often would cause, gastric issues, as opposed to skin issues in, in a food allergy. Oh, look at that.
Well done. You're at the top there. So there we have the chart.
I've just told you that always. Food allergies always to proteins, and vegetable proteins are far less likely to cause allergies. So just bear that in mind when everyone's slating grains, grains are great.
There's no reason to, to keep them out of diets. So if we were doing any sort of food and elimination trial, we would use hydrolyzed proteins. And the reason for that is because we want to break the proteins down so the animal doesn't doesn't recognise them as a protein.
And you can see here that proteins are measured in a molecular weight of kilotons. So the most common cause of, of, of, of allergens have a molecular weight of 15 to 40 kilotons. And then we can reduce the the allergens down by, by adapting proteins.
We can go to highly reduced, so 1 to 3 kilotons, or we can look for no allergy. So this is the dream. We want them to have a, a, a molecular weight of less than 1 kiloton, and then they won't know that they're having protein at all.
So it's quite important to know that, and I'm just going to see whether anyone's tuned out. So proteins of which molecular weight are the most likely to cause an allergic reaction. Less than 1 kiloton, 1 to 3 kilotons, 3 to 15 kilotons, all 15 to 40 kg, which are the ones?
OK, answers are in. Excellent. You were listening.
I feel so happy now. So yeah, it's 15 to 40 kilotons and then the lower you go, the less likely you are to have, an allergic reaction. And of course, you can't be allergic to something you've never had.
So this is hydrolysis, really. So we can have this is a protein molecules touching these little IGE receptors on a mast cell. And if it touches two at the same time, it can cause, you know, an allergic reaction.
So if you hydrolyze a protein, you make it fairly small, it's unlikely to touch two of these at the same time. But it could do. So there's always a failure rate with traditionally hydrolyzed diets.
So that includes ours and competitors of our basic hypoallergenic and, and our competitive diets as well. There's always a sort of 5% failure rate. You could also extensively hydrolyze protein, and this is making it so small.
Under 1 kg Dalton, and that it physically just can't touch two of these receptors. It doesn't tell you what they're allergic to. Nothing will, but it will stop them having those symptoms, and it's fairly definitive to diagnose.
Well, this is a, obviously a food problem, because now I've gone on to this diet, I'm not seeing a problem. So that's what hydrolaization is, and I think it's important to talk to your owners if you're putting them onto a hydrolyzed diet. And talk to them about why you're putting them onto it and, and this very simplistic chart, you know, draw a, draw a ball and stick it on to IG receptors and, and show how that causes a reaction.
So we have this sort of dermatology trees. We can say if we've got in infections, we would need to treat that infection, and we also want to treat parasites as well if we can see them there. Remember that some of them are, you know, buried in the skin.
It's not necessarily fleas. And you can't always see fleas, and then we can have medical management for that. And also we can have a diet called skincare, which is there to, to help them, help support the skin as it renews if there's a it it is very serious case of broken skin and and lots of scratching.
If you suspect a nutrient intolerance, then we would always recommend an elimination diet trial. Blood tests tell you nothing other than what the animal has been exposed to, and we have many conversations with people on our helplines. They phone up and they say, I've been given this list, and they can't have any grains, they can't have any.
Meats, they can't have any of these things, what can we eat? And all it's doing is saying what the animals have had, and this is why a hydrolysed diet would be a good choice to start an elimination trial. And our idea is one called an allergenic.
So this means no allergy with the molecular weight of the protein of less than 1 kiloton. If you don't get resolution, then you can say, well, it's not food, it's not food allergy. So you can look at environmental and move them to skin care.
If there is a resolution, you can, that's confirmation of nutrient into, intolerance. You can challenge them either with their hypoallergenic, or you can try a single protein sources. And if they're an animal that's, that's, got a bit of excess weight, then you can go for the moderate calorie version for dogs at the moment.
There's not one for cats, but I'm hoping that that will come. Now, the other thing as well is if once you found a diet that suits the animal, often owners don't want to change back. So if they're on hypoallergenic and they're starting to get older, they're starting to change.
Lifestyle, the owners getting older and doesn't walk them as much. You might need to switch over to a moderate calorie version just to maintain their weight. It's really good to know that you can do that without any transition between diets, and you can just see the calories are lower, the fat's low as well, maintaining their their ideal body condition with a higher protein level.
