Quality of life, refers how an animal feels about its life (Dawkins, 2006). To consider, long-term animal welfare must be a balance between the positive and the negative emotions of the animal.

To be able to assess animal welfare, we must use a combination of certain indicators. These indicators can be divided in two groups: animal or resource – based. Will be covering an animal-based indicator: obesity in dogs. Obesity is a usual problem in dogs and cats (Lusby, 2009)

The term obesity can be defined as a condition of positive energy balance and excessive adipose tissue formation with adverse effects on morbidity and mortality (Crane, 1991) impairing the health and body function (Laflamme, 2006). Obesity can be caused by several factors such as dietary/ exercise management, genetic predisposition, neuter status. Moreover, obesity can make existing problems worse, reducing the length and quality of life.

 

While an overweight dog can be seen as a wealthy or well looked after pet, an underweight dog can be seen as a regletec pet. But both,  under or overweight is a form of malnutrition. Thus, being overweight is more common in the developed world.

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Studies have shown obesity as an indicator of cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, respiratory problems and intolerance to heat in dogs.  One of this studies showed that just with moderately overweight dogs were at greater risk of earlier morbidity reducing the lifespan (Kealy et al., 2002)

It has been shown that obesity in dogs can induce an increase in oxidative stress, cardiac wall thickness and Heart Rate Variability impairment, resulting in cardiac systolic dysfunction in dogs (Pongkan et al., 2020)

We could also observed the pathophysiology perspective, the energy that the dog needs can be excess (obese) or deficit (underweight). An excess of  energy is associated with autoimmune diseases (La Cava, 2017). After several studies, researchers concluded that in humans and animals the production of leptin is determined by the poor regulation of immune response .

The main causes of obesity in dogs are : inactivity and excess intake. Besides, the genetic markers play an important role in the predisposition of obesity in dogs (Switonski and Mankowska, 2013) Either inactivity or excess intake are controlled by the humans affecting negatively the welfare of the dogs.

Obesity in dogs has been identified as an emerging issue that may affect canine health and well-being for the past 30 - 40 years (Bland et al., 2009). Affecting  the canine health and well-being, influences directly the five freedom of animal welfare (Brown and Winnicker, 2015)

 

 

The findings of these studies can be understood: obesity as an indicator of poor welfare factor in dogs. Obesity directly affects the life of the dog in a negative way, causing long term disorders and affections in dogs. 

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REFERENCES

Bland, I., Guthrie-Jones, A., Taylor, R. and Hill, J. (2009) Dog obesity: Owner attitudes and behaviour. Preventive Veterinary Medicine. 92(4), pp.333-340

Brown, M. and Winnicker, C. (2015) Animal Welfare. Laboratory Animal Medicine. , pp.1653-1672
Crane, S. (1991) Occurrence and management of obesity in companion animals. Journal of Small Animal Practice. 32(6), pp.275-282

Dawkins, M. S. (2006). The Scientific Basis for Assessing Suffering in Animals. In P. Singer (Ed.), In defense of animals: The second wave (p. 26–39). Blackwell Publishing.

Kealy, R., Lawler, D., Ballam, J., Mantz, S., Biery, D., Greeley, E., Lust, G., Segre, M., Smith, G. and Stowe, H. (2002) Effects of diet restriction on life span and age-related changes in dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. 220(9), pp.1315-1320

La Cava, A.; Matarese, G. The weight of leptin in immunity. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 2004, 4, 371–379.
Laflamme, D. (2006) Understanding and Managing Obesity in Dogs and Cats. Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice. 36(6), pp.1283-1295

Laflamme, D. (2012) COMPANION ANIMALS SYMPOSIUM: Obesity in dogs and cats: What is wrong with being fat?1. Journal of Animal Science. 90(5), pp.1653-1662

Pongkan, W., Jitnapakarn, W., Phetnoi, W., Punyapornwithaya, V. and Boonyapakorn, C. (2020) Obesity-Induced Heart Rate Variability Impairment and Decreased Systolic Function in Obese Male Dogs. Animals. 10(8), pp.1383

Lusby A, Kirk AC. Obesity. In: Bonagura JD, Twedt DC, eds. Kirk's Current Veterinary Therapy XIV. St Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier; 2009:191–195

Switonski, M. and Mankowska, M. (2013) Dog obesity – The need for identifying predisposing genetic markers. Research in Veterinary Science. 95(3), pp.831-836