Pet nutrition and weight management in Chilliwack

In the words of our veterinarians: “Like many areas of B.C., pets in Chilliwack and the Fraser Valley can commonly experience issues related to parasites, allergies, dental disease, obesity, and ear or skin infections.”

Extra weight is easy to miss because it arrives slowly. It adds strain on joints and is linked with problems such as arthritis and, in cats, diabetes. For older pets in particular, keeping weight in a healthy range is one of the simplest ways to protect mobility, which is why we make it part of our senior pet care.

A few quick checks at home give you a good first idea:

• You cannot easily feel the ribs under a light layer of fat
• There is no visible waist when you look down from above
• The belly hangs or sways rather than tucking up
• Your pet tires or pants sooner on walks or play

A good dog weight loss plan is gradual. We set a target weight, work out measured daily portions, and agree a treat allowance so the plan fits real family life. Cats get the same careful approach, and with cats slow matters even more: a cat that stops eating or loses weight too quickly can develop serious liver problems.

If your pet gains or loses weight without an obvious reason, we look for a medical cause before blaming the food bowl. We run blood work in-house at our clinic, and our diagnostics and imaging page explains what else we can check.

Some conditions are managed partly through food. Therapeutic diets, often called prescription dog food (with cat versions too), are made for specific health problems and are fed on a veterinarian’s recommendation. We supply them through our pharmacy and prescription refills service.

Food can also be part of finding a problem. When we suspect a food allergy, we can run a diet trial to help identify it — our skin and allergy care page covers this in more detail. We’ll give you a written estimate to approve before any procedure begins.