I want to start with some alarming stats. In the interest of honesty, these are here to scare you. I don’t hide behind those facts: if you are reading this then it is probably because somewhere in your brain you either already know or have a sneaky suspicion that your pet may be a little tubbier than is ideal (we aren’t allowed to say ‘fat’ anymore apparently).
However, there is one major message that you must hear: YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!!
56% of UK pets are overweight
that’s not far off 15 million pets to give you a good idea
Overweight pets cost more:
- To feed (they eat more than they need to)
- To treat (their drugs cost more as they are generally on a weight basis)
- To look after (overweight pets can cost three times as much as pets at the right weight over their lives)
- Pets die or are euthanised every single day as a direct or indirect result of weight-related diseases.
Now, I can understand that reading that will have given you some blues….that’s the point. This is serious! But that is the doom and gloom part over!
SO, we want you to join us. No tricks, no pressure, just plain and simple help. VidiVet is launching a campaign to help the UK’s pets lose 1 MILLION KILOGRAMS BETWEEN THEM IN 12 MONTHS.
Our promise to you:
- YOU AREN’T ALONE (we have your back)
- YOU WILL SUCCEED (follow the plan and you will see results)
- IT WILL BE FUN (we can make this fun for you and your pet, honest)
- IT WILL BE CHALLENGING AND HARD WORK (emotionally more than anything)
- WE AREN’T GOING TO TELL YOU TO JUST GO OUT AND BUY MAGIC FOOD.
A little background from our founder Ben
My name is Ben, I am the founder of VidiVet, I’m a vet AND my dog was fat. There, I said it!
Monty is a 6-year-old English Springer Spaniel. He spent his life a nice trim 19Kg since hitting adult weight around 20 months old and stayed there quite happily for a long time. I stopped weighing him regularly because he was always the same.
In 2020, several major challenges happened, you may have noticed one of them-the small issue of a global pandemic that has likely changed the course of history for all of us in some way. The second was that my son started to eat food-which meant Monty positioned himself quite happily under the high chair (I am sure any of you with children and pets will identify with this problem).
Like many humans, my personal regime started out brilliantly with the first lockdown-I got fitter, lost weight, ate healthier (largely as all the takeaways and fast food outlets were closed). Then, as things dragged on, I became a bit more apathetic-gained weight, ate more rubbish and before I knew it I had gained 6Kg and had what has become affectionately known as a ‘dad bod’.
Meanwhile, Monty had also gone on a weight journey in the wrong direction. We had given him more treats than he would have had when we weren’t home all the time and the other factor was my tiny human who had taken great joy in the ‘one for me, one for you’ approach to eating.
As such, whilst Monty’s normal meals hadn’t changed at all, he had received a lot of extra calories on a daily basis. More calories in and no real difference in his energy output…this was only going to end one way.
His energy levels dropped, his stools were less formed, his coat quality wasn’t as good.
But I chose to bury my head in the sand as it were.
What happened next?
I had been adamant and in denial like many people with pets who they perhaps ‘love a bit too much’, that Monty was not overweight, but was in fact ‘fluffy’. To prove my point I took him to get groomed.