So all the things that Alex has mentioned, which is great. So what diet would you recommend for an 8 year old dog with a body condition score of 7 with intolerance to chicken, who is stable on hypoallergenic? He's already stable on it.
Hypoallergenic, hypoallergenic, moderate calorie, satiety, homemade food avoiding chicken or something else. This is again, it's a pole, so I think there's no points here. Sadly, I always like getting points.
For anything really. Just for me to know what you would do. OK.
Yeah. You, most of you would do the same as I would do, you could, go for homemade. I strongly advise anyone going for a homemade diet to, go to a board certified, veterinary nutritionist to devise a recipe because it's very difficult to balance a recipe for a long.
Term feed. So that's, that's a, that's a little caveat there. I, I would, I would not maintain him on the regular hypoallergenic because he's already overweight and we want to try and trim him down.
We know he's got an allergy, and I wouldn't then put him on to satiety, and so we just go for the low end of the feeding guide of moderate calorie would be my choice. So a quick look at GI cases, nice dog hiding behind a tree there. Most common cat of disease for dogs in the UK and we know how How much dogs are scavengers and how beautiful their faces are when they're begging, so they're very effective beggars as well, which is why there's so many of them come to various weight clinics around the, around the world.
They make up nearly 18% of all first opinion dog consultations, and they make up 10% of all first opinion cat consultations as well. So it's a problem for cats and dogs. So just a quick little brainstorm, what do you think could cause a gastric or digestive upset?
Anything that could cause it. Just an acute one, or you can put down some. Serious, conditions as well, if you like.
Whatever you like to write on your On your notes there. I mean, what can't cause it? That's, that's probably an easier question.
Very well aware that Alex is, Alex is here today and he's he's an expert in digestion, digestive tract. Digestive conditions as well. So just a few more seconds, we've got loads of answers, so I'm gonna whiz through and see what you've put.
Sorry about that picture. Pretty pretty unpleasant. Sound seems to have gone, you lucky things.
OK, let's just see what the sorting hat's gonna do now. It's gonna sort those ideas. As I say, we've got lots of lots of similar things here, so let's have a look.
Changing food too quickly, absolutely, the, the, the, you know, simplicity, the, in simple words, the, the digestive enzymes that are most, you know, needed are going to be at the top of the gut really and the ones that are, you know, are, are dormant, not, not used to digesting something will be at the bottom. If you change over too quickly, it doesn't, they can't get into position to do the digestion as well as they should do. Overeating absolutely.
Absolutely. Dogs and cats have got shorter digestive tracts than people, and so it's even worse for them in terms of, of digestive upsets because they haven't got time to digest their food. Large breed dogs have got a tiny gut, 2.7% of their overall body weight compared with a human who might weigh the same, with an 11% of thoseall body weight as their gut.
So really surprising. Yeah, some medications, of course, it can, sometimes you can't really avoid using those medications. Foreign bodies, PAvo, oh yeah, dysbiosis, yeah.
So all these horrible conditions and they've, I see the sorting hat knows the difference between a, a, a habit and a condition. So dietary indiscretion, that's the word we tend to use for they've eaten the wrong thing, . Sorry, I can't, I don't know.
I can't read that. Wrong diet, different food feds suddenly. EPI dairy, hemorrhagic gastric enteritis, yeah, parasites.
Oh, so many causes, so many courses and colitis, pancreatitis. Yeah, exactly. You can see why that they come in so often.
I'm gonna go through here, any eating inappropriate things. So, loads of reasons. We can't always assume that what they, they, that they've got diarrhoea just because they ate something that wasn't good for them.
But a lot of the time they do. So the number one cause of acute gastric upset is dietary indiscretion, that is eating the wrong thing at the wrong time, tidbits, scraps, toppers, treats, rewards, over, you know, overdoing it on the human foods, all of those things. Poor quality diet also comes in there as well, but it's something that's just to, you know, not, not formulated to be tailored.
They just often haven't got enough time to, to digest it. Often homemade diets calls this as well, because people are trying so desperately to do something, but they're basing it a lot, a lot of the time on what humans eat. And that's that, you know, dogs and cats aren't human.
So overloading them, sometimes pathogens, specific diseases, of course, and a nutrient intolligence intolerance way down on the list. So what pets eat really does affect their stool quality, and I would suggest, and this Sounds pretty harsh, I suppose that almost all of these are owner, owner causation, you know, they, they can be controlled and they can be avoided if you just feed the right food. And actually, if you're feeding the right food and your animals got nice solid stools, we like them to be a 2.5 out of 5.
