Correlation Between Ultrasound Measurement of Body Fat and Body Condition Score for Assessment of Obesity in Dogs

• Grant number: 11/14750-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2012
• End date: December 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Stefano Carlo Filippo Hagen
• Grantee: Jaqueline de Oliveira Sena
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Obesity is a common nutritional disorder in dogs, being detrimental to health and welfare by providing background for the occurrence of many diseases. Diagnosing and quantification of obesity is essential to ensure welfare and life quality of the animal and helps to demonstrate to the owner the importance of establishing adequate preventive or therapeutic management. Diagnostic ultrasound can be useful to support the diagnosis and especially to monitor obese patients. With the study of ultrasonographic criteria for evaluation of fat in dogs with different body condition scores, we intend to verify the existence of a reasonable standard measurement to be used as a reference to control growing obesity in dogs.