Addressing the feline obesity epidemic through welfare-centered prevention and treatment approaches.
Feline obesity is a welfare problem of significant scale that is largely preventable through appropriate management from the moment of neutering. Obese cats experience reduced quality of life through limited mobility, increased risk of painful conditions like diabetes and osteoarthritis, and reduced life expectancy. The welfare solution requires owner education about what healthy body condition actually looks like in cats (most owners find healthy-weight cats too thin compared to what they consider normal), appropriate adjustment of caloric intake after neutering, and transition to feeding methods that increase activity and reduce meal size. Weight loss management in obese cats requires veterinary supervision to avoid the potentially fatal hepatic lipidosis that rapid weight loss triggers. The condition is largely human-created and human-preventable, making owner education the most impactful welfare intervention.