This is sort of acceptable for animals that are under a bit of stress, perhaps working breed, you know, working breeds. If you have an animal that's got ideal stools all the way through, because it's on an ideal diet and you're not overloading it with, with treats and toppers and scraps and all the time. And then actually, it's a really good indication that there is something significantly wrong if they suddenly have very loose ones.
So it's, it's a, it's a really good way of monitoring what's the, the health of the animal. And for me, it's a no brainer to go on a dog walk and only have to bring back one, you know, put 1 poop bag in the bin rather than 6, as I've seen many of my walking companions do. So the best way to avoid it is to choose a diet that's suitable for them, so suitable for their age, their life stage, their weight, and limit treats as well.
So again, as with the others with our, our regular life stage food, vet care, nutrition, and we have our any diets for body condition score 6 would be on neutered range. So that would be adapted calories, adapted to, you know, reduced fat content, slightly increased protein content. To feed that lean muscle and then if they're overweight, the best thing to do is to get them, to lose weight with, with a, with a proper weight loss diet.
So in our case, that's satiety. . The extras cause untold problems, not just diarrhoea, and don't forget, because we we perhaps assume, we assume that animals with diarrhoea or loose stools are going to be thin, because they're not perhaps taking in their nutrients, but actually it's perfectly possible to be very overweight and still have diarrhoea and gastric upsets because being overweight impacts the microbiome of the gut.
It's been shown that there's, homeless people on the streets who, who, who are overweight, but also nutritionally deficient because they're eating things that haven't got the right nutrients in them. People buy them at McDonald's, you know, and they're eating these things that aren't healthy for them and they're overweight, but actually the inside there's going to be problems going on because they're not getting the right nutrition. So true or false after weight loss, using a high fibre, high protein diet in obese dogs, it resulted in improved bacterial diversity in dogs.
I don't think I read that sentence right. Is that true or false? So using a high fibre, high protein diet, improve the biodiversity of the bacteria in the gut or the microbiome for short.
Absolutely. It's true. So that study is a fairly, really recent study that's been, been published, and I believe Alex you had played a part in that as well.
So, you know, it's, it's, it's all about overall health, and I think we, we can't stress enough how important it is to think about weight with every single condition, with every single patient. Is, is there something going to be impacted, even if it's, even it's, you know, even if it's not obvious, other than looking a bit, a bit round, what else is being impacted by that? Oh, so we, we're coming towards the podium time soon, so we'll see who's gonna be on the top three.
So which of these are not caused or exacerbated by feeding a high fat diet, do you think? Obesity, pancreatitis, joint disease, or periodontal disease? Which ones are not impacted?
Which one is not impacted, should I say, make it a bit easier. I don't know why that music stopped. OK.
Let's have a look, see that, what a calorie is, the energy needed to heat water by one degree. Yeah, absolutely doesn't have any impact on dental disease and in fact, you know, in most cases, in most diets, whether you feed wet or dry, it's irrelevant to do with dental disease, so. Dogs and cats can develop that even if they're fed by a tube and the mouth's missed altogether.
The only way you can impact dental disease properly is to brush the teeth, and the second best is to use a specific dental diet or dental tube, but actually just feeding dry is irrelevant. All of these, of course, can be impacted. And a lot of, a lot of weight patients that I've seen in the past, you know, when I talk about The impact of obesity on them.
I, I, I often sort of say, you know, if you, if you, you want to give these treats because you're telling your animal you love them and you're giving them bits of bits of cheese and fatty sausages and things, and your little dog might develop pancreatitis. And if your dog develops pancreatitis, it may then develop ab. And all these things are enjoyment of pet limiting, you know, you, once you've got an animal with a chronic disease, it does affect your your life as a pet owner as well as your pet's life.
And so all of these things make a difference. Too many fatty treats, too much fat because of that high calorie content, leads to obesity and exacerbates those issues. So, for our gastrointestinal range, we have got one sort of universal benefit, and that is that everything is highly digestible with highly digestible proteins and carbohydrates.
