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Speaker 1: Now here is a question I never thought i'd ever

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Speaker 1: have to have to pose, or ever have to ask,

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Speaker 1: would you consider giving your cat ozempic if your cat

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Speaker 1: is a fat cat? Pet insurance companies are warning that

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Speaker 1: pet obesity is skyrocketing, and now a San Francisco animal

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Speaker 1: medicine company says ozempic like drugs can work just as

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Speaker 1: well on cats as they do on humans. So doctor

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Speaker 1: Kath Watson is a trustee for Healthy Pets. New Zealand

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Speaker 1: joins us. Now Halla, Cath, Hi, how are you good?

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Speaker 1: So if you had a fat cat, would you give

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Speaker 1: it a zempic.

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Speaker 2: Or there wouldn't be my first choice. And there's a

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Speaker 2: bunch of reasons for that, because I don't think it

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Speaker 2: is the solution to everything, even for humans, and it's

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Speaker 2: likely to be really expensive, but hey, it's.

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Speaker 1: Probably coming Okay, Well, they call GLP one drugs. They

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Speaker 1: work mainly as an appetite suppressant. If we, as cat

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Speaker 1: owners control how much our cats eat, aren't we the

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Speaker 1: ones responsible for making them not get fat? Are not

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Speaker 1: the ones who should be choosing to give them drugs?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, that should always be the first choice. And

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Speaker 2: you know, anytime you're dealing with a health issue, you

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Speaker 2: want to do the best that you can and try

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Speaker 2: and give the best welfare outcome for your pets. Just

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Speaker 2: using drugs as certainly a fairly quick shortcuts. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: absolutely we have full control over their food intake. But hey,

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Speaker 2: life gets in the way it does for humans, it

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Speaker 2: does for the way we manage our pets as well,

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Speaker 2: and sometimes actually things get out of control. So like that,

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Speaker 2: it's not an option right now, but in the future

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Speaker 2: it could be. I wouldn't completely rule it out, but

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Speaker 2: I wouldn't be relying on it either.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, catch it so tricky.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: You may feed them properly, but of course they're mooching

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Speaker 1: around the neighbors and they're maybe doing their own ratting

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Speaker 1: and mousing as well, and they'll never say no. But

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Speaker 1: the nub of the issue is is this how bad

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Speaker 1: is pet obesity?

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Speaker 2: Look, I don't have an actual figure for you, but

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Speaker 2: it's pretty bad and getting worse. I think anything we

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Speaker 2: see in the human world teams to end up reflected

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Speaker 2: in our pets. Unfortunately, so b City sits in that category.

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Speaker 2: We are loving them to be basically, and we are

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Speaker 2: loving them with food, which is you know, there's way

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Speaker 2: better ways to love your cat. Spending some time interacting

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Speaker 2: with them other than feeding them would be a really

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Speaker 2: good start.

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Speaker 1: So if you've got a fat cat. So, if you've

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Speaker 1: got a fat cat, have you got any tips about

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Speaker 1: how to get their weight down? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Well, the first thing is be really aware of how

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Speaker 2: much food you're giving and the fact that what looks

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Speaker 2: like a really small amount to you relative to their

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Speaker 2: body size actually can be quite a lot. So to

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Speaker 2: understanding the calorie count to start with making sure that

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Speaker 2: the whole family's on board so that there's not multiple

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Speaker 2: people feeding them. But when you get that, you know,

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Speaker 2: when they're bugging you to feed them, or what you

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Speaker 2: think is bugging you to seed them, try playing with

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Speaker 2: them instead, like a screwed up piece of paper and

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Speaker 2: the end a piece of string. It doesn't need to

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Speaker 2: be something fency and get them playing, get them chasing

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Speaker 2: and what about what?

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Speaker 1: What about what I just said as well, because the

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Speaker 1: problem is you feed the cat and then the cat

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Speaker 1: goes merching around the neighbors. I mean, how do you

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Speaker 1: control the intake of food that is given by your neighbors,

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Speaker 1: who again are loving your cat to death?

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Speaker 2: Well, there's a couple of solutions to that. One would be,

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Speaker 2: you know, seriously consider containing your cat. There's a bunch

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Speaker 2: of reasons that that's good for them. It doesn't have

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Speaker 2: to be keeping them locked up inside. But you can

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Speaker 2: contain them on your property if it's tensed, using special

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Speaker 2: fencing that they can't get over. You could build something

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Speaker 2: like a caddy oh, which is an outdoor contained area

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Speaker 2: for them. But otherwise, really it's going and talking to

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Speaker 2: your neighbors and saying hey, if you see my cat,

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Speaker 2: please don't feed it, and putting a week tag on

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Speaker 2: their collar to say, you know, I'm overway, please don't

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Speaker 2: feed me, or just please don't feed me. I have

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Speaker 2: a home elsewhere.

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Speaker 1: Good.

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Speaker 2: It's pretty good at telling it otherwise.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff. Kaith and Keath is the veterinarian Healthy Pets

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Speaker 1: of New Zealand trustee doctor Keith Watson.

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