Tvarijonaviciute A, Ceron JJ, Holden SL, Cuthbertson DJ, Biourge V, Morris PJ, German AJ

J Vet Intern Med 2012.  DOI: 10.1111/jvim.12029

Obesity is a common medical disorder in dogs, and we already know that it can lead to the development of a number of associated diseases.  These diseases affect the health and well being of the dog, worsening their quality of life.  Work in people has suggested that obesity can lead to the development and progression of chronic kidney disease.  As a result, we were interested in determining whether the same might be true in dogs.

Thirty-seven obese dogs, enrolled at the Royal Canin Weight Management Clinic, participated in this particular study.  We assessed their kidney function and health using routine blood tests (i.e. those normally performed by vets) and also using three novel biomarkers, homocysteine, cystatin C, and clusterin.  These were all were measured in samples that had been collected for the routine blood the clinic performs to assess health, so did not require additional procedures. 

All in all, we found that many of the marked of kidney function and health improved in obese dogs that lost weight successfully.  This was most notable for clusterin, whereby the greater the weight the dog lost, the better the improvement seen.

Taken together, these results suggest that obese dogs have subclinical alterations in kidney function in canine obesity, but that these changes improve with weight successful weight loss.  This work, therefore, highlights yet another possible benefit of weight loss on the health of an obese dog.