#DOG BMI SCALE SERIES#

If it were possible to design a system of body condition assessment that utilises visual characteristics alone, it might then be feasible to develop a tool for estimating body condition remotely. This can be a problem both clinically, for instance if an owner were reluctant to present the dog at the veterinary clinic, and for large-scale epidemiological research studies where assessment by a single experienced observer would be impossible. Therefore, one limitation of conventional BCS is the need for it to be performed by an experienced observer after a hands-on assessment of the dog. When BCS is performed by observers with training, there is good correlation with body fat mass determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) however, BCS is less reliable in the hands of inexperienced observers, especially owners who systematically under-estimate their dog’s body condition.

#DOG BMI SCALE SERIES#

With this system, the observer assesses a range of characteristics both by palpation and by visual inspection, and then decides on a condition score category with reference to a series of silhouette images and descriptors. Body condition scoring (BCS) is the best clinical method of assessing body composition, with the 9-integer unit method being most widely accepted.

Obesity is one of the most common nutrition-related diseases observed in small animal practice, with studies indicating that between 34 and 59 % of dogs are overweight or obese. ConclusionsĪn estimate of body condition can be obtained from an indirect assessment of photographs, but performance varies amongst observers. For vBCS adjusted, body condition was most often overestimated whilst, for vBCS subjective, body condition was most often under-estimated. Compared with ideal weight and obese dogs, errors in assessing body condition were more common for overweight dogs (e.g. When an experienced observer performed vBCS, there were moderate-to-good associations between body fat (measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) and the three vBCS methods (median R s: 0.51-0.75 P 0.05 for all). In the first method (vBCS measured), the ratio of abdominal width to thoracic width (A:T) was measured, and cut-points used to determine body condition the second method (iBCS subjective) involved semi-quantitative examination using visual descriptors of BCS the third (vBCS adjusted) was a combined approach whereby A:T ratio was first determined, and the final score modified if necessary after assessing photographs. Observers with a range of experience examined the photographs, and estimated body condition indirectly (vBCS) using three different methods. In this retrospective study, photographs taken before and after weight loss from 155 overweight and obese dogs attending a weight management referral clinic were used in designing and testing the feasibility of vBCS. A validated method for assessing the visual characteristics of body condition from photographs (vBCS), would be a useful initial screening tool for client-owned dogs.

Dog bmi scale