Watch out, Garfield.
A version of Ozempic, the wonder drug that helps people lose excess weight, may soon be available for overweight cats and dogs as pharmaceutical companies race to develop products for man’s best friend.
A recent small-sample study by start-up Okaba Pharmaceuticals found that a similar appetite regulator helped cats lose 5% of their body weight in just under four months. Bloomberg reported.
When it comes to dogs, small animal obesity expert Alex German recently wrote: He told the Telegraph That new pet-friendly drugs like Ozempic would be successful as a preventative measure rather than a treatment for existing diseases like diabetes.
Others, like veterinarian Alicia Fox-Pitt, agree.
“By helping people stay slim, it could potentially help prevent people from developing diabetes in the first place,” she told The Telegraph.
Pet Obesity Prevention Association In 2022, 61% of cats and 59% of dogs were found to be overweight.
Other studies have found that feeding pets leftover meats, like a slice or two of bacon, can amount to the majority of their calorie intake in just a few bites.
Experts like Jarman also warn that obesity in dogs and cats has a lot to do with how owners treat their bodies.
“There’s a similar association between owner and pet obesity,” he says.
“The fact that most people consider their pets to be part of the family may well explain the similarities between obesity in children and pets.”
While the surge in demand for Ozempic for weight loss is new, the concept of a weight loss drug for pets is by no means new.
A few were launched in 2007 but failed due to insufficient attention to owners’ concerns about their pets’ weight.
“Pet owners don’t see pet obesity as a disease that needs to be treated,” a spokesperson for Zoetis, a maker of a drug that treats obesity in dogs, told Bloomberg.
But since then, human ears seem to have become more sensitive.
“The stigma around obesity has decreased,” German said. “The idea that pet obesity is the owner’s fault or responsibility is wrong because obesity can be genetic and is more complicated than that. We should support pet owners as much as we can.”
He’s also optimistic that dogs can maintain healthy habits much more effectively than their owners can.
“While by no means perfect, diet-based strategies have been much more successful in dogs than in humans.”
