Animal Medical Center
Your Pet's Second Best Friend
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Weight Management -- Pounds Off Pets (POP)
Could your pet be a POP Star?? Are We Feeding Our Pets to Death? Obesity is a serious and growing problem among our pets. Recent studies have found that up to 40% of our adult pets are overweight or obese. Obesity is linked to dozens of serious and even life-threatening illnesses and medical conditions. Medical problems associated with obesity in pets include:
Lean pets live an average of two years longer than overweight pets and are also less prone to many serious diseases including arthritis, diabetes and heart disease. Studies show that overweight pets develop arthritis years earlier (on average) than lean pets. POP is our Solution to Obesity. We know how hard it is. We have researched the best solutions and we have put together a comprehensive solution for our patients-- our Pounds Off Pets plan. POP can work for your pet. To help our patients achieve and maintain a healthy weight, we have developed a research-based weight management plan for our patients. Pounds Off Pets is our multi-faceted weight management plan that can help any pet lose weight. One would think it would be easy to help our pets maintain an ideal body condition. After all, our pets can't drive themselves to the corner store for a candy bar or swing through the drive through for a super size shake. Their diets are completely controlled by us, so one would think it would be easy to put them on a diet. We can also influence how much exercise they get -- and most pets love exercise! Even so, it is truly a challenge at times to help our pets to maintain a good weight. There are many obstacles to weight loss, but Pounds Off Pets can help any pet around these obstacles and into a fit new self! Dr. Zucker knows personally the challenge of helping a pet reach an ideal weight, especially in a family with many pets and people to complicate matters. Out of his household of four cats and five dogs, Dr. Zucker has one young adult male cat, Flash, who is determined to be a fat cat, despite our continuing and ever evolving efforts otherwise. It has taken a long term commitment and creative problem solving to help Flash achieve weight loss. So, we do understand how hard it can be to help a pet lose weight! And yet we also know how much pain excess weight can cause your pet and your family through the health problems it causes. The work of weight loss is worth the benefits of healthy weight! If your pet has excess weight, let us help you find solutions that work for your family so that your pet can reach a healthy weight. Our Pounds Off Pets Plan
Step One: Commit to making your pet a POP star! As part of every comprehensive physical exam at Animal Medical Center, your pet is weighed and the veterinarian also assesses his Body Condition Score (BCS). If your pet is overweight or obese, we will encourage you to begin our weight loss plan (POP) with your pet. The Body Condition Score is a standardized numerical measurement (on a scale from 0 to 9) that indicates how thin or obese your pet is. A cat's ideal BCS is 5. The ideal BCS for dogs is 4 or 5. A lower BCS is underweight. If your pet has a BCS of 6 or 7, he is overweight. If he has a BCS of 8 or 9, he is obese. Any BCS of 6 or above indicates a need for weight loss. Even slightly overweight pets (BCS of 6) have significant health risks and can greatly benefit from trimming down. Visit our Dogs BCS or Cats BCS pages to learn more about Body Condition Score and to view the charts we use to determine BCS -- you can even use them at home to track your pet's BCS. Your pet's POP Plan will include a feeding plan, an exercise plan and a schedule of POP Weigh-In consultations to review and revise your pet's progress and POP Plan. Step Two: Calorie Restricted Diet
We carry a variety of excellent diets to appeal to even finicky eaters. Our main prescription diet lines are Hills Prescription Diets as well as Royal Canin IVD. We are also happy to order Purina and Iams/Eukanuba diets by special request. Over the counter "low calorie" foods are not sufficiently calorie restricted to facilitate weight loss, although they can be used to maintain weight loss once a healthy weight is maintained. Although it may be possible to achieve calorie restriction by simply feeding less of your dog's regular diet or an OTC "low calorie" food, this is not advised for serious weight loss for two reasons.
Once you have selected a diet, you and your pet will come in for a POP consultation with a nurse and she (or he) will help you finalize a feeding plan for your pet using your preferred food(s). We will provide you with a written plan telling you exactly how much to feed your pet, allowing for treats if you like to provide treats and providing feeding tips for weight management. We will also provide you with a marked measuring cup for measuring your pet's food if you feed dry food. View detailed information on our POP Diet recommendations on our Dog Diet and Cat Diet pages.
We all know that weight loss happens when calories used exceeds calories eaten. Exercise can help your pet burn more calories and raise his or her metabolism. Exercise is also great for your relationship with your pet and helps their mental and physical health. The POP recommendation is to increase exercise by 20 minutes per day. View detailed recommendations for helping your pet get more exercise on our Dog Exercise and Cat Exercise pages. Step Four: POP Weigh Ins & Follow Up
Most pets benefit from POP Weigh Ins every two weeks for at least the first 2 months of a POP Plan while you and your pet are adjusting the plan to meet your pet's needs, testing and selecting foods and meeting challenges that arise such as keeping your POP pet out of other pet's foods, incorporating exercise, etc. Once the POP plan is well established and steady progress is being made, most pets are able to switch to monthly POP Weigh Ins until the goal weight has been achieved and maintained for at least 3 months. After the goal weight is maintained for several months, regular Weigh Ins can end unless the weight later becomes unstable again. At each POP Weigh-In, we will weigh your pet, record BCS and counsel you on any challenges you are facing and help you make any needed adjustments to your pet's POP Plan. There is a nominal office visit fee ($10) for each POP Weigh In visit. We also offer a Six Month POP Bundle ($60) that allows unlimited POP Visits (up to weekly) for 6 months. (Most pets should be able to achieve a healthy weight in 6 months, unless there is extreme obesity.) There is no charge for a POP Weigh In and consultation at the time of a veterinary exam. Between POP Weigh Ins, you are welcome to stop by and use our scales at no charge. You can also use our e-Weigh In form to report progress from home in between POP Weigh Ins on our scales. Just For Fun -- POP Pound (£ ) Note Rewards To encourage the frequent follow up visits we know are a key to success, we offer Pound (£) Notes as rewards for sticking with the POP Plan. These POP Pound Notes can be redeemed for rewards such as exercise aids (tennis balls, frisbees, etc.) and discounts off prescription weight loss food, treats or POP Weigh In visits. Pound (£) Notes can be Redeemed for:
Our Pound (£) Note Plan Rewards:
The greatest POP Reward for all of us is a healthier and happier pet. Stick with it! Success!! Your Pet is a POP Star! When your pet reaches goal weight & goal BCS, we will carefully switch him from the weight loss diet to a weight maintenance diet and monitor closely for three or more months to ensure that the new diet does not lead to weight regain. Pets who have been overweight in the past often quickly regain weight if switched back to their prior standard diet. Continue to measure all food and treats and keep a close eye out for weight regain. Your pet will need to stay on a reduced calorie diet such as Hills w/d to maintain their weight loss. There are also high quality over-the-counter reduced calorie diets that can be used for weight maintenance. Whichever food you choose, we will work with you to determine the appropriate feeding plan. You will need to carefully measure the food and monitor weight closely until we are sure your pet's weight has stabilized. * What about the new doggie diet drug, Slendrol?
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Your pet will need a prescription weight loss diet to allow him to lose weight while still getting adequate vitamins and other nutrients. Our prescription weight loss diets are lower in calories than over the counter "low calorie" foods and are designed to be palatable (tasty!) and filling while providing your pet with all the nutrients he needs. 
Step Three: Exercise 
Study after study has shown us that scheduled follow-up visits with the veterinary team are a key component of successful weight loss plans. Animal Medical Center
460 Hartman Run Road
Morgantown, WV 26505
(304) 292-0126
Your Pet's Second Best Friend
