Clinical obesity in dogs and cats: from pathophysiology to diagnosis and treatment

In the United States, more than half of dogs and cats are overweight or living with obesity, yet the condition is diagnosed far less often than it is encountered in practice. Veterinary Clinical Obesity is a first-of-its-kind clinical reference that defines companion animal obesity as a clinical disease and equips clinicians to diagnose, stage, and treat it as the chronic, systemic disease it is.

Bringing together an international panel of contributors, the book connects the biology of excess adiposity to the clinical decisions made in the exam room. Chapters trace adipose tissue as an endocrine organ, chronic low-grade inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, and the associations between obesity and diabetes, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and cancer. The result is a practical, multidisciplinary reference for clinicians seeking to move beyond weight loss alone toward diagnosis, staging, treatment, and long-term disease management.

Readers will also find:

• A four-tier classification framework - overweight, obesity, pre-clinical obesity, and clinical obesity - that turns a body condition score into a working diagnosis and stage
• Guidance on laboratory assessment, biomarkers, and diagnostic testing
• Current pharmacotherapy, including GLP-1 receptor agonists, alongside therapeutic nutrition, structured activity, and anesthetic management
• Communication frameworks for productive, non-judgmental conversations with clients and veterinary teams
• Dedicated coverage of obesity in companion rabbits alongside the book's canine and feline focus
  Written for practicing veterinarians and veterinary students, and valuable to veterinary technicians and nurses, nutritionists, and internists, this book provides the clinical depth needed to diagnose, stage, and treat obesity as a multisystem disease.

Autorentext

For more than twenty years, Ernie Ward, DVM, has shaped how veterinary medicine understands and treats companion animal obesity. Founder of the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP) and the World Pet Obesity Association (WPOA), and co-author of the AAHA Weight Management Guidelines for Dogs and Cats, he established the diagnostic criteria, staging, and client-communication standards applied throughout this book.