We've got a blend of specific fibres, so just adding in some Weetabix is not the answer to, for diarrhoea cases. It's doing a making a proper blend of a mix of soluble and insoluble and fermentable and non-fermentable fibres at the right level for that particular animal, in that particular case. So fatty acids, cosa pentanoic acid or EPA theosahexanoic acid or DHA which have omega threes found from a fish or or from a marine source are really beneficial as well to help modulate inflammatory pathways within the body.
So not just on the gut, but on joints on, on, on general organs as well. And then this is a specific fibre, which is, which is great for absorbing water. And so we should actually give some quick results.
So this is the gastrointestinal range, and as I said, just because you've got diarrhoea doesn't mean that you're not overweight. So we have a moderate calorie version in wet and dry for cats and a and a dry version for dogs. And I would again, seriously consider this as your first choice in those patients.
So being aware of it. As an important one. And again, the protein's been elevated, as has the fibre, but the calories have been reduced and the fat's been reduced.
Again, keeping that health, health, healthy body for longer, rather than just having an increased life expectancy, but, but being, being unhealthy. So we're gonna look at joints as well. So quick true or false, overweight or obese dogs are 2.3 times more likely to be diagnosed with osteoarthritis.
This is true or false. I can see this is a real race to the, to the answers here, some really fast fingers. They, the answer, of course, is true.
And if you're a larger dog, if you're a heavier dog, if you're a certain breed, you know, there's other factors involved in it. And if you're older as well. But we know which animals are going to suffer with a problem, even if they haven't got that now.
So weight maintenance is really, really important. So, oh look, Lindsay, you've got a special mention there back with an answer streak of 3. Well done.
So during cases, we know that they're much more likely to be diagnosed with osteoarthritis, and cats as well are nearly 3 times more likely to be seen for lameness than cats at an ideal weight. And of course, cats are very good at pretending that there's nothing wrong with them. So it's quite hard to, it's quite hard to know if there's anything affecting a cat if the owner doesn't know what to look for.
So education's really key here to say that cats seem to be very stoic, but really their, their weight is really important. For, for them. They tend to get it in, different areas, I suppose, and hips and hips and elbows in dogs, elbows and shoulders in cats, but they can get it on any joint, of course, and the older they are and the heavier they are, and the larger they are, the more chance they have of, of an issue.
And in fact, Maine Coon cats are more at risk of arthritis than, than smaller sized domestic short hairs as well. That's because of their weight. We know it's a vicious circle as well.
So, you know, we have damaged cartilage, you get inflammation and, and acute phases here. We get, we get pain, therefore we get reduced mobil some mobility in, in those animals, and that causes, leads to weight gain and muscle loss as well as some muscle atrophy or, or sarcopenia. And that aggravates the cartilage and lesions, and then you get this more damage and so on and so forth.
So you really, the, the only way to, to, to deal with this is to intervene as early as possible. And I would suggest looking at that animal when it's got no problems and thinking, will it have a problem? And if it has got, you know, the likelihood of having a problem, step in and maintain healthy joint function as early as you can.
So, quick, brainstorm again, which pets are most at risk of joint disease? That's, this is just checking that you were listening by the look of it. We're nearly, we're nearly finished.
It's nearly lunchtime, so bear with me, let's get to the podium, see who's gonna get some prizes. OK. Oh, when the music's not playing, it seems to take a long time.
I'm gonna count down 5 seconds because I don't want to make sure we don't overrun. The 54321, and I'm gonna skip now, OK? So many answers coming in.
Oh. I'm sitting in the hottest room in my house, which is a really bad idea, I've realised. I'm glad you can't see me.
So, yeah, those that are overweight, obese, large breeds, muted animals, bulldogs. Yeah, and dogs that, need to be muscular and often, perhaps owners misinterpret what big means, and they, they end up with an overweight rather than big muscly types of, of animals. Certain breeds, and we've got a few people writing certain breeds.
Down there. And of course, it's a genetic predisposition to some animals for things like hip dysplasia, etc. Elbow dysplasia.
Older animals, so geriatrics, overweight, overweight, Maine Coons, well done for listening, elderly, it's definitely a, it's a progressive condition that affects them, got some giant breeds there. Cats, yeah, of course they are, cats are jumping and landing really harshly on their, on their elbows and their shoulders, so there's a lot of pressure going through if a cat's living, it's ideal lifestyle. OK.
