We all love our animals and want to keep them healthy, for as long as possible. A lot of factors can contribute to that, but two of them are extremely important to us:

1- A healthy weight

Forget all the pictures of our good old Garfield! Your animal, dog or cat, should have a healthy weight. The scale may help you with this, but you can easily evaluate his condition that we call “body score”, with your eyes and hands.
Three points are easy to assess. First, when you touch the ribs of your animal, you should easily feel them without them being visible. A small layer of fat is acceptable. Also, when you look at your animal’s waist from above, it should be smaller than his thorax, resulting in a hourglass shape. Last but not least, the abdomen seen from the side should go up toward its back. If you have doubts, our animal technicians will be happy to evaluate your four-legged companion and advise you on his health and weight.

The food you give your animal should also be measured at all time. It is then easier to notice if there is a change in his appetite, and make small modifications on his portions if his body weight is not adequate. However, if your animal requires to loose a significant amount of weight, it is recommended to use an appropriate diet to avoid nutriment deficiency.
By keeping a healthy weight, you are reducing the chances your dog or cat will suffer arthrosis, diabetes, skin problem and more. The benefice in an older animal who already suffer arthrosis is even greater. Being lighter will put less stress on his joints and will facilitate pain control management for this condition. For a diabetic cat, getting back to a healthy weight might even lead to a remission!

2- A healthy mouth

Your little companion has bad breath? His teeth are not as white as before? He might have parodontal disease. It is a pathology related to the tissue where the teeth are implanted, like the gingiva.

Just like in human medicine, a good buccal hygiene is not only beneficial to the mouth of your animal. According to some studies (1996, DeBowes and al), there would be a correlation between parodontal disease (caused by tartar and gingivitis) and microscopic lesions in some organs like the liver and the kidneys.
Also, in diabetics patients, parodontal disease might make blood sugar control more difficult.

If your veterinarian start to see some clinical signs of parodontal disease, he will most likely suggest a teeth cleaning. It is very similar to the one we have ourselves at our dentist. However, it is of course performed under general anesthesia as it is impossible to ask your little ones to hold their mouth wide open for a long time without moving!