Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How to estimate body fat in dogs using different methods
By Mawby, Dianne I et al.·Published in Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association·2004·Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Comparison of various methods for estimating body fat in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at different ways to measure body fat in dogs to help manage obesity, which is a common health issue. Researchers evaluated 23 healthy adult dogs using advanced methods like DEXA scans and deuterium oxide dilution, as well as simpler techniques like body condition scoring (BCS) and basic measurements. They found that BCS and morphometric measurements were very effective at estimating body fat, showing strong agreement with the more complex methods. This means that pet owners can use simple visual assessments to help determine if their dog is at a healthy weight.
People also search for: how to tell if my dog is overweight · dog body fat measurement methods · obesity in dogs treatment
Abstract
Obesity is considered one of the most common forms of malnutrition occurring in dogs. Laboratory methods of evaluation of body composition in live dogs have included dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) and deuterium oxide (D(2)O) dilution. Clinical methods of evaluation include assigning a body condition score (BCS) based on visual observation, palpation, and morphometric measurements. This study used these four methods to evaluate 23 healthy, adult, client-owned dogs. Good correlation (coefficient of determination [r(2)]=0.78) was found between measurements of percent body fat (%BF) determined by the D(2)O dilution method and the DEXA scan. Percent body fat can also be estimated using BCS (r(2)=0.92 comparison with DEXA) or by using morphometric measurements with simple calculations (r(2)=0.92 comparison with DEXA).
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15007045/