Several studies in humans indicate that low birth weight predisposes individuals to obesity in later life. Despite the constant increase in prevalence of obesity in the canine population and the major health consequences of this affection, few investigations have been carried out on the association between birth weight and the development of overweight in dogs. The purpose of the current study was to examine the association between birth weight and some other neonatal characteristics and overweight at adulthood in a population of purebred Labrador dogs. Information was collected about the sex, age, neuter status, birth weight, and growth rates (between 0–2 days and 2–15 days of age) in 93 Labrador dogs raised under similar environmental conditions until two months old. The body condition scores (BCS, scale of 1–9) of these dogs at adulthood were recorded, with BCS equal to or greater than 6 classified as overweight. Dogs were split into two groups based on the median birth weight in the population: lower than the median (LTM) and higher than the median (HTM). A logistic regression model was applied to analyse associations between the general characteristics of the dogs (sex, age, neuter status), early life parameters (birth weight, growth rates) and overweight at adulthood. Birth weight was the only early-life parameter found to be associated with overweight (p value = 0.032) with a prevalence of overweight of 70% among the dogs with LTM birth weight vs. 47% in dogs born with HTM birth weight. Overweight was also associated with age and neuter status (p value = 0.029 and 0.005 respectively). Our results suggest that, as in humans, dogs with the lowest birth weights are more likely to become overweight at adulthood. More studies are needed to further examine this relationship and to explore the underlying mechanisms. A subsequent objective could be to identify preventive strategies such as an adapted early nutrition programme for at-risk individuals.

Background: Cats with subclinical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (sHCM) have elevated serum insulin and serum amyloid A concentrations correlating with the degree of cardiac hypertrophy. Diet might affect these and other cardiac variables. Objective: Evaluate the effect of a complete, balanced diet with restricted starch and supplemented with eicosapentaenoic acid + docosahexaenoic acid (EPA + DHA) on echocardiographic variables and cardiac biomarkers in cats with sHCM. Animals: Forty-four client-owned cats with sHCM. Methods: A prospective, randomized, double-blind, multicenter study enrolled cats with end-diastole interventricular septum thickness (IVSd) or left ventricular wall thickness (LVWd) ≥6 mm, or both. Nonsedated, fasted cats were examined at baseline and after 6 and 12 months of Test (restricted starch and EPA + DHA supplements) (n = 23) or Control (unrestricted starch without EPA + DHA supplementation) (n = 21) diet. Assessments included auscultation, body weight, body condition score, echocardiography and blood analysis. Linear and generalized mixed models analyzed diet, time and diet * time interactions (5% significance level).

Breed-specific growth curves (GCs) are needed for neonatal puppies, but breed-specific data may be insufficient. We investigated an unsupervised clustering methodology for modeling GCs by augmenting breed-specific data with data from breeds having similar growth profiles. Puppy breeds were grouped by median growth profiles (bodyweights between birth and Day 20) using hierarchical clustering on principal components. Median bodyweights for breeds in a cluster were centered to that cluster’s median and used to model cluster GCs by Generalized Additive Models for Location, Shape and Scale. These were centered back to breed growth profiles to produce cluster-scale breed GCs. The accuracy of breed-scale GCs modeled with breed-specific data only and cluster-scale breed GCs were compared when modeled from diminishing sample sizes. A complete dataset of Labrador Retriever bodyweights (birth to Day 20) was split into training (410 puppies) and test (460 puppies) datasets. Cluster-scale breed and breed-scale GCs were modelled from defined sample sizes from the training dataset. Quality criteria were the percentages of observed data in the test dataset outside the target growth centiles of simulations. Accuracy of cluster-scale breed GCs remained consistently high down to sampling sizes of three. They slightly overestimated breed variability, but centile curves were smooth and consistent with breed-scale GCs modeled from the complete Labrador Retriever dataset. At sampling sizes ≤ 20, the quality of breed-scale GCs reduced notably. In conclusion, GCs for neonatal puppies generated using a breed-cluster hybrid methodology can be more satisfactory than GCs at purely the breed level when sample sizes are small.

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Objectives The aim of the study was to evaluate cardiac size and early growth through echocardiographic, bodyweight (BW), body condition score (BCS), morphometric and biomarker changes in cats followed from 6 to 24 months of age. Methods Twenty-four female European shorthair colony cats were evaluated at birth for BW and at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months of age for BW, BCS, head length (HL) and head width (HW), N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and echocardiographic measurements. Results BCS, HW, left ventricular free wall in diastole, left atrium diameter and aortic diameter increased significantly between 6 and 12 months, while BW, HL and interventricular septum in diastole increased significantly between 6, 12 and 18 months, and BW decreased significantly between 18 and 24 months. NT-proBNP decreased significantly between 6 and 12 months. IGF-1 increased significantly between 6 and 12 months but decreased significantly between 12 and 18 months. Conclusions and relevance This study prospectively evaluated changes in echocardiographic measurements, BW, BCS, HL, HW, IGF-1 and NT-proBNP in cats during the first 2 years of life. Results show a comparable change over time for different variables. These findings contribute to the understanding of a possible relationship between cardiac measures and body size from young age through to adulthood.