Inactivity, yeah, inactivity leads to, you know, obesity leads to leads to joint pressure. And brachycephalics may be, if there's, there's any sort of malformation, so those sort of short, short legs breeds, they might have a problem as well as bracky breeds. But it's also, it's more important to keep them on the slimmer side of normal, isn't it?
Because we want them to, to make sure that they're not going to put pressure on those, those legs aren't perhaps in the right way. And, yeah, lucky dogs, lucky dogs that go to agility and fly ball and do lots of exercise may end up, in a bit of a state later on in life. So well done, lots of, lots of good ideas there.
So I would suggest the best way to manage a joint case is to think about it before it happens, and that is rather than wait for it to have an arthritis diagnosis, identify who might need to have that support if they're overweight, if they're large, if they're a giant breed dog, if they're breed predisposition, start a weight management programme if they need to lose weight, you can lose load scaling, which is the Liverpool osteoarthritis, what does the D stand for, but Look it up, load scoring for arthritis in pets. So it's an evidence-based objective scoring of arthritis. So you can do this with your, With your, your clients and they they load score their own animal.
And the studies around this have shown that they also don't remember that score. So when you ask them again, 3 months down the line, they don't remember what the last score was. So they can be really objective each time, and it's a really great way to assess the animal's quality of life there.
And then make your nutritional recommendations. Is it going to be something to for them to lose weight, or is it going to be something to actually get, get, you know, support healthy joint function in the long term for a problem? So in studies, how much weight loss was needed to see an improvement in lameness scores in dogs diagnosed with OA?
Was it 12 to 15%, 7 to 10%, 1 to 3%, 6 to 9%. Enjoyed the percent button here, sorry about that. So what was needed to really show, you know, a visible improvement in their, in their, lameness scores and then.
And the quality of life. And I think Alex touched on this earlier, that it's . Not a great deal needed, so just a couple of seconds left.
Yeah, 6 to 9%, you know, you don't have to climb a huge mountain. You can just get halfway up and see some great improvements. And again, you know, if we get people motivated and in the first month and they start to see those changes, you really can see this increased will to go and walk, this increased ability to, to get up more quickly, to not be panting when they're stepping up a couple of steps to get into the house.
And that's a real motivator for the owners of these patients that, to see that. And a similar study showed an improvement in cats as well. Well, see, you just jumped into the top again.
That's a, that's so exciting. So this video is from Georgia, who works with Alex, and she's going to be speaking after lunch. This is an overweight dog with, you know, just look at his, he's not, he's not crippled with, with pain, but that's his mobility beforehand.
I hope this video is playing well for you. And then just show you the difference that some weight loss makes to the, the way this animal walks to show how key it is, it's the best thing you can do for any animal is to get the weight off them. So let's have a look at after weight loss.
It's fantastic. Jaunty dog looking much better, bouncing along. What an improvement for his quality of life.
And then you can maintain healthy joint function with, with a mobility diet. Lovely. Happy dog.
Thanks to Georgia for that. So for our our diets to maintain, sorry, for, for, based on their body condition score, if they're an ideal weight and you think that they might be at risk, then you can go to mobility support for, for dogs or mobility diet for cats. So that's maintains their healthy joint function.
So step in early when you know there might be a problem. If they're over Weight or obese, you can choose satiety, and there's a society specific one for, for, for small dogs as well. And we have made sure that we've got low, particularly for for for the dogs here, low fat diet, and a higher protein diet to help support them.
. During their, you know, to, to help support their joints, animals that have been lost severe weight amounts of weight, studies show they're better off staying on satiety. But, you know, weigh up, choose what, choose what is best for your particular patient. So what other advice could you give to owners to help their pets maintain an ideal weight just as we come into the last part?
Anything else, practical advice, I guess. How do you stop them getting overweight in the first place? What can you say to keep them?
Keep them on the straight and narrow when it comes to their their animal's weight. And I won't let this run the full minute just to warn you just because we are, although we started I think a couple of minutes late, giving myself licence to. And a couple of minutes late.
OK, I'm just gonna count down. 54321. OK, let's have a look and see what you've written.
It's lovely having so many people playing with this today. OK. So let's have a look.
Yeah. Exercise regularly, but don't rely on exercise to be the only thing. You don't burn as many calories exercising as you might think.
