Clinic Information

weighing and measuring

In addition to the DEXA scan, we also perform more traditional methods to quantify the degree of obesity in your pet. These include measuring body weight, body condition scoring, tape measurements, and the use of photography. Body weight measurement. The clinic has a set of its own electronic weigh scales, which are accurate to within 0.5% of true body weight. To maintain the degree of precision and accuracy, we measure test weights on a weekly basis. These test weights are the same as those used by merchant traders to verify the weight of various sales goods. Therefore, when we weigh your pet, you can rest assured that the weigh scales will always be reliable and any changes are down to the weight your pet has actually lost.

Body condition score.

A body condition scoring scheme is a method by which we can estimate how underweight or overweight a particular pet really is. A number of schemes are available, and we use more than one method. With all methods, the observer estimates the ‘condition score' both with visual and ‘hands-on' characteristics (e.g. presence of a waistline, amount of ‘fat cover' over the ribs etc). These methods provide us with a reasonable guide to the degree of obesity, but are not as accurate as the DEXA scanner.

Tape measurements.

At each appointment we measure a variety of different dimensions including body length, body height, and trunk girth (over the chest and over the abdomen). Many of these change when the patient starts to lose weight. In time, we hope to be able to use such calculations to devise the equivalent of a ‘body mass index' for pets. This will be particularly challenging for dogs, given the range of breeds we are faced with!!!