Plan your attack on pet obesity-veterinary patients' lives depend on it

If it seems like you're seeing more and more overweight pets, you're right. The 2012 Banfield Pet Hospital State of Pet Health study reported a 37 percent increase in the number of overweight dogs and a 90 percent increase in the number of overweight cats during the past five years—and you are well aware that obesity in pets is also linked to diabetes, arthritis, heart disease and high blood pressure.

This problem clearly isn't going away anytime soon. So what can your practice do to better educate pet owners and actively help pets lose weight?

Walk the walk

The 2009 Veterinary Economics State of the Industry report showed a distinct gap between the recommendations veterinarians made to clients and the kind of care veterinarians and other team members provided to their own pets. Before employees can counsel clients effectively, they need to genuinely understand the issues and how to deal with them.

Schedule a series of days for everyone in the practice (doctors included) to bring in all of their pets—no hiding the plump ones at home. Use this opportunity to examine and weigh each pet and assign a body condition score. If needed, determine a weight-loss goal and make a plan.

This isn't meant to be punitive—you can make it fun and educational. Use some of the pets as the focus of one or more staff meetings and training sessions. One idea is to have everyone assign a body condition score to a pet and use the results to discuss what pets should look like, what each body score category means and what the right treatment is for this pet. Give a prize for the employee who correctly guesses the body score. Also recognize that everyone's home routines and pet relationships are different and strategies that work for one pet and one pet owner (or employee) may not work for others.

Once you've weighed all the pets, start your own Biggest Loser contest for employees' pets, track the results regularly and award prizes to the winners. Use the success stories when talking with clients. Post before-and-after pictures in your reception area, on your Web site, in your newsletter and on social media. Share what worked and what didn't work.

Starting with team members' pets brings this issue closer to home and helps them understand the challenges clients face. Now when they talk to clients, it's about something they've lived through, not just an issue they've read or heard about.

Start talking

Talk to clients about their pet's nutrition and weight at every visit. Here are some tips:

Don't assume clients know their pets are overweight. According to data from the Banfield report, 76 percent of dog owners and 69 percent of cat owners thought their pets' weight was just right. Data from the AVMA 2012 U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook showed similar findings. Are 76 percent of the dogs and 69 percent of the cats in your practice at a healthy weight? Probably not; yet most of your clients likely don't even realize there is a problem. And if your client's sister's dog is overweight and the neighbor's cat could stand to lose a few pounds, he or she probably doesn't see many pets that are the right size and might not even know what that should look like. Even if your client is overweight, it doesn't mean he or she has that same understanding about pets.

Sometimes veterinarians and their team members don't want to talk to clients about weight management because of this very reason—the client is overweight too. You're not doing the pet any favors by ignoring the topic, and clients aren't generally going to assume you're really talking about them if you bring up the topic in a conversation focused on the pet. Your job is to give clients the best recommendations you can in the same calm, matter-of-fact way you usually do. Just remember to treat the topic with sensitivity, speak factually and don't treat pet or human obesity as a character flaw.

Make clear recommendations

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) demonstrated that pet owners are seven times more likely to accept their veterinarians' recommendation when doctors use clear and unambiguous language. This means telling your client how much the pet needs to lose and over what time frame. Ask what he or she currently feeds the pet and how much exercise the pet gets. Don't forget to talk about health benefits as well. Clients need to know their pets will live longer, happier, healthier lives if they weigh less.

Look for different approaches

The difficulty is in finding strategies that work with a pet owner's lifestyle and relationship with the pet. For example, your client, Mrs. Wilton, might not know how much her pet eats because multiple people in the household give meals and treats. Suggest starting a food and exercise journal and put just one person in charge of the pet's nutrition plan.

Let's say it's emotionally important for Mrs. Wilton to give her dog a treat every evening. Telling her to cut out the treat isn't going to help, as this means cutting out an important part of the relationship. Instead, focus on substituting the current treat with something healthier, such as carrot sticks. If lack of exercise is the problem, but Mrs. Wilton is a single mom who works full-time and has two kids, insisting on that 30-minute walk each morning isn't going to happen. But perhaps a 10-minute walk by one of the kids each evening and a daily play session with the other are possible.

Weight loss takes time, and sometimes clients lose heart. Schedule regular weight checks with the practice technicians. Make sure you give clients positive feedback and help with any new challenges. Not only will this result in a healthier pet, but it will also strengthen your client's bond with the practice.