Daily nutrition and dietary health are among the first courses of action when it comes to your pets overall health and wellbeing. At Clayburn Pet Hospital we understand the nuance in building a diet that is suited to your pet’s needs. With a specialized pet nutritionist on our team, we offer personalized Weight Loss Programs for you and your pet! Along with select veterinary-recommended dietary supplements, your pets will get the best diet suited for them to live a long happy health-condition-free life.

Pet nutrition is key to your pet’s healthy, happy lifestyle. Achieving and maintaining healthy body condition scores in pets has been proven to reduce the risk of illness and add to the longevity and general well-being of the animal. As your pet’s advocate, we at Clayburn Pet Hospital take on the challenge of educating and coaching our clients about nutrition and best practices in feeding.

More than half of all dogs and cats in North America are overweight or obese.

The weight loss program at Clayburn Pet Hospital creates an individualized program specific to your pet. Each diet is created with your pet’s healthcare needs in mind and all the hard work is done by our Registered Veterinary Technician to keep it simple for you at home. Your pet will receive a booklet from our clinic that states the recommended diet(s) and calculates how many calories are in each diet, as well as calculates what percentage of your pet’s diet should be kibble, wet food, and/or toppers!

The booklet then outlines when and how much to feed based on your lifestyle at home to create the best possible outcome for your pet’s healthy weight loss. Note that a dog should only lose about 1-2% of their overall weight per week, while cats should only lose between 0.5-1% of their body weight per week.

Once a weight loss program has started, follow-up visits can be booked in 2-week, one month or 2-month intervals depending on how far along your pet is in their weight loss journey.

On average, it can take a dog 6-8 months to return to a healthy body weight depending on their original body condition score, while a cat may require 12-18 months on average.

Regular monitoring of body weight and body condition score is important for successful weight management. The second page of the booklet has a table to monitor your pet’s current body weight and track their weight loss journey.

It is recommended that once your pet graduates from the weight loss program their weight is checked in-clinic once every 3-6 months for the first year, by visiting and weighing them on our scale with one of the receptionists. This is to ensure their healthy weight is maintained plus these visits double as a chance for us to give them some extra TLC and treats at no cost to you!

Call Us today to discuss your pet’s health and needs and whether or not this program is a good fit for you!