Skip to content
Next Episodes
Mon: 7:30pm
Tues: 7:30pm
Classic Episodes
Mon: 1:30pm
Tues: 1:30pm
Vet demonstrates quick and easy way to check if your cat is a healthy weight Credits: Social Media
By Paul Fogarty

Vet demonstrates quick and easy way to check if your cat is a healthy weight

By Paul Fogarty

We all want to look after our animal friends as well as we can but as pets such as cats or dogs cant talk back to us, it can be hard to know whats best for them.

That is where vets come in and one such animal healthcare professional has taken to the social media site TikTok to explain a quick and easy way to check if your cat or indeed dog is a healthy weight.

Body condition score

When we think about our pets weight, the best thing to do is to give them a body condition score, explains Kath the vet, who is part of the UK-based veterinary practice chain, Pet Health Club.

This is because its actually really hard to pick an ideal weight in kilos because every pet is slightly different, she continues. Instead of making an ideal weight to aim for, we want to look at their body condition score.

As shown in the video, an animals body condition score is a way of visually assessing whether a pet is over or underweight.

Youll likely see them measured on a scale of 1-5 or 1-9 with 3 or 5 being the ideal weight depending on which scale is being used. Lower scores mean a pet is underweight while higher scores mean the opposite.

The video does show a body condition score chart but its quite hard to make out all of the details. However, you can find plenty of higher-quality examples online.

@thepethealthclub

How to tell if your pet is over or underwight? Kath the vet shows you how. #veterinarian #vetlife #vetcare #vetadvice #catadvice #catcare #petadvice #petcare #pethealthclub #dogadvice #dogcare #petwellness

♬ Good Vibes (Instrumental) – Ellen Once Again

Three areas to assess

When assessing your cat or dogs body condition score, there are three primary areas you should check: their ribs, waist and tummy/stomach.

For the ribs, Kath explains, In the ideal world, you want to be able to feel the ribs with the flat of your hand. That indicates your pet is a really good weight. If you have to feel really firmly to feel the ribs or if the ribs are very prominent, then your pet could be over or underweight.

The waist, meanwhile, is best viewed from above, says Kath. What you should be able to see is that behind your pets ribcage, the waist should be nice and obvious. The waist should be tucked in and present. That is an indication that your pet is a good weight.

If the waist is barely visible, that can be a sign that your pet is overweight, explains the vet.

The third area, the tummy isnt touched upon in the video itself but according to VCA Animal Hospitals, the cat will have an obvious tummy tuck with gradual but not severe curves and will not be protruding as would be the case if the animal were overweight.