Characteristics of obese or overweight dogs visiting private Japanese veterinary clinics

Characteristics of obese or overweight dogs visiting private Japanese veterinary clinics

Shiho Usui;Hidemi Yasuda;Yuzo Koketsu;

【期刊名称】《亚太热带生物医学杂志：英文版》 【年(卷),期】2016(000)004

【摘要】Objective:To characterize obese or overweight dogs that visited private Japanese veterinary clinics located in humid subtropical climate zones.Methods:Dogs were categorized into four body condition score groups and five body size groups based on their breed.Multilevel logistic regression models were applied to the data.A Chi-squared test was used to examine whether the percentage of obese or overweight dogs differed between breeds.Results:There were 15.1% obese dogs and 39.8% overweight dogs.Obese dogs were characterized by increased age and female sex,whereas overweight dogs were characterized by increased age and neuter status(P < 0.05).Peak probabilities of dogs being either obese or overweight were between 7 and 9 years of age,with the probabilities then declining as the dogs got older.For example,in toy sized dogs,the probability of dogs being overweight increased from 33.4% to a peak of 55.1% as dog age rose from 1 to 8years old.Also,in medium,small and toy sized dogs,neutered dogs were more likely to be overweight than intact dogs,whereas neutered small sized dogs were more likely to be obese than intact