Reduce feed, so, you know, reduce the treats, we reduce the treats, moderate them. And if you're going to give treats, because let's face it, we all love saying well done to our animals, use a portion of the day's calories, you know, of the, of the daily allowance of food or use and choose something low calories, switch your cheese for an edu or, or a piece of a schmacko or something that's a low calorie, prepared cheat treat or a, you know, dogs and cats have got. Very few taste buds so that the act of giving the treat is more important to you, than it is to the dog.
These treats, continue weighing the food, yeah, every meal on digital scales, regular exercise, play, yeah, do nice stuff with them, not just, not just kittens and puppies, adults like playing as well. Regular weight checks, regular body condition score, make it a part of their daily. Regime, feeding enrichment.
I love that. Yeah, down the bowl, use something that's more, you know, makes them use energy, it makes them think, gives them psychological benefit too. You're gonna give treats, absolutely take it from the allowance, form good habits, brilliant.
So there's so many, you know, restraint, owner restraint. Yeah. Good walks, there's a walks that are appropriate to the animal and the animal's ability, puzzle feeders, all sorts, measured portions, no scraps, loads of things.
Thank you. So, so many things here, so well done for that. So true or false studies showed that owners feed up to 80% more than the feeding guide when using a measuring cup.
Is that true or false? 80%. Imagine feeding twice a day, 80% more than they need, you can see how easy it is to overfeed.
Overfeed a pet when you're using a scoop and if it just says mug, which some bags of food do, then it's which mug do you use your, your espresso mug or your cappuccino mug. Absolutely it's true. So the study showed that some of them fed under, but most are fed too much.
OK. So digital scales, you've got that every meal. It's, it's really not difficult.
You put your bowl or your feeder on top of that and measure it into that. Don't use cups. There's a general rule, what percentage of pets daily calorie intake should come from extras?
1015, 20 or 25%. This is the last we've got quick fire questions to get us to the podium now. OK.
Few more seconds. Couple more minutes. Yeah, it's 10%.
That's that's as recommended by properly qualified veterinary nutritionists. And then feeding plan, you know, how often, when to feed, what to feed, you know, feed a combination of wet and dry, change that, you know, mix it up a bit for them in terms of texture. I've put the great video here from the Green.
This is just on a YouTube. I love it. It shows how much, you know, not only did it slows down the dog, but look how much this dog is walking around, around exercising just while he's eating.
So puzzle feeders, mental. Stimulation, dogs are clever. They like to have stuff and cats are too.
So don't forget that they need to exercise. So a little bit of a play, even with an adult cat is important, but don't push them beyond their capabilities. If they don't exercise normally, whether it's a dog or cat, don't make them go for a 2 hour run, you know, we don't want to cause collapse with them.
So tailor your plan to the individual animal. So just a quick summary here, obesity impacts the health all over of cats and dogs. We have many diets which can, you know, be be offered with a, with a lower calorie version for those cases where you do need to put them on a clinical diet, but maintaining ideal weight is key, and doing it from the start is the most important thing, the, the, the, the most important thing you can do for their long term health and their long term.
You know, longevity, their life expectancy. Diet should always be tailored to the individual, and weight should always be in mind with any condition. And in some cases, as Alex said, it might be that they need to be on the on the heavier side, but in most cases, it's going to be on the lighter side.
And don't forget, it's not just about food, it's about all the other things to do with the environment enrichment of their environment. So I just wanted a cheeky question about your thoughts on this session, if you don't mind giving me that in the 20 seconds. And there's a picture of my dog sniffing a flower, which gives people feelings of love in their hearts.
Maybe not as much feelings as they give me, but, you know, he's an angel, he really is. So, I think we've got a poll coming up here as well. So that's great for you to fill that in for the webinar vets.
And we, I'll be at the panel session at the end as well, which means that we can, I can answer some of your questions alongside our real experts, which is Alex and Georgia. So, It's just, I just do this from my own. My own, help really of my own mind.
And that's that. So I loved it, quick facts good keeps going till lunch. So, yeah, I'm gonna pass that because we've got We've got the webinar for that feedback.
So well done, Rachel. Oh, Rach, you're in the, in at number 3. Laura, you're in at number 2, and our winner, is it gonna be CC?
Yeah, you hung in there at the end. Well done. We have two runners up, Shay, Mari, you, you fell off the podium quite near the end and hand.
So the three of you, please, could you just, make your, make your details known in a private chat to the webinar vets and, we can contact you and send you some prizes. So